08.11.10
For the last week, I have been in Rarotonga. For those of you who don’t know where that is (and I certainly didn’t when my mother moved there to do charitable work ten years ago), it’s one of New Zealand’s Cook Islands. On my travels back, I read the New Zealand Herald, which has to be one of the broadest of the broadsheets. After getting used to the mini-me versions of newspapers in the states, the massive publication that is the New Zealand Herald was a treat.
But the thing that intrigued me most was an article I found by Tracey Barnett. The article highlighted how vociferous, angry and aggressive people can be lately toward one another. Barnett discussed a face-to-face encounter to highlight this, but she also mentioned the reader comments she gets to her articles. These can be just as aggressive and angry, she says. “This is especially true,” she writes, “when the comments are particularly cutting and personal. A letter might allude to placing my views where the sun 'n' air don't shine. “But,” she wrote, “everything changes when I write back - that is, when I become real.” When she personally addresses certain reader comments “suddenly, their demeanor improves. They go from Ozzy Osbourne to Justin Bieber. Words are tempered into kinder and more socially acceptable language. Immediately, that strange wall of safety, that false anonymity is broken and usually a respectful exchange is restored.”
I mentioned Barnett’s article to a couple of fellow American writers when I returned. Every one of them winced. Every one had stories, usually numerous, about reader comments on the internet that had really and truly stung them. None expected readers to respond in a resoundingly positive way to something they’d penned. We writers like to be able to have our say—all hail the first amendment—and so we want readers to do the same. But as Barnett pointed out in her article, a little civility goes a long way. And there seems to be a divide in what people write when they are hiding behind the veil of anonymity versus what they say when they sign their name. Judgment seems to be skewed.
Yet one well-known author I spoke with said he recently published a feature article in a major magazine. He purposefully tried to avoid the comments on-line, having found them unhelpful before, but he couldn’t avoid the personal message he found in his Facebook inbox—a message full of vitriol, railing about his hideous writing skills and in the demise in his style. And the woman writing the message clearly identified herself. The lack of anonymity hadn’t mattered in this case.
I think Barnett was largely right in her article though—writers recognize that we’re putting ourselves out there and therefore opening ourselves to responses. The hope is that readers realize we generally write by ourselves in a room, in a vacuum. We send our work into the world, hoping it touches someone in a good way. If it doesn’t, we’re willing to hear about our failings in a constructive way, but as Teflon as we try to make ourselves, we can be a touch wounded too. I know I’ve encountered the same problem occasionally when I’m a reader, rather than a writer. I might not be as careful with an anonymous comment as when I know my name will appear.
While
thinking about reader response, quick judgments, and harshness from an
unnamed source, I realized my first nonfiction book coming out
September 14th, Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost
in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him, dealt with that very topic. Harsh quick judgments
landed a young man in jail for nearly six years for a crime he didn’t
commit.
Whether I sign my name, or comment anonymously, I’m going with what Barnett recommended, "Don't split who you are. Apply the same standards of respect in every element of your life".
Originally posted in:
(http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Anonymous Reviews, by Laura Caldwell:
(http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/08/anonymous-reviews.html)
Good arguments turn bad without some respect, by Tracey Barnett (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=1066392)
Purchase Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and
the Two Women Who Found Him online at:
(http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Long-Way-Home/Laura-Caldwell/e/9781439100233/?itm=1&USRI=long+way+home%2c+laura+caldwell)
07.19.10
An
Interview with Chicago’s very own star newswoman Anna Davlantes
by Laura Caldwell
I
met Anna Davlantes when she interviewed me for an NBC story about Jovan
Mosley, a young man I'd represented who was in a county holding
cell for nearly 6 years without a trial. (The book about Jovan, Long
Way Home, will be released September 14). Then Chicago Magazine
hired me to write a story on Anna about her PBS show, Rewind.
(). Recently, Anna moved from NBC to Fox, and is a shining example
of a smart, authentic anchor/reporter who really cares about her city
(yes, she's a born and bred Chicago girl) and the issues. Since
she deals with Chicago crime stories on a regular basis, I thought
she'd be a perfect interview for the Outfit.
You seem to have hit your stride lately as an anchor, but
especially as a news reporter now that you're on Fox. Is that
due to the network, the sabbatical you had between the two jobs, or
something different?
My contract didn’t allow me to work
for three and a half months. It turned out to be a blessing personally,
but professionally it had even a bigger impact. The time off gave me
a fresh set of eyes. I started watching news as a consumer for the
first time since college. I realized that the complaints people
were telling me about news was true – teases lead nowhere, the coverage
of crime is constant, and often there’s no context or perspective to a
lot of stories. It made me realize it was time to change how we deliver
the news and give people a real alternative. Fox is going to be more issue-oriented
and not as reactionary. We don’t want to simply report every shooting. We
want to ask the questions like why are these shootings happening? And we
want to help find solutions, rather than just issue-spot. We’re going
to be discussing what to do about politics and corruption and other the other
issues that arise in Chicago.
A huge verdict recently happened in Chicago - Detective Jon
Burge, long believed of torturing suspects at Area 2, was convicted
of lying about that torture. What are your thoughts on the verdict?
The verdict helps bring a very dark period in our city history to
a close. To truly close the door, though, anyone who had a hand in
sustaining systemic torture at Area 2 needs to examine their actions. And
changes have to be made so people can be confident in the integrity of
law enforcement and the legal system. We may have gotten some closure,
but I wonder how long until confidence is restored.
Seems to me with Blago and Peterson, there is rampant
narcissim in Chicago. Yeah, what's with the rampant
narcissism in the Chicago area?
I never thought of Chicago being a town like that but there are so many
high profile examples of it now, I suppose we have to own it. You’d
like to think that after we deal with Peterson and Blago our work is done,
but it’s not. Because much of the political system that propped
Blago up still exists. What I’ve seen covering the news for Fox is that
it’s great political theatre for us in the news biz, but at the end of
the day, you go home sad that this is the reality for our city and government.
Is there anything to be done?
Restoring accountability to government is the answer, but the solution
is much more complicated because the people who run for office are
usually bolstered by the current system. The time is right for candidates
who have an independent message. Really. The time is now.
One more question. Recently you were in the news for the
possibility taking over the morning show on Fox. True?
Oh, who knows. I’ve worked nights for so long. Really,
I haven’t even owned an alarm clock since college, I don’t
want to get addicted to coffee, and I don’t know if I could give
up my late night crime dramas on A&E .
We’re hoping to keep Anna talking about the hottest Chicago news stories. Stay tuned…
This post originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Chicago’s Very Own Star Newswoman – Anna Davlantes: (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/07/interview-with-chicagos-very-own-star.html)06.16.10
The buzz around town is Blago
and Burge, and I had the dubious pleasure of seeing each of them this
week. Both men are fighting for their lives from charges of abusing their
power; one with an avaricious bank account, the other with a baton.
I was at the courthouse to watch the trial of former Chicago Police Lieutenant
Jon Burge. Michael McDermott, a former detective under Burge, was expected
to be an excellent prosecution witness since he had testified at a grand
jury that he saw Burge point a gun at a suspect and pull a typewriter
bag over his head in order to get a confession. But at trial, Burge in
front of him, McDermott’s
appearance was more confrontational than expected. He wasn’t sure
the gun was actually pointed at the suspect, he said, and he wasn’t
sure it was a typewriter bag; he wasn’t even certain Burge had
pulled it over the suspect. Sounding near tears, McDermott accused the
prosecutor of threatening his family, his job and his pension if he didn’t
testify. Assistant U.S. Attorney April Perry was unmoved, asking him
sarcastically, “You didn’t
have a gun pointed to your head, did you?”
Witnessing this trial should have been enough excitement, but what happened after in the lobby after was more fascinating. Or possibly just more surreal. While I was speaking to family members of suspects interrogated by Burge, the former guv strutted in with his defense team. I’d met Rod Blagojevich once before, maybe eight years ago, but didn’t expect him to remember. Yet there he was, striding toward me, arms outstretched. I froze like a deer in the cross-hairs. To no avail. Soon, he was greeting me, then wrapping his arms around me in a powerful hug while a bevy television cameras captured the moment (and flushed away any political aspirations I thankfully never had).
When he had released me, I said hello to his wife and watched as Blago engaged some onlookers in conversation. “It was a good day today!” he said. (At trial that day prosecutors played taped conversations between Blago and Lon Monk, his friend from days of yore. “…[G]ive US the f*** money,” Monk says in the tape, describing a conversation with a race track owner. Prosecutors claim the tapes show how Monk, Blago and others set out to shakedown people for illegal campaign contributions). “A great day!” Blago said.
Detective Jon Burge had been serious and somber in court, looking like he longed for the baton back in his fist. Blago, however, was a freshly-crowned beauty queen—tanned, glowing, fit and beaming with what appeared to be genuine happiness. I peered closer. How did he do it? How could someone be so joyful while facing odds that even Vegas wouldn’t touch? Granted, the man has been called a classic narcissist (and far too many other names that I won’t put to pen), but surely even narcissists have bad days, bleak days, especially when they’re facing decades in a penitentiary. And yet look at that bliss.
Later, I asked my office manager, Carol, what she thought. Carol runs a business called Positive Focus that inspires people to envision the world through a positive lens thereby creating a life of fulfillment and passion (and who, by the way, often sponsors “free hug” days). I expected Carol to say that Blago was a true testament to the concept that choosing to be happy, regardless of what’s going on in your life, will empower you and free you.
Instead she commented she sincerely doubted that would free the former guv. “I wonder,” she said, “if Burge would have felt better with a hug from Blago?”
This post originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Blagojevich versus Burge (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/06/blagojevich-versus-burge.html)
05.20.10
Who needs TV when you live in Chicago?
So, my favorite show, The Good Wife, is just about done for the season, Project Runway is over as well, and the Real Housewives of New York are winding down. Normally, the departure of my go-to shows would make me a little cranky. But not this year. Not this summer.
Instead, the summer of 2010 in Chicago is going to be a doozie because we have three big-by-big trials ready to roll.
On tap first, the federal perjury trial of former Chicago police detective, Jon Burge. Burge's name has become synonymous in the city for torture during police interrogations. His tactics allegedly included administering electric shocks to the testicles and anus, suffocating suspects with typewriter bags and shoving pistols in suspects' mouths. A columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times once wrote of Burge, "[He] could have squeezed a murder confession out of Mother Teresa." In the late 1980s, Burge was investigated by the Office of Professional Standards who determined he had engaged in systematic torture for thirteen years, but a civil suit against him for police brutality resulted in a hung jury. The current charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office claim Burge lied about his torture tactics during that civil case.
Burge's trial starts on Monday and although I'm usually a supporter of the ban on cameras in Illinois courts, I really wish I could curl up with a bowl of popcorn and watch this one. The good news? John Conroy, the stellar journalist who has covered Burge for decades, will be blogging about the trial for WBEZ.
Next up will be Rod Blagovecich. Blago. Say no more, right? I don't think I need to recap this one. Suffice to say we're in for an interesting trial as the U.S. attorneys set out to prove that Blago was trying to sell President Obama's senate seat. A former lawyer and advisor to Blago has recently plead guilty, again, to various charges in order to get a reduced sentence and, more importantly, in exchange for his testimony at the trial. Senator Dick Durbin has been subpoenaed to testify too, along with a host of others. Blago's team has even attempted to get President Obama to testify. Their request for the Prez's deposition was denied, but the issue was left open, so there does remain an ultra-slim chance that he'll testify. The circus is set to begin June 3 unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants Blago's request to postpone. (The fact that the Supreme Court of our great nation has to deal with Blago in any way shape or form is so very wrong). The case will be covered with a plethora of local, national and even international coverage, and I just might have to head down to the courthouse once or twice myself.
And finally, over in Will County, they're preparing for the June 14 trial of Drew Peterson, whose insane narcissism only rivals that of Blago's. This case has an OJ tinge to it, since everyone involved (and much of the public) seems to resoundingly believe that Peterson killed 2 of his wives. But they're trying him for the murder of the one whose death has actually been confirmed. Most interesting, from a legal standpoint, is the new Drew Peterson hearsay law, crafted just for this case, which allows "testimony from the grave" --that of Peterson's fourth wife who, before she disappeared, told her pastor that Peterson had admitted killing the wife who had come before her. Legal scholars around the country will be watching to see how this one plays out.
So, with all this going on, I'm not wanting for entertainment this summer.
It's all right here in the Chicago area, and I won't be missing the Good
Wife. Not one bit.
This post originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago
Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Who needs TV when you live in Chicago? (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/05/who-needs-tv-when-you-live-in-chicago.html)
05.06.10
How In The Hell Do You Stay Present When You’re A Writer?
You can't get away from it these days. Everyone from Oprah to Bret Michaels talks about staying present and being in the moment. I get it. I agree that generally life is better lived not in your mind, but in the world that's right in front of you. And I appreciate that if you practice accepting the moment and going from there (rather than running around in your head with panic alarms going off) things go a lot smoother.
But how are you supposed to do these things--how are you supposed to be present and in the moment--when you're a writer? When your livelihood (or just one of your hobbies) requires that you completely remove yourself from the moment and get into someone else's, someone who actually doesn't exist?
My friend, the author, Elizabeth Flock, recently told me about something that happened to her. While she was making lunch, a family member kept trying to talk to her. When Liz wasn't very responsive, the family member continued to attempt to get her attention. Finally, Liz had to explain to the person that since her job was being a writer, even though it looked as if she was simply preparing a tofu salad, what she was actually doing was walking around in the body of a young girl who happened to live in North Carolina. She was, in her head, writing. She was absolutely not in the present, and she was irritated when someone tried to bring her back to it.
That's how it is when you're really into writing something--there's a constant push/pull between the moment you're in and the moment you're character is in. Maybe the trick is to just be fully present in either? To not worry about the other things when you're writing (or making your lunch and writing in your head), to not think about the law students you have to call back and the press release that you have to greenlight--but rather just fully sink into the character who's body you're living in for the moment. And then when you are, later, reading that press release, being totally there? Any other suggestions? I'd love to hear 'em.
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:
A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
How In The Hell Do You Stay Present When You’re A Writer? (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-in-hell-do-you-stay-present-when.html)
04.22.10
It's been said that comedy is tragedy plus time. It's true, right? Sometimes when things are fresh they're simply too tortuous, too painful, to even come close to laughing at them.
Being from a partly Irish family that considers black humor important, I can testify that sometimes you don't need that much time for the humor to erupt and to help ease your pain. For example, I can easily go funny about the time I was mugged last year. In fact, I remember that within an hour after it happened, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, c'mon, when your ex-husband, your assistant, her boyfriend, the police and all your neighbors are looking for your teeth on the street with flashlights, that's just good shit. (Excuse the language, that's a technical comedy term).
I was impressed, however--very, very impressed--to come upon comedy at the annual Innocence Conference this past weekend. The conference brings together all the innocence projects from around the world (the people who take letters from prisoners claiming to be innocent and investigate their cases, helping to free those wrongfully convicted). The grand-daddies of the innocence movement were there--Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld--along with 89 exonerees (innocent people who have been released from prison).
I lucky enough to spend some time with Kirk Bloodsworth, the first man exonerated from death row by DNA evidence. (http://truthinjustice.org/bloodsworth.htm). As we talked, I learned that Kirk was going to be teaching some college courses in the fall. When I asked what would teach, he said, with a straight face, "Shank Making 101." (A shank is prison slang for a homemade knife). I didn't know what to say. Then Kirk guffawed and raised his cocktail glass in a salute.
I knew Kirk had faced impossibly anguished days, sitting on death row for nearly nine years for a murder he didn't commit. But when he laughed again and winked, I saw there no doubt about it--he'd been able to go black with it; he was able to go to the funny.
"What else are you going to teach?" I asked.
He said me he was debating curriculum that would involve various recipes for hooch (prison booze).
Once I stopped laughing, I had to ask. "How can you joke about this?"
"Hell," he said, "you have to." And then he continued to riff on other possible mock courses, and people started leaning in, and soon he had a crowd cracking up and slapping him on the back.
And that wasn't the last time I witnessed something like this at the conference. Over and over, I met exonerees who could take the route of black humor. I finally realized that in addition to help alleviate their own mental wounds, most of them had realized that to be to laugh about it allowed other people to laugh with them and then to go ahead and ask about their real experiences. They wanted people to be able to talk about them because they didn't want the horror of a wrongful conviction to happen to anyone else.
If comedy can do that, I say - amen. This post
originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago Crime
Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Comedy = Tragedy + Time. By Laura Caldwell: http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/search?q=Laura+caldwell
04.09.10
Alex Berenson, a New York Times reporter and novelist, wrote a great piece for the Sunday paper about, in part, coming up with intricate plots. He wasn't talking about his spy novels, though. Instead, he'd been asked to be a consultant for the final season of the Keifer Sutherland show, 24.
He described how the writers 'spitballed' plots. "We sit on couches and comfortable chairs, looking for answers. Season 8 will be set in New York. But why is Jack in New York? He’s a diplomat. No, he’s in a hospital, rehabilitating from his near-death experience in Season 7. No, he’s handling security for a rich guy... When the process is going well, it is like playing soccer with an invisible ball. One writer pushes an idea forward until another step in. Someone says, “So the terrorists seize a school bus filled with rich kids. ...” “except one kid hides a cellphone. ...” And away we go."
As I read the piece, I became envious because this was the same experience novelists squirm through while writing a book, but all in their own mind. I have about six 'writers' in my head when I'm writing. I'll suggest a plot point - Izzy McNeil should represent a woman in Chicago charged with poisoning her best friend to death. But the lawyer writer in my head will pipe up that Izzy has no criminal law experience, and she isn't certified to try a murder case. Then the voice my friend, Beth, who doesn't take no for an answer and who sometimes helps me with my books will speak up and say that's fine, Izzy can second chair the murder trial. Well, who's going to first chair it? the lawyer asks. Another writer, one of the characters, Izzy's friend, Maggie, chimes in that she's happy to take Izzy on and teach her the ropes. A disapproving writer from the back of the mind-room will say well, that's all fine and good, but really, why would a woman poison someone who is her 'best friend?' And as Berenson says, "away we go."
Wouldn't it be great, I kept thinking, if there really were six Izzy McNeil writers, who lob away ideas and scenarios with each other, who could whole the half-hatched plot points that someone brilliantly sketched out.
But ultimately, Berenson said, after rounds and rounds of the brainstorming on 24, the process with all the writers became, "exhausting and circular. As a novelist, I’m not used to this. My ideas are my own. I don’t have to listen to other people tell me how stupid they are."
All right, so maybe I don't want a democracy of writers on my novel. Maybe. If you could have a team working on your books, would you do it?
This post originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
03.25.10
Kuala Lumpur Book Fair
During my visit at the Kuala Lumpur Book Fair, my Malaysian publisher asked me to give a talk on crime fiction. I was quite surprised as my books in Malaysia, the ones that have been translated into Bahasa, are my earlier works prior to joining the mystery/thriller book world. For example, my first novel, Burning the Map, became Cuti Cuti Cinta (literal Malay translation: “Love Holidays”), The Night I Got Lucky became Malam Yang Indah (“Beautiful Night,” a title I like more than my own) and The Year of Living Famously is Bukan Glamor Cinta (I confess I never got the translated title of this except to learn that “glamour” means the same thing in Bahasa that it does in English and “cinta” is “love”).
Because I was impressed with KarnaDya, a family-run Malaysian publishing business, and the fantastic job they’d done with my books, I said no problem to the speaking engagement on crime fiction. After all, I’d spoken on this topic numerous times at writer’s conferences, and recently, Marcus Sakey and I had discussed crime fiction at the Midland Authors Society, which was then broadcasted by NPR.
Yet I was surprised when I learned why my publisher wanted me to discuss such a topic—because there are essentially no authors writing crime fiction in the country of Malaysia. (Apparently there’s one, but he had to go to a Chinese publisher in order to sell it). Although Malaysia has a large Muslim population, the reason for the lack of mysteries didn’t seem to be a religious or moral opposition to it. Rather novels in which someone usually dies simply weren’t of interest.
A glance at the country’s newspapers, like the Star and the Straits Times, showed Malaysians certainly aren’t lacking for interesting material. Some of the headlines the day I left were Most Wanted Fugitive Dies in Jail, Ex-doc stabs eight, and Killing of snake seen as bad omen: Workers found reptile just days before their death.
But apparently, times have changed in Malaysia and their authors are ready to start killing off their characters. The talk I gave was attended by newspaper journalists, magazine writers, and three groups of writing students from local universities. I realized I would have to discuss crime fiction in a way I really hadn’t before. I would have to go back to the basics. So I told them about importance of research and knowing your subject matter. Even if most of what you learn doesn’t go into the manuscript, I said, your knowledge gives the book a certain authority, and readers learn they can trust you to nail the details. I talked about how many mystery novels contain beautiful writing, but gorgeous prose doesn’t make a mystery novel; the plot does. And that plot has to hit almost on page one or at least be foreshadowed there.
There were many questions about whether a crime writer could get into trouble for writing a book that closely shadowed real life events. I explained that in the U.S. copyright laws protect you if you’re writing fiction, and criminally, you can’t get arrested for writing about someone who sounds an awful lot like a local politician. Yet I soon learned about a set of laws in Malaysia that allow someone to be arrested without cause. Kind of like our ‘enemy combatant’ version, but used much more frequently. So maybe they had cause for concern. Maybe that was the real reason there was no crime fiction in Malaysia.
I left Malaysia loving the country and the people as much as I love my publishers. But as I settled in for a long flight home and delved into writing, playing around with a character that resembles a certain police chief from Chicago, I was glad to be heading home.
This post originally appeared on The Outfit: A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)Kuala Lumpur Book Fair (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com/2010/03/kuala-lumpur-book-fair.html)
03.10.10
Hi All,
If you have a chance, check out the Dr. Phil show tomorrow, Thursday March 11th, to see the follow-up show I was involved with along with Life After Innocence clients, Dean Cage and Ronald Kitchen. The initial episodes showed Dean meeting Loretta, the woman who had mistakenly mis-identified him as the man who assaulted her, sending him to prison for 14 years for a crime he didn't commit. Both Dean and Loretta were incredibly brave, highlighting the power of honesty and forgiveness.
To find out what time the show airs locally, click here.
For more info about the Life After Innocence Project, click here.
02.25.10
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
The
Un-Bitter Man
There's a lot of bitterness going around these days, and
everyone can understand it. Years ago, I knew very few people out of work, now
it sometimes feels like I'm one of the few people who has a job. Everyone's
world has contracted in some way by our economic smack-down. But it's
my hope that we fight that bitterness if at all possible. Bitterness
starts a swirl, a bad one, that can only lead to other negative emotions
and negative events.
How do we do that, though? When I'm fighting some kind of bitterness, I think of the people I know who've managed theirs. And there is no one better than Life After Innocence client, Jerry Miller.
In 1981, Jerry, a 22-year old former Army cook, was arrested and charged with kidnapping, raping and robbing a woman in downtown Chicago. He was convicted in 1982 and served 24 years in prison. His prison record, which numbers nearly 1000 pages, is replete with the statement, Will not admit guilt. He was required to attend sex offender classes and grew increasingly lonely as many family members and friends no longer visited him. "I missed joy," he later told Maurice Possley of the Chicago Tribune. "I missed happiness. It was very painful, being locked up every night."
Jerry (like so many people today) found him self asking, 'Why me?' But he says he finally decided that he had to find a way to gain hope every day. "You open your eyes and you can see there's something here that's more than just me." He says that as he matured, "I came to understand life is to be lived no matter where you are."
A few years ago, when Jerry was 48, he was released on parole as a registered sex offender, requiring him to wear an electronic monitoring device at all times and prohibiting him from answering his door on Halloween or leaving his job for lunch. He continued to attend required sex offender classes, and every time when introducing himself he stated, "My name is Jerry Miller, and I am innocent of the crime of which I am accused."
Miller was fortunate to have the Innocence Project of New York learn about his case. With their help, DNA testing on semen from the rape proved conclusively that Miller did not commit the crime – and instead implicated another man, Robert Weeks, as the actual perpetrator.
Jerry was one of the first clients of the Life After Innocence Project, which we formed at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, in 2009. The project is designed to help innocent people like Jerry to begin their lives over again after a wrongful conviction (or a not-guilty at the trial level). During the time we've worked together, Jerry has become an amazing friend to me and all of the students. He continually inspires us with his constantly positive outlook. "Look, Laura," he has often said to me. "When it comes down to it, I'm blessed." Life, he has told me, is all in the way you look at it. (To see Jerry's elegance and grace, please check out his appearance on the Colbert Report.)
Jerry filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Crime Lab who wrongfully reported so many years ago that Jerry's DNA was inconclusive. On Friday, the lawsuit was settled, putting an end to Jerry's long, long, long battle. The delightful thing about Jerry, however, is that we all knew he would flourish, we knew he would continue to be an inspiration to us, no matter what situation he found himself in. We congratulate him and we celebrate him. And whenever I'm feeling bitter, Jerry is the face who appears in my mind.
(Post Script-an unofficial celebration will be held for Jerry tonight, February 25, at The District (170 West Ontario), starting at 6. For those in Chicago, join us!)
02.11.10
Life After Innocence client, Dean Cage, appeared on the Dr. Phil Show last week. During the show he got to meet the woman who mistakenly accused him of rape, sending him to prison for 14 years. Dr Phil enjoyed Dean and Loretta so much that he did a follow up show which I was involved in. It was truly profound to watch these 2 people, both victims of the system, come together, forgive each other, and actually heal a lot of deep wounds. The shows can be seen, in part, on the Dr Phil website. Look for my appearance at the end of February or beginning of March. Once I get an air date I'll be sure to let you know.
Other coverage on their story:
CNN
AOL News
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime
Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com)
Life
After Innocence client - Dean Cage
12.31.09
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com):
Writing Resolutions
It seems a lazy move to write at the end of the year about New Year's resolutions. I usually don't make them. I always figured if I cared enough about something I'd address that thing during the year itself.
But now it's the end of a decade, which seems more momentous. And it's the end of a year that wasn't so pretty for many - not so pretty financially, not so pretty culturally, certainly not so pretty for the publishing world. So my fingers are itching to lay down a few mandates for myself and my writing for the new year, the new decade.
Number 1 - drop the fear. I used to believe (and still sort of do, I'm working on it) that personal fear is a personal motivator. If I didn't fear the ability to hit a deadline, I figured, then I wouldn't make it. If I didn't fear poor quality of writing, then I wouldn't be able to produce good writing. But lately, I've wondered if that fear, that panic, really helps, or is it a crutch or a curse? I touched on this a few months ago on this blog. I haven't come to any additional conclusions since then. So my Number 1 resolution is, at least to make a good faith effort, to drop the fear.
Number 2 - write six pages a day, five days a week. This is minutiae, certainly. Sort of like a goal to brush your teeth four times a day. But a goal like that helps create discipline, and if there's one thing I've learned from the law it's that discipline is about the only thing that gets the work done. And because I'm trying to kick fear to the curb, I need those type of goals. So six pages a day, five days a week it is.
Number 3 - use Jott more often. If you haven't discovered Jott.com, I heartily encourage it, especially if you're a writer. It combines voice recognition software with actual humans, so that you dial a number from your cellphone, speak into it, and minutes later you find your words typed out and in your email box. Sure, the punctuation is often skewed, the spelling at times hilariously wrong, but as a former litigator who used to dictate all my written work, this system works well for me. (Despite my enthusiastic overtures, Jott.com has passed on my offer to be a spokesperson.
Number 4 - love it. For a while, my deadlines in the writing biz were so intense (at least for me) that some of the pleasure began to seep away. Lately, I've had time to breathe. Lately, I've been reading books just because I want to, and I've been finding myself wildly inspired by the absolute gifts of other writers. All of this makes me love my job. Let's correct that. The word 'job' and 'work' don't fit so well with what I do. That's why I promise to use those words less often. And to love it all the more.
12.22.09 12.17.09 Saying goodbye to the book.... Jason Pinter, a good writer friend, tweeted last week that he was "tinkering" with a manuscript. I tweeted back, "God is in the tinkering." I meant it when I wrote it, but it wasn't until today, when I'm supposed to submit my first (completely rewritten) non-fiction book to my editor, that I realized tinkering isn't just a form of polishing your manuscript, it is also, at least for me, a way of saying sayonara. It's the writer's version of seeing a kid off to college. You're relieved the time has finally come, but it's bittersweet all the same. So instead of sending them with a case of Rammen noodles and some old sheets, you shop the Container Store for the best shower caddies and Bed, Bath & Beyond for matching linens. Writing wise, I have been putting in a comma here, deleting a phrase there (then adding it back in, then deleting it). Finishing this book is even more bittersweet than turning in my novels, because it's about my now-friend, former-client, Jovan Mosley, who was in a holding cell in Cook County for six years awaiting a trial for murder. Since representing Jovan in 2005, I've been living with this book--writing parts of it in my head, scribbling notes on napkins, reading thousands of pages of transcripts, reliving the trial with my other friend, Cathy O'Daniel, the lawyer who really did the heavy lifting on Jovan's case. But now the story has been amassed and the details nailed down. Like the kid off to college, it's time to say to the book, I'll be here if you need me, but meanwhile, you're on your own. 12.7.09 This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com): Vilification Doesn't Work in Fiction or in Life I’m not a big fan of vilification, whether it's in fiction or in life. But more and more, I seem to be the only one who doesn't have the stomach for it. Public figures these days are either on pedestals or, once they have committed some transgression (at least in the mind of the media), they are smacked to the figurative ground, then beaten silly by gossip and strident tongue-lashing from news “experts.” I find the whole vilification process not only distasteful, but false. We crime writers have been taught that a villain in a novel who is a 100% evil is, generally, just not interesting, in part because the character won’t strike the reader as true. I want to write people--characters--whether they're considered good, bad or in-the-middle, who have complex reasons for their actions, who are motivated by one thing at one time, and then maybe something else entirely a few days down the line, just like the rest of us. Because really, the villains, "the bad guys,” are just like everyone else—maybe they're just nastier, maybe they just care a little less about their consequences. I recently finished Dan Chaon’s novel, Await Your Reply. Sakey and I met Dan a few months ago when 57th Street Books organized an author support group of sorts (of course at a pub) following one of Dan’s local signings. I bought the book shortly after, didn’t have a chance to read it until a recent trip, and am now am terribly disappointed that I’ve finished it. Because Choan masterfully works with the concept of good and evil, making the reader guess—or maybe just decide on their own—who the real villain is in the story, or whether there is one at all. 11.16.09 I've been getting a lot of flack lately about
how I'm too attached to football, in particular to Iowa football and the
Bears. Maybe I should explain—football is simply in my blood. My father
played on the 1st football team for Marian Central Catholic High School in
Woodstock where I grew up. When I was in high school, our team not only won
the 2A class football championship, but Woodstock High School, the other
school in our tiny town, won the 4A class. So this small, little burg near
the Wisconsin border captured 2 out of 6 championships in the entire state
of Illinois. I went on to attend college at University of Iowa. During my first year, Iowa was ranked number 1 under Coach Hayden Fry. On a chilly fall night, we played Number 2 ranked Michigan coached by Bo Schembechler. With two seconds left, Rob Houghtlin kicked a field goal to win the game. I rushed onto the field with the rest of the crowd, the band blaring “In Heaven There Is No Beer." You can watch a great clip of the kick and the pandemonium after: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQqfrbuAgvY. Later, I was a cheer leader at Iowa, kneeling on the turf and screaming myself hoarse during games, jetting with the team to bowl games.
So is it true that football is a silly diversion from life and that one shouldn’t get too attached? Probably. But aside from being in my blood, it's just damn fun. Period. Even when you lose. And the fact is, I like fun. You know what else is fun? Girls getting together and having a book signing. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow night with Libby Hellman and Theresa Schwegel at the Book Stall in Winnetka (811 Elm St, Winnetka, IL, 847.446.8880). We'll be chatting, reading and signing books starting at 7:00 PM. It's open to the public and we'd love to see all of you there. If you can’t make it or need signed books for holiday gifts, call the store, tell them how you want the books personalized and they’ll have us sign. You can then pick up the books or have them sent to you. Afterwards, we'll be grabbing a drink at Seul’s Tavern (1735 Orchard Ln , Winnetka). For those of you who read the Izzy books, you know that my love for dive bars has split over into Izzy’s personality. I’m looking forward to checking this place out. Hope you can join us.
The books I just recommended on WGN as last minute Christmas gifts: A Quiet Belief in Angels (so much more than your average mystery... by RJ Ellory), Awaiting Your Reply (it's about identity theft and most importantly, identity in general... by Dan Chaon) and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanisi (two stories about one journalist, first during a trip to Venice and then a trip to India...by Geoff Dyer).
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com):
10.26.09
October was my month for travel. First, I went to Napa with girlfriends and bled the countryside of wine. Next, I went to the Wisconsin Literary Festival in Madison (Great town, great people, great popcorn). Then it was on to Indy for Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention, where I cavorted with authors, readers, agents, publishers and the like. Finally, I find myself in Vegas recovering from a birthday weekend. From here, it's on to Denver for a visit with my friend Amy and to see a Rob Thomas show.
After all that, I return to Chicago with nothing planned except a few last IZZY book signings. The first is this Thursday night at the amazing Evanston boutique called Chalk. Hope to see you all there, and if not, I'll be at the Book Stall on November 17th (Event begins 7 p.m. at 811 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL 60093 (847) 446.8880) with the fabulous authors Theresa Schwegel and Libby Hellman.
Finally, for those of you following the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola, there is a great article about the love story between on our client, Dean Cage and his fiance, Jewel Mitchell, on CNN.com. The Life After Innocence new web site is due to go live in the coming weeks, and in the meantime, you can follow us on our blog (blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence/) or on Twitter (@afterinnocence) and you can catch me there too (@LauraACaldwell).
10.8.09
Well, its official - I'm writing four more Izzy books. I am into number four now. I don't have a title yet and can't decide if I should continue to use the "Red" titles. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
In the meantime, I have a few last book events for the Izzy books this month. If you happen to be in any of these areas, I'd love to see you. This weekend I will be in Milwaukee on Thursday and Madison, WI on Saturday. Next week I will be in Indianapolis for Bouchercon, the annual mystery conference. Finally, on October 29th, I'll be in Evanston, Illinois at the amazing boutique Chalk. Please come out for a glass of champagne, some shopping, the books or just to visit. The dates and information for all these events are on my news page.
I really appreciate all the comments on the Izzy books (or the others). Keep 'em coming - anything good, bad or in-between is welcome. Write to info@lauracaldwell.com.
Take care and thanks for reading!
8.27.09
I don't know why I didn't write a series before–a continuing character with a posse of interesting people around her. It was my friend, Sarah Mlynowski, an author friend, who sat me down one day in a Manhattan diner and asked me why I wasn't writing about someone who was a lawyer and why all my redhead characters were always slutty or evil and why I wasn't using Chicago even more than I had before. I opened my mouth, had nothing to say in response, and the Izzy McNeil books began to be hatched that day.
And I have news today–there will be more Izzy books! Specifically, my excellent editor, Valerie Gray, through my excellent publisher, MIRA, have asked me to write four more and my answer was a quick, loud, YES! I admit I did pause for a second and ask my excellent agent, Amy Moore-Benson, if the deadlines were going to look the same as they did with the Izzy trilogy (editing 1 of them and writing 2 of them in one year, while I also had to finish a non-fiction book). When she told me I'd get more time than that (at least a little), I was in. (We'll be making an announcement in September about exactly when the fourth Izzy McNeil book will be out.)
I've been saying it all summer, but now it's more true than ever–if you've read the Izzy books and have any thoughts on where she should go from here, the characters you'd like to see return, those you'd rather see disappear into the Chicago night or any interesting journeys Izzy might make, let me know about them. If I haven't already stumbled upon what you're suggesting and I use it, I'll put the readers who contributed in the acknowledgments of the book, because really, you guys have been amazing. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of you who've spent time with Izzy or have written me to tell me your thoughts. And I truly do want to hear more–anything! So write a comment, visit me at lauracaldwell.com or write me at info@lauracaldwell.com and don't hold back.
PS - Those of you who've read the books know that Izzy has been long trying to weed curse words from her vocabulary, replacing things like God damn it with God bless you, Fu#$ you with Flub you, and Son of a bitch with Son-of-a-motherless-goat. I got Izzy started on this campaign after my college friend Amy kept saying, "Mother hen in a basket!" instead of what she wanted to say when she was angry. (You can figure it out). So anyway, do you have any replacement swear words you'd be willing to share and let Izzy use? Let me know about that, too. Thanks!
8.4.09
I went on WGN Radio yesterday and had such a fun interview with Steve Cochran. I'll try to get a tape of the show and put it up here.
Today I've got an event at the law firm of Jenner & Block with the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (a group I adore). Thursday, I'll be signing all three books of the trilogy at the Tree House Café in Michigan City, Indiana. It's a fun place, and you can bring your kids and yet still get a glass of wine. Perfect!
A few upcoming events: August 19 at the Thaddeus C Fine Art Gallery (LaPorte, Indiana), Aug. 21 with Marcus Sakey at the Book Cellar (Chicago), August 25 also with Marcus Sakey at Read Between the Lynes (Woodstock, IL) and August 27 at Bloomingdales (Chicago/Gift with purchase). More details are on the News page of my web site. Hope to see you!
7.24.09
I’ve had a whirlwind couple of weeks.
I turned in my non-fiction book (the first I’ve ever written) to Simon & Schuster. The next day, I was off to New York for ThrillerFest, where I got to see some good buddies and authors I admire including Jason Pinter, Kelli Stanley, Lee Child, David Morrell, Heather Graham, James Rollins, Steve Berry (and his amazing wife, Liz), Sandra Brown, M.J. Rose, Jon Land, Joe Finder and so many more.
After 24 hours I was back in Chicago for the American Library Association. I spoke on a panel with Debbie Macomber who astounded us with the fact that she has written 150 (!!) books. I truly enjoyed the ALA. Librarians are the best, and I got to see some of my favorites from around the Chicago area.
I’m taking a break now (I swear!), while I get ready for the release of the third book in my Izzy McNeil series. Red, White & Dead will hit the shelves on August 1st. It will also be available on Kindle and on audio the same day (through iTunes or Audible.com). I'll be signing books at the Tree House Cafe in Michigan City, Indiana on August 6th. On August 21st, Chicago’s the Book Cellar, on Lincoln Avenue, will be hosting Marcus Sakey and me for an author cocktail party, and books will be available there as well.
A couple other signings are soon to be added. Please check back to the ‘news’ section on my web page for updates. Thanks!
7.14.09
Red Blooded Murder, the second in the Izzy McNeil trilogy, is out! I can't
say thanks enough to everyone who has written me about it because I'm hungry
for reader responses. (I realize this is OCD, but I'm actually keeping
a chart of reader thoughts on different characters, settings, future plots
for Izzy, etc.). So keep 'em coming please! Send to info@lauracaldwell.com.
I'm also heading this week to the Drury Lane Theatre in Oak Brook to see my assistant, Liza Jaine, in Pump Boys & Dinettes. She's gotten fantastic reviews. http://www.drurylaneoakbrook.com
6.19.09
Red Hot Lies is now available on audio (iTunes and Audible.com)!
To me, having an audio book feels like I've really arrived. My mom is a certifiable
audio junkie and has had me listening to "Books on Tape" since the 80's. She
gets miffed the books she gets are cut or edited. When she heard Red Hot Lies
was coming out on audio, she was relieved it would be unabridged.
I was there for part of the recording of the book at the fabulous Audible.com.
I flew to New York, took a train to New Jersey, and lost my wallet while on the
train (a rather traumatic event when you're out of town). But I still thought
the recording of my audio book was one of the coolest things I had ever seen
or heard.
Audible had called me about the casting of Izzy McNeil. I told them that although
she was a Chicagoan, she shouldn't have a nasal "Chicago" accent. This was an
exuberant young woman, possibly naïve (although she doesn't see herself like
that), but she is also smart and cultured and just plain fun. When I got to Audible
and heard the production, I was blown away. Nancy Lim is an actor, narrator and
an amazing reader all at once. She brings every single character in the Red Hot
Lies to life.
I listen to it when I take jogs around the city now, and it's such a treat.
Nancy has made the book new for me again. I was lucky enough to interview her
about her process, and discuss my own. If you buy the book on Audible.com, you'll
get that interview on the expanded material. Otherwise, the book is also available
in your iTunes music store. Soon, the other two books in the trilogy--Red Blooded
Murder and Red, White & Dead--will be too. Please check them out and let me know
what you think.
6.04.09
The book launch last night at Lizzie McNeill's (chosen, in part, because my character's name is Izzy McNeil, was an absolute blast. Hello Dave, one of my most favorite bands in the world, played. http://www.hellodave.com Thanks guys! You rocked, and it was an honor. I wrote about the party on The Outfit blog, so if you'd like to read more, you can do so here: http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com
5.27.09
Had a dinner party for my Life After Innocence law students last night to kick off our summer semester. (My version of a dinner party, of course, is buying already cooked (delicious) turkey breasts at Treasure Island). Life After Innocence will be updating our blog soon and sending out a quarterly newsletter to those of you who have signed up. If you would like to receive the newsletter, please send an email to afterinnocenceproject@gmail.com.
Tomorrow is a big book giveaway for the start of my trilogy, Red Hot Lies. I'll be on WGN Radio with Steve Cochran and then my street team will be giving out a hundred free, signed copies on Michigan Avenue in front of the studio between 4:45 and 5:15. (By the way 'street team' is code for 'law students who were cajoled into the job before they knew what their grades were.') Come and hang out with us if you're in the area.
Red Hot Lies is available at Amazon now and everywhere else in the next few days, for certain by Monday, June 1. Check it out and let me know what you think. This is going to be interesting with another book (Red Blooded Murder) coming out in July and the final in the series (Red, White & Dead) hitting the shelves in August. You can link to Amazon, read the first chapters of the books, see the early reviews and more here http://www.lauracaldwell.com/books.html
If you'll be at Book Expo this weekend, I'll be signing Red Hot Lies at the Harlequin Booth at 10:00 on Saturday and at Mystery Writer's of America at 3:00.
Next week - June 3 book party at Lizzie McNeills (www.lizziemcneills.com). Come one, come all. Music by Hello Dave.
5.21.09
I'm blogging twice a month now for The Outfit, a group of cool Chicago mystery/thriller
authors—Sara Paretsky, Libby Hellman, Sean Chercover, Marcus Sakey,
Michael Allen Dymoch, David Ellis, Kevin Guilfoile, & David Heinzmann.
www.theoutfitcollective.com. Check it out if you get a chance, and put
up a comment letting us know what you think.
5.15.09
Had a great interview this week with Kim Alexander of Fiction Nation on Sirius
XM Book Radio. We chatted about my new trilogy, and the fact that Red Hot Lies
comes out in only a few weeks. (Wow.) You can pre-order all three books at any
local booksellers or on Amazon. They even have an option for purchasing the whole
trilogy, if you click here: www.amazon.com.
(If someone can tell me how to hyperlink to web sites like that from Word Pad,
I will give you my first born AND an advanced signed copy of Red Hot Lies).
I'll post the Sirius interview as soon it's aired. In the meantime, you can check out Kim Alexander's book reviews and interesting author interviews at fictionnationonline.com. (And check out the art work - Kim swears that's a drawing of her on the web site (done by her artist mother), but I kinda think it looks like me. Except I'd swap out that martini for a glass of Chardonnay and the cat for a bowl of popcorn).
I also had an interview with Loyola Magazine, and the interviewer ended up being one of my former law students, Brendan Keating. Next up, a chat with Rebecca from Book Page.
5.8.09
Mark your calendars: Book launch and signing for Red Hot Lies at Lizzie
McDave. Open to public, so bring friends! www.lizziemcneills.com,
(We just had to have it there since my character's name is Izzy McNeil),
Wednesday June 3, 6:00, Music by Hello.
5.2.09
Manhattan was a blast. The Edgar Awards ran like a tight ship, thanks to Margery Flax, Laura Durham and the efficient and charming Lee Child.
The people at Audible.com are an amazing bunch. What a great, creative hub they've got going out there.Beth Anderson was kind enough to take me around and show me the ropes, and I got to watch actor Nancy Wu (who looks nothing like Izzy McNeil and yet SOUNDS just like her) narrate Red Hot Lies under the guidance of ace producer Mike Charzuk and cool sound engineer Nic Cameron.
The Life After Innocence Project at Loyola got a nice mention in the National Law Journal last week: law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202430318881&slreturn=1.
4.30.09
I'm getting ready to leave for NY for the Edgar Awards and to watch Red Hot
Lies be recorded for audio by Audible.com. The audio version will be available
on ITunes the same day the book is released – June 1 – but you
can pre-order all three books of the trilogy now at Amazon, B&N, Borders
or any local book seller.
The reviews on Red Hot Lies keep coming in, and I've been very lucky. Here's the latest from the Romantic Times: “4.5 out of 5 stars. Told mainly from the heroine's first-person point of view, this beautifully crafted and tightly written story is a fabulous read. It's very difficult to put down–and the ending is terrific.”
The semester has ended at Loyola Law School and I had to say goodbye to my Advanced Litigation Writing class, a great bunch of students who will make exceptional lawyers. My Life After Innocence project (where we offer guidance to people who were imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit) will continue to meet in the summer, because we've just got too much work to do–getting the records clear of Jerry Miller and Dean Cage (so the world no longer sees them as felons when their convictions were overturned), getting Jovan Mosley through college so he can be a lawyer, writing an amicus brief on the constitutionality of the Certificate of Innocence (which gives wrongfully convicted persons some funding from the state). If you'd like to receive our quarterly email of our project, what we're working on and support we're looking for, please email egreene@luc.edu. Or check out our blog (and a recent video of me) at http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
4.20.09
Wow, just got some cool news. I've been lucky enough to be published in 10
languages and twenty-some countries, but this past week I found out that
The Rome Affair is available in German--my first German book. (amazon.com).
Now I learned that two of my titles are coming out in Malaysia. (bernama.com).
Sweet! I was already thinking of going to Southeast Asia in the fall, but
now I think it's a must-do.
4.15.09
Publisher's Weekly--thank you for the great review of my June book, Red Hot
Lies! Here's some of it: "Former trial lawyer Caldwell launches a mystery
series that weaves the emotional appeal of her chick lit titles with the
blinding speed of her thrillers. Young, sassy Izzy McNeil, lead entertainment
lawyer at Pickett Enterprises, has earned envy for her success (much of
which she owes to the patronage of CEO Forester Pickett) and cheeky manner,
but she's starting to panic about her upcoming wedding to charming Sam
Hollings. Then Pickett is killed and Sam vanishes, as do $30 million worth
of Panamanian real estate bonds....[R]eaders will be left looking forward
to another heart-pounding ride on Izzy's silver Vespa."
You can pre-order Red Hot Lies, or the other two books in the trilogy--Red Blooded Murder and Red, White and Dead by clicking on the "Books" page of my web site (lauracaldwell.com) or by calling your local independent bookseller. (And I would love you forever if you did).
Speaking of Red Hot Lies - Save the date! Launch party here in Chicago on June 3 at Lizzie McNeils, the great Irish bar on the river. Open to the public. Lots of other dates for book events are on the News page of my site, and more to come.
I went to a lovely dinner party last night for a German film crew in town filming a documentary about the Center on Wrongful Convictions. The filming is focusing on how the law students work to exonerate people who have been imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. A fascinating group of guests. I tried to employ a lyric from one of my favorite Bob Schneider songs: "I want to be like Jesus Christ; Keep the party moving, give the good advice."
Today, I'll be on the Steve Cochran show on WGN somewhere between 6:30 and 7 to review a few books. 720 am in Chicago or listen at wgnradio.com.
Lastly, gosh it's nice to have a publicist who likes you enough to put you on his home page: www.authorandbookmedia.com. Any authors out there should check out Tom Robinson.
4.8.09
You can pre-order
my Chicago mystery trilogy now! The novels--Red Hot Lies, Red Blooded Murder
and Red, White & Dead--feature
a sassy redheaded lawyer from Chicago who moonlights as a private investigator
after her fiancé disappears and her client is killed. Check out excerpts
and the covers and pre-order by clicking on the "Books" page of my
web site (lauracaldwell.com) or by calling your local independent bookseller.
We're getting lots of appearances together, which you can read about on the "News" page of my web site. There will be a book launch party at Lizzie McNeils (It had to be there since my character's name is Izzy McNeil) in the first week of June, right on the Chicago river. It will be open to the public. Date soon-to-be-announced. And Steve Cochran from WGN asked me to be in his celebrity golf outing June 29. Clearly, I am just there for the hilarity factor as my golf skills are tragic. If you're a better golfer, though, and you want to join, it's open to the public too and it's for a great cause--juvenile diabetes. He always has a pack of cool Chicago broadcast people there and the event is a blast.
Yesterday, I got together with my law students from the Life After Innocence Project, as well as two of our clients, Jerry Miller (www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/Jerry+Miller) and Dean Cage (www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOsJsPxD_ag). Both did time (Jerry 26 years and Dean 14 years) for crimes they didn't commit and from which DNA evidence exonerated them. When both men went into the penitentiary, they hadn't used computers before, didn't have email accounts. There was no Facebook yet, no Twitter (yeah, I caved and I'm on Twitter now (user name: LauraACaldwell). Anyway, yesterday the Life After Innocence Project got to give Dean his very first laptop, and we hooked him up with a GMail account. He wants to use the Internet to explore learning a trade and getting an apprenticeship. A photo of yesterday will soon be posted on our blog: http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
3.15.09
The city was jumping yesterday with early St. Patty's day revelers. It'll
be interesting to see the place on Tuesday when the real professionals
come out. On the 17th, I'll be at the Celtic Lawyers Lunch (which I lovingly
refer to as the Drunken Lawyers lunch).
My oldest friend in the world, Ace Baker, was in town last night doing sound for a band called Kinky. Before I went to the Congress Theatre to meet him (by the way, the Congress has got to be the coolest theatre in Chicago), I looked up Kinky on the internet. I read something like this, "Kinky makes dance music with guitars, a North African confluence of reggae, hip hop, Arabic pop, and traditional tribal music. Kinky is electro-rock fusion, a borderless funk.” To which I replied, "Huh?" But when I saw them in person, I got it. They've got to be one of the best live bands performing today. Highly recommended. I’ll be on the Erik and Kathy show on Thursday with Anna Davlantes. You can listen at wtmx.com or 101.9 f.m. in Chicago.
2.26.09
I just got back from New York, where I went to the Rachel Maddow show with my hysterical cousin-in-law, Kent Jones, who wraps up Rachel's show every day. Here's Kent from last week talking about someone else's cousin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19-z1hZcl4
2.17.09
I'm in Maine with author Elizabeth Flock. We're writing
lots and talking about writing even more. Liz is getting ready for her new
book, "Sleepwalking in Daylight" to hit the shelves on February 24. (elizabethflock.com)
You probably remember Liz from her NYT bestseller, "Me & Emma". I had the pleasure
of interviewing Liz for Shore Magazine's April, 2009 issue. Check it out if
you get the chance. On Friday, I'll be heading to the Auto Show and will be
on WGN radio with Steve Cochran in the 4:00 hour with Anna Davlantes. (720
AM if you're in Chicago or listen at www.wgnradio.com)
2.12.09
At midnight this past Saturday, I found myself dancing in a ballroom to Brown
Eyed Girl with my agent, Amy. Dancing with us was a Roman soldier, a civil
war army general, a woman dressed as Anne Boleyn and a World War II officer.
No, I wasn't dreaming. (I believe dreams should only be recounted to your
spouse or your therapist). I was actually at “Love is Murder”, a mystery
writers' conference here in Chicago, held at a Westin hotel. On the other side
of the hotel, another conference was taking place—a reenactors festival,
where people gather from around the nation to dress as their favorite historical
characters, ones they like to re-enact on a regular basis (reenactorfest.com).
They had been kind enough to invite my agent and me into their ball to see what
it was all about.
My initial thought was that this reenactor stuff was slightly crazy, but when the song was over General Ulysses S. Grant and I got talking, and he explained to me reenactors do the same thing that fiction writers do. He asked me, for example, why I like being a novelist. I responded that I love to walk into other people's worlds. He said it was the same for him. He was a history buff. He had done scores of research on Ulysses S. Grant and became fascinated with what it would have been like to be him. Instead of writing a novel about it, he decided to be the General, to find out what it would be like to dress like him, to act like him. At that point, a woman in a can-can outfit walked by and, hearing our conversation, asked if I wanted to try on part of her costume, just to see what it was like. When I said yes, she promptly dropped her multi-layered flouncy red skirt (she had a full sassy costume on underneath) and put it on me. Before I knew it I was kicking up a storm with a big grin on my face. Ben LeRoy from Bleakhouse Books was there, and I can only hope and pray the video camera he was holding ended up breaking.
I'm featured this month in Today's Chicago Woman, if you want to check it out, go to www.tcwmag.com. On February 19, the March issue of Chicago Magazine will be released and will feature an article by me on Anna Devlantes' new show, Rewind, on Channel 11. The show is fabulous, as is Anna (who can also be seen on NBC5 news), and she and I will be on Steve Cochran's show on WGN on Thursday, February 19, in the 4:00 hour to talk about it. You can listen at wgnradio.com. Finally, an article I wrote about some of my favorite Chicago books is in Michigan Avenue Magazine this month. If you're in the city, pick one up at your local bookstore or newstand.
1.23.09
I'm thrilled to be starting the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola University
Chicago Law School. The Life After Innocence Project is a new practicum where
my law students will have the opportunity to offer guidance and legal assistance
to clients who have been exonerated after serving time in a county jail or those
who have spent time in a penitentiary before having their convictions overturned.
Our first two clients are Jerry Miller and Dean Cage, who served 26 years and
12 years respectively in prison for crimes they didn't commit before Barry Scheck's
Innocence Project in New York helped to exonerate them. Check out Jerry on the
Colbert Report, showing his incredible mix of humor and grace: www.colbertnation.com.
To read more about the Life After Innocence Project, visit our new blog at http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
Or if you're in Chicago, we'd love to see you at our launch event on Wednesday,
January 28 at 5:00 p.m. at Loyola (25 East Pearson, Kasbeer Hall, Chicago, Illinois).
1.2.09
Happy New Year! The holidays have been great; hope for you, too. I was in Phoenix for Christmas, hanging with my sisters and dad, and it was a blast. I went on the WGN morning show on Christmas Eve to recommend some books for last minute gifts. For those of you who have written asking for those again, here they are.
- For the mystery lover: Trigger City by Sean Chercover;
- For young kids: To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda & Janet Stevens;
- For the dog lover: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein;
- For the Harry Potter fan: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling;
- And for the book by the big name you can't go wrong with: the Gate House by Nelson DeMille.
Today, my assistant, Liza Jaine, and I took the day off and spent the afternoon at Spacio on Halsted. The spa was showcasing work by Chicago artist, Matthew Lew, and I couldn't help but think about how I'd met Matt. About a year or so ago, I went to Spacio by myself and was struck by the artwork on the walls. I noticed the artist's name--Matthew Lew--and went home and stalked his website (www.matthewlew.com), wishing I could buy fifteen of his paintings. The next night, I met some friends for a drink and soon we were talking to the lovely man at the next table. We all finally got around to introducing ourselves and the lovely man said his name was Matthew Lew. Yes, he said when I finally stammered out my question, he was the same Matthew Lew who showcased some of his art at Spacio. Matt and I became friends that night, and a month later I owned four of his paintings, painted just for my house. Meanwhile, I've watched as Matt's career has skyrocketed. (He's now designing for CB2). Check out his great stuff if you get the chance.
12.16.08
Last night, I turned in the third book of my mystery series for next summer--Red,
White & Dead. In the book, I revisit two of my favorite settings--Chicago
and Rome. It was a blast to write.
I'm taking the day off for a photo shoot for Today's Chicago Woman for
their "Hottest Singles in Chicago" issue.
Please stop laughing. And please don't email me to remind me
that most of the appropriate people must have had the flu.
I get it.
Last weekend, I had an amazing time at a holiday book club luncheon in Wacounda, Illinois with about fifty wonderful women. One of them, my new friend Melissa, sat at my table and later posted some details on her blog, along with photos of the cool ornaments that the hostess extraordinaire, Terri Suda, gave as gifts. Click here to visit her blogspot.
12.8.08
I just spent a great week in Portland visiting family. Ate at some great
restaurants, too--Saucebox with my brother, Southpark with author Phillip
Margolin, and Thai Mango more than once with my mom.
I'm closing in on the first draft of my third novel in my Red mystery trilogy due out next summer. We changed some of the titles around. The first one is still Red Hot Lies. The second one now Red Blooded Murder and the third Red, White & Dead. What do you think?
11.19.08
Thanks for all the calls and emails after my mugging last week. I am doing very
well. I was a little disappointed after the incident happened because I had this
idea that as a thriller writer, it might translate into real life and I might
to be able to kick some ass. Um, no. But I do cower well. And on the upside,
I've learned that I'm a fast healer, which is good to know. I've gone away for
the week to recuperate some more.
I wanted to pass along some street safety tips that Officer McGrath of the Chicago
Police Department shared with me when he called me yesterday:
- Be aware, not just of who is around you but exactly where you are. Even if it's a route you walk normally, every few blocks or so check in with yourself and say, "Okay, now I'm in the 2700 block of Racine," maybe even notice an address or two along the way. This apparently helps increase your overall awareness and then if, God forbid, something happened you could easily identify your location to the authorities.
- Carry your cell phone on you, even if you are running, again so you can contact the authorities if need be. (Although in my case, they probably would have taken it along with my IPod).
- According to Officer McGrath not just Spider Man has super senses, we all have them. So when your "Spidey sense" is telling you "get the hec out of here" - do it. (He used a word stronger than 'hec', but I'll let you fill in your own).
- He wasn't sure that there were statistics to support this but it was Officer McGrath's observation as a police officer that incidents rise sharply on the night of a full moon, which was when my robbery occurred. So if you believe in that kind of thing, be extra careful on those nights.
11.15.08
You might see some media reports about me being mugged while out for a run in
my Chicago neighborhood. Yep, kind of got my butt kicked. Lost some teeth,
but got some new ones. The swelling is way down, the ego is still a little
bruised. I'll be back to writing on Monday.
10.21.08
I went to University of Iowa, and like most people who did the same, I think
Iowa City is a gem. That impression was only solidified this past weekend
when I headed back to Hawkeye-land for a few speaking engagements and
the football game against Wisconsin. But first, when I got into town on
Thursday, I went to just about one of the coolest parties I'd ever been
to. About 40 or so people in a penthouse apartment atop the newish Hotel
Vetro and readings by four amazing authors–Ethan Canin, Michael Cunningham,
Jane Hamilton and Scott Spencer.
The game itself was on one of those seductive autumn days, and the Hawks beat the Badgers easily. I spoke to the Honors Program, an exceptional group of students and faculty who made me wish I'd been a part of it while I was there. I was also lucky enough to speak to some of David Hamilton's non-fiction writing students, as well as a few law students and by the time I left last night, I only wished I had a few more days there.
10.15.08
Boy, who knew Baltimore could be so fun? Bouchercon, the international mystery conference, rolled into town this past weekend. Great to see so many friends like David Ellis, Ken Bruen, Dana Kaye, Heather Graham, Jamie Freveletti, David Montgomery, Rick Mofina, Barry Eisler, Jason Pinter, Kelli Sanley, Michelle Gagnon, David Corbett, Philip Spitzer, Henry Perez, Joe Konrath and Lukas Ortiz. Cool to finally meet Harlan Coben (the French film based on his book, Tell No One, is supposed to be amazing). Really wish I could have met one of my favorite writers, Thomas H. Cook. Thanks to Lee Child for throwing the big bash at Lucy's Pub.
10.3.08
I was just in Niagra Falls for my publisher's sales conference. They are truly
the most amazing group of people to work with.
Recently, I was interviewed on an internet radio show called Revolutionary Muse. You can listen to it at: www.blogtalkradio.com
My article about working with a personal fashion editor was on the cover of Shore magazine this month. You can read it here: visitshoremagazine.com.
An anthology I was in (Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume) got a shout out from Diablo Cody in Entertainment Weekly.
I'm headed to Iowa City soon to speak at the University of Iowa, my alma mater, and attend the Iowa/Wisconsin game. I plan to start tailgating at 7 a.m. There's nothing like a Bud Light first thing in the morning. Go Hawks!
9.17.08
I just finished editing my new novel, Red Hot Lies, thanks to some sweet
work from my new editor, Valerie Gray, and my assistant, Liza Jaine. The
book will be out in June 2009. It'll be followed in July 2009 and August
2009 by Red Blooded and Code Red. Yep, I finally found my third red title.
Thanks to all of you who wrote in to make suggestions.
The new Michigan Avenue Magazine, put out by Niche Media, just hit newsstands today with Cindy Crawford on the cover and with articles by Michelle O'Bama, Mariel Hemingway and Bill Maher to name just a few. Look for a piece by me in the next issue due out in November or February.
8.21.08
This has been a WGN Radio kind of week for me. Rick Kogan accidentally asked
me to be on his Sunday show when I saw him a few nights before at the opening
of Jenniffer Weigel's show at the Viaduct Theatre (www.staytunedwithjen.com).
Kogan's real guest was Marcus Sakey, my buddy and a great writer (www.marcussakey.com).
His new book, Good People, is out now. Kogan is a genius interviewer who makes
you feel like you're just sitting on the couch next to him (or maybe the bar
stool). On Monday, I went on Steve Cochran's show with another author friend,
Tasha Alexander, whose new book is A Fatal Waltz(www.tashaalexander.com).
The other books I recommended were Ethan Canin's America, America and Christopher
Reich's Rules of Deception.
6.29.08
I just got back from Italy, where I was teaching about the International
Criminal Court at the Rome campus of Loyola University. It was my 5th visit
to Rome, but it was somewhat different this time since I had an apartment
and was trying to act like a local. Of course, that's hard to do when you
have red hair and your Italian is wretched, but I had a blast trying.
Anyone who has been there knows that Italy is far from perfect. Lots of things often don't work–air conditioning and shower heads to name a few–and the nonchalance when you mention such things to management can be maddening. The Italians have perfected the grand shrug, that slow, exaggerated lift of the shoulders that says, "Yes, it's broken. What can I do? It is what it is." After a few such incidents, I decided that this response was a fairly Buddhist approach to life and spent much of my time there practicing the shrug and the surrender.
Of course, there's so much to love about Italy, and I found la dolce vita in a lot of little things. The packaging for one. How is it that a mini-bar chocolate somehow looks like a gift for a 15th century princepessa? And I fell in love with the word Complimenti!, which is basically a really succinct way to say, "Congratulations! Fantastic! Good job!" When the dean of my law school introduced me to the local staff on campus and mentioned that my mother, Margaret Caldwell, had been one of the first students ever at the Rome campus in the 1960s, they gasped and said, "Complimenti!" as if I had anything to do with my mother's fabulousness. Ditto for when the dean told them that I had been third generation at Loyola Law School (my grandfather, uncle and dad, William Caldwell, all having gone there). When you tell someone you're in town for a month–"Complimenti!" Show them a pair of shoes you bought (T-bone silver espradilles)–"Complimenti!" Mention just about anything worthy of the tiniest bit of praise–"Complimenti!" Ya gotta love it.
I managed to get a fair amount of writing done while I was there, mostly while enjoying the plentiful local scenery. To hear more about that, you can read my guest blog post at The Outfit, a collective blog of very cool crime writers here in Chicago, like Sara Paretsky, Libby Hellman, Marcus Sakey and Sean Chercover. theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com.
Ciao for now!
5.7.08
I was in New York last week, and the streets were abuzz
with the great weather. I stayed with my good friend, author Elizabeth
Flock, and got to congregate with a larger pack of amazing writers at the
Edgar Awards. The Edgars are sort of like the Oscars for mystery writers–replete
with the black tie gala, the cool trophies and the acceptance speeches.
A former Edgar award winner, Theresa Schwagel, who I'm thrilled is living
in Chicago now, gave the award for Best Paperback Original to Megan Abbott
for her book, Queenpin. Tana French won Best First Novel for In the Woods.
My friend, Ken Bruen, was up for Best Novel, along with John Hart, Michael
Chabon, Reed Farrel Coleman and Benjamin Black, all wonderful and funny
men. Congrats to John Hart, who won for his novel, Down River. At the
cocktail party, I got to hang out with Michael Chabon and was fascinated
to learn that as part of the Obama campaign he's been cold-calling Democratic
voters to discuss the issues. This fact alone nearly made me move to New
York. Can you imagine a city where a Pulitzer Prize winner (and a really
cool dude) like Chabon calls you while you're unloading the dishwasher??
Yesterday, I went on the Steve Cochran show on WGN Radio. Steve called the scene in the studio an "estrogen den" because two other ladies stopped by--Patti Vasquez (www.pattivasquez.com), a whip-funny and ultra-cool comic I met last summer at Steve's annual celebrity golf outing, and Chris Blumer, a/k/a the Wine Diva (www.winedivaent.com). I'd like to officially request that Patti and Chris accompany me to every appearance I make. These girls are hysterical, and when you combine them with a pro like Steve Cochran, an hour on the radio flies by like it's mere minutes. I'll be golfing horribly at Steve's celebrity outing this summer (a performance sure to be made more ghastly by jet lag since I'll just be back from teaching in Rome).
Meanwhile, if you're interested in the books I recommended on Steve's show, they are Black & White by Dani Shapiro, Extraordinary Circumstances by Cynthia Cooper ("Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower") and Charley's Web by Joy Fielding (mystery). I also chatted about the upcoming ThrillerFest this summer in New York. For more information visit www.thrillerfest.org.
4.27.08
This summer I'll be teaching about the International Criminal Court at Loyola's
international program in Rome, Italy. The International Criminal Court (ICC)
is a new addition to the world of international law. The ICC came into force
in 2002 and at this time, 105 countries have joined the court, including
Canada and nearly all of Europe and South America. The U.S., along with
Russia, China, Iraq and India have not joined the court. The ICC is a permanent
tribunal, sitting in the Hague, and it will prosecute individuals for genocide,
war crimes and crimes against humanity in situations where the nation states
involved are unable or unwilling to prosecute such crimes.
On April 25, I had the pleasure of accompanying Loyola Law Professors Alan Raphael (with whom I'll be teaching in Rome this summer) and Jerry Norton to a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the ICC. I had a chance to meet Moreno-Ocampo, who was as charming, intelligent and engaging as I had heard. For a great read about the situation in Darfur and the efforts made by Moreno-Ocampo and the ICC, click on www.nytimes.com.
The night before the conference I went to the opening party for Artopolis, Chicago's massive exhibition devoted to art, culture and antiques. Attendance at the weekend event is usually over 50,000 in one weekend. The art on the opening night was amazing--everything from Warhols to new artists--but the watching the people, a splashy, fascinating crowd from around the world, was even better. To see videos about some of the goings-on at Artropolis, go here: www.merchandisemart.com.
4.21.08
Some of my author friends and I are finalizing plans for a book signing on July 10 in Manhattan to coincide with ThrillerFest, a great event open to readers who want to meet thriller authors, like James Patterson, David Baldacci, Sandra Brown (and me). The book signing is going to be MC'd by the wonderful Lee Child. Here are the authors I'll have the pleasure to read with: Michelle Gagnon, Tim Maleeny, Alexandra Sokoloff, Mario Acevedo, JT Ellison, Laura Benedict and Shane Gericke.
Speaking of ThrillerFest, I'm going on Steve Cochran's show on WGN Radio to talk about it on Thursday, May 6, at 4:38 p.m. (Apparently, they're very precise in the radio world). You can listen at www.wgnradio.com.
4.8.08
I've been back from Denver and the Left Coast Crime convention for a month, and I can't believe I haven't written about it. Too much damned fun. Have you ever seen the movie Best in Show? It's kind of like that. But with laptops. And people who like to kill their characters. And people who like to read about it. Some of the characters I had the pleasure of hanging out with--Theresa Schwegel, Lori Armstrong, Tasha Alexander, Marcus Sakey, Michael Dymmoch, Twist Phelan, Libby Fischer Hellman, Joan Johnston, Rick Mofina, Con Lehane, Judy Bobalik, J.T. Ellison, Les Klinger, Michelle Gagnon, Doug Lyle, and Tim Maleeny.
One of the last stops on my book tour was a signing at Bloomingdale's in Chicago. This happened to be on the same day of the St. Patty's Day parade. After that, I made a silent vow to always have book signings when drunk people roam the streets, and the stores, wearing green and shamrocks. Entirely entertaining.
My last stop was at the Plainfield Library, a delightful place with a delightful group of women. Thanks much, ladies.
Next up for me--the Edgar Awards Banquet New York with my friend, Ken Bruen; Book Expo in L.A. in May; teaching in Rome in June; and back to New York in July for the fantastic and fun Thriller Fest.
2.27.08
Musicians tour together, why not authors? I hit the road recently with Marcus Sakey and found out that book signings are a hell of a lot of fun with a friend, especially someone like Marcus who takes a healthy dose of mocking and dishes it right back. Thanks to the great people at M is for Mystery in San Mateo and The Mystery Bookstore in L.A., not to mention all the authors who stopped by to heckle us along the way--Michelle Gagnon, Rip Gerber, Les Klinger, Keith Raffel, Rob Gregory Browne and Brett Battles.
And you have to love a bookstore owner who will help mix drinks and set up for the party, too. Thanks to Suzy Takas, owner of the awesome Book Cellar in Lincoln Square, for pitching in at Dustin O'Regan's soiree for The Good Liar (and to all the sassy Lake Forest ladies who turned out in Bond gear to celebrate).
1.24.08
Wow, what a blast at the Landmark last night for the book launch party! Thanks
to everybody who packed the place and the the stellar crew at Landmark for
making it sparkle and look so easy. Check out Landmark at www.landmarkgrill.net.
1.16.08
A few years ago, I had the great fortune to be a defense lawyer for Jovan Mosley, a Chicago man who was forced into a murder confession when he was 19 and then spent 6 years without a trial in a holding cell in the Cook County jail, essentially lost by the system. He was saved by my friend, Catherine O'Daniel, who came upon him while visiting another inmate. ABC reporter John Garcia recently did a great story on the case. You can watch the video here: abclocal.go.com.
I also went on WGN Radio last week with Steve Cochran, one of my most favorite people. You can listen to majority of the interview on Cochran's podcast: http://caster.wgnradio.com/podcasts/scpod-121-080116.mp3.
I'm looking forward to the Chicago book launch party next week, on Wednesday January 23 at the Landmark Grill, which I'm sharing with my good friend, author, Marcus Sakey. The booze is on us, and the books will be sold, so come out and visit! It's from 7 - 9 p.m.
1.9.08
I never thought anyone would bring up my brief but brilliant career as a french horn player, but journalist Teresa Budasi managed to work it into a great piece in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times.
12.30.07
Thanks to the hundreds of you who have emailed me about my new book, THE
GOOD LIAR! One of the best things about being an author is knowing
that someone is reading your book. Maybe it's entertaining them, maybe
it's
making them think, maybe they're using it as a coaster for a New Year's
Eve highball. It's all good.
Here's to a great and safe New Year!
12.18.07
The reviews are starting to come in for THE GOOD LIAR.
From Publisher's Weekly:
"Caldwell's taut, enjoyable thriller hits the ground running, crafting a
married-to-the-mob scenario that's believable and chilling, then taking
the show around the world... Caldwell's plot moves smoothly, juggling a number
of perspectives without losing steam."
From Booklist:
"Caldwell, best known for chick lit, including The Night I Got Lucky,
now ventures into thriller territory. When Liza Kingsley set up her best
friend, Kate Livingston, with Michael Waller, she never imagined they'd
fall in love and marry within a matter of months. Liza and Michael share a
secret: they're both members of the Trust, a covert operation founded by Liza's
father to protect U.S. interests. Kate happily settles into her new marriage,
but she can't help but notice strange things about her husband's life. Why
is she forbidden to enter the private meeting rooms at his restaurant? Why is
their house bugged? Liza is chasing down a mystery of her own: Who killed her
former lover, a Russian journalist who was investigating the Russian mob? Filled
with romance and intrigue,this thriller will both please Caldwell's fans and
attract new readers."
From Armchair Interviews:
"Laura Caldwell has climbed the literary ladder right to the top of romantic
suspense/thriller writers. She is a master at characterization and the
multilevel plot is filled with near unbearable tension as the danger mounts.
Nothing is as it seems in this exciting novel that kept me reading most of
the night. Armchair Interviews says: You will love the climax of the story that
is satisfying and totally unexpected."
From The Chicago Contingent:
"Laura Caldwell got her start in Chick-Lit, inched toward Romantic Suspense,
and although The Good Liar does revolve around a relationship, she has
definitely crossed into the realm of espionage and international thriller.
After a recent divorce, Kate Livingston didn't think she'd fall in love again
so quickly. But when her friend Liza sets her up with a colleague, just to
take her mind off her ex, they hit it off immediately and end up getting married.
At first, the rush and spontaneity is romantic, but soon Kate realizes her
husband isn't exactly who he seems, and neither is her friend. Another solid
read, Caldwell kept me glued to my seat and flying through the pages, not letting
up until the very end."
12.31.09
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com):
Writing Resolutions
It seems a lazy move to write at the end of the year about New Year's resolutions. I usually don't make them. I always figured if I cared enough about something I'd address that thing during the year itself.
But now it's the end of a decade, which seems more momentous. And it's the end of a year that wasn't so pretty for many - not so pretty financially, not so pretty culturally, certainly not so pretty for the publishing world. So my fingers are itching to lay down a few mandates for myself and my writing for the new year, the new decade.
Number 1 - drop the fear. I used to believe (and still sort of do, I'm working on it) that personal fear is a personal motivator. If I didn't fear the ability to hit a deadline, I figured, then I wouldn't make it. If I didn't fear poor quality of writing, then I wouldn't be able to produce good writing. But lately, I've wondered if that fear, that panic, really helps, or is it a crutch or a curse? I touched on this a few months ago on this blog. I haven't come to any additional conclusions since then. So my Number 1 resolution is, at least to make a good faith effort, to drop the fear.
Number 2 - write six pages a day, five days a week. This is minutiae, certainly. Sort of like a goal to brush your teeth four times a day. But a goal like that helps create discipline, and if there's one thing I've learned from the law it's that discipline is about the only thing that gets the work done. And because I'm trying to kick fear to the curb, I need those type of goals. So six pages a day, five days a week it is.
Number 3 - use Jott more often. If you haven't discovered Jott.com, I heartily encourage it, especially if you're a writer. It combines voice recognition software with actual humans, so that you dial a number from your cellphone, speak into it, and minutes later you find your words typed out and in your email box. Sure, the punctuation is often skewed, the spelling at times hilariously wrong, but as a former litigator who used to dictate all my written work, this system works well for me. (Despite my enthusiastic overtures, Jott.com has passed on my offer to be a spokesperson.
Number 4 - love it. For a while, my deadlines in the writing biz were so intense (at least for me) that some of the pleasure began to seep away. Lately, I've had time to breathe. Lately, I've been reading books just because I want to, and I've been finding myself wildly inspired by the absolute gifts of other writers. All of this makes me love my job. Let's correct that. The word 'job' and 'work' don't fit so well with what I do. That's why I promise to use those words less often. And to love it all the more.
12.22.09 12.17.09 Saying goodbye to the book.... Jason Pinter, a good writer friend, tweeted last week that he was "tinkering" with a manuscript. I tweeted back, "God is in the tinkering." I meant it when I wrote it, but it wasn't until today, when I'm supposed to submit my first (completely rewritten) non-fiction book to my editor, that I realized tinkering isn't just a form of polishing your manuscript, it is also, at least for me, a way of saying sayonara. It's the writer's version of seeing a kid off to college. You're relieved the time has finally come, but it's bittersweet all the same. So instead of sending them with a case of Rammen noodles and some old sheets, you shop the Container Store for the best shower caddies and Bed, Bath & Beyond for matching linens. Writing wise, I have been putting in a comma here, deleting a phrase there (then adding it back in, then deleting it). Finishing this book is even more bittersweet than turning in my novels, because it's about my now-friend, former-client, Jovan Mosley, who was in a holding cell in Cook County for six years awaiting a trial for murder. Since representing Jovan in 2005, I've been living with this book--writing parts of it in my head, scribbling notes on napkins, reading thousands of pages of transcripts, reliving the trial with my other friend, Cathy O'Daniel, the lawyer who really did the heavy lifting on Jovan's case. But now the story has been amassed and the details nailed down. Like the kid off to college, it's time to say to the book, I'll be here if you need me, but meanwhile, you're on your own. 12.7.09 This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com): Vilification Doesn't Work in Fiction or in Life I’m not a big fan of vilification, whether it's in fiction or in life. But more and more, I seem to be the only one who doesn't have the stomach for it. Public figures these days are either on pedestals or, once they have committed some transgression (at least in the mind of the media), they are smacked to the figurative ground, then beaten silly by gossip and strident tongue-lashing from news “experts.” I find the whole vilification process not only distasteful, but false. We crime writers have been taught that a villain in a novel who is a 100% evil is, generally, just not interesting, in part because the character won’t strike the reader as true. I want to write people--characters--whether they're considered good, bad or in-the-middle, who have complex reasons for their actions, who are motivated by one thing at one time, and then maybe something else entirely a few days down the line, just like the rest of us. Because really, the villains, "the bad guys,” are just like everyone else—maybe they're just nastier, maybe they just care a little less about their consequences. I recently finished Dan Chaon’s novel, Await Your Reply. Sakey and I met Dan a few months ago when 57th Street Books organized an author support group of sorts (of course at a pub) following one of Dan’s local signings. I bought the book shortly after, didn’t have a chance to read it until a recent trip, and am now am terribly disappointed that I’ve finished it. Because Choan masterfully works with the concept of good and evil, making the reader guess—or maybe just decide on their own—who the real villain is in the story, or whether there is one at all. 11.16.09 I've been getting a lot of flack lately about
how I'm too attached to football, in particular to Iowa football and the
Bears. Maybe I should explain—football is simply in my blood. My father
played on the 1st football team for Marian Central Catholic High School in
Woodstock where I grew up. When I was in high school, our team not only won
the 2A class football championship, but Woodstock High School, the other
school in our tiny town, won the 4A class. So this small, little burg near
the Wisconsin border captured 2 out of 6 championships in the entire state
of Illinois. I went on to attend college at University of Iowa. During my first year, Iowa was ranked number 1 under Coach Hayden Fry. On a chilly fall night, we played Number 2 ranked Michigan coached by Bo Schembechler. With two seconds left, Rob Houghtlin kicked a field goal to win the game. I rushed onto the field with the rest of the crowd, the band blaring “In Heaven There Is No Beer." You can watch a great clip of the kick and the pandemonium after: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQqfrbuAgvY. Later, I was a cheer leader at Iowa, kneeling on the turf and screaming myself hoarse during games, jetting with the team to bowl games.
So is it true that football is a silly diversion from life and that one shouldn’t get too attached? Probably. But aside from being in my blood, it's just damn fun. Period. Even when you lose. And the fact is, I like fun. You know what else is fun? Girls getting together and having a book signing. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow night with Libby Hellman and Theresa Schwegel at the Book Stall in Winnetka (811 Elm St, Winnetka, IL, 847.446.8880). We'll be chatting, reading and signing books starting at 7:00 PM. It's open to the public and we'd love to see all of you there. If you can’t make it or need signed books for holiday gifts, call the store, tell them how you want the books personalized and they’ll have us sign. You can then pick up the books or have them sent to you. Afterwards, we'll be grabbing a drink at Seul’s Tavern (1735 Orchard Ln , Winnetka). For those of you who read the Izzy books, you know that my love for dive bars has split over into Izzy’s personality. I’m looking forward to checking this place out. Hope you can join us. 10.26.09 October was my month for travel. First, I went to Napa with girlfriends and bled the countryside of wine. Next, I went to the Wisconsin Literary Festival in Madison (Great town, great people, great popcorn). Then it was on to Indy for Bouchercon, the world's largest mystery convention, where I cavorted with authors, readers, agents, publishers and the like. Finally, I find myself in Vegas recovering from a birthday weekend. From here, it's on to Denver for a visit with my friend Amy and to see a Rob Thomas show. After all that, I return to Chicago with nothing planned except a few last IZZY book signings. The first is this Thursday night at the amazing Evanston boutique called Chalk. Hope to see you all there, and if not, I'll be at the Book Stall on November 17th (Event begins 7 p.m. at 811 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL 60093 (847) 446.8880) with the fabulous authors Theresa Schwegel and Libby Hellman. Finally, for those of you following the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola, there is a great article about the love story between on our client, Dean Cage and his fiance, Jewel Mitchell, on CNN.com. The Life After Innocence new web site is due to go live in the coming weeks, and in the meantime, you can follow us on our blog (blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence/) or on Twitter (@afterinnocence) and you can catch me there too (@LauraACaldwell).
The books I just recommended on WGN as last minute Christmas gifts: A Quiet Belief in Angels (so much more than your average mystery... by RJ Ellory), Awaiting Your Reply (it's about identity theft and most importantly, identity in general... by Dan Chaon) and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanisi (two stories about one journalist, first during a trip to Venice and then a trip to India...by Geoff Dyer).
This post originally appeared on The Outfit:A Collection of Chicago Crime Writers (http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com):
10.8.09
Well, its official - I'm writing four more Izzy books. I am into number four now. I don't have a title yet and can't decide if I should continue to use the "Red" titles. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
In the meantime, I have a few last book events for the Izzy books this month. If you happen to be in any of these areas, I'd love to see you. This weekend I will be in Milwaukee on Thursday and Madison, WI on Saturday. Next week I will be in Indianapolis for Bouchercon, the annual mystery conference. Finally, on October 29th, I'll be in Evanston, Illinois at the amazing boutique Chalk. Please come out for a glass of champagne, some shopping, the books or just to visit. The dates and information for all these events are on my news page.
I really appreciate all the comments on the Izzy books (or the others). Keep 'em coming - anything good, bad or in-between is welcome. Write to info@lauracaldwell.com.
Take care and thanks for reading!
8.27.09
I don't know why I didn't write a series before–a continuing character with a posse of interesting people around her. It was my friend, Sarah Mlynowski, an author friend, who sat me down one day in a Manhattan diner and asked me why I wasn't writing about someone who was a lawyer and why all my redhead characters were always slutty or evil and why I wasn't using Chicago even more than I had before. I opened my mouth, had nothing to say in response, and the Izzy McNeil books began to be hatched that day.
And I have news today–there will be more Izzy books! Specifically, my excellent editor, Valerie Gray, through my excellent publisher, MIRA, have asked me to write four more and my answer was a quick, loud, YES! I admit I did pause for a second and ask my excellent agent, Amy Moore-Benson, if the deadlines were going to look the same as they did with the Izzy trilogy (editing 1 of them and writing 2 of them in one year, while I also had to finish a non-fiction book). When she told me I'd get more time than that (at least a little), I was in. (We'll be making an announcement in September about exactly when the fourth Izzy McNeil book will be out.)
I've been saying it all summer, but now it's more true than ever–if you've read the Izzy books and have any thoughts on where she should go from here, the characters you'd like to see return, those you'd rather see disappear into the Chicago night or any interesting journeys Izzy might make, let me know about them. If I haven't already stumbled upon what you're suggesting and I use it, I'll put the readers who contributed in the acknowledgments of the book, because really, you guys have been amazing. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of you who've spent time with Izzy or have written me to tell me your thoughts. And I truly do want to hear more–anything! So write a comment, visit me at lauracaldwell.com or write me at info@lauracaldwell.com and don't hold back.
PS - Those of you who've read the books know that Izzy has been long trying to weed curse words from her vocabulary, replacing things like God damn it with God bless you, Fu#$ you with Flub you, and Son of a bitch with Son-of-a-motherless-goat. I got Izzy started on this campaign after my college friend Amy kept saying, "Mother hen in a basket!" instead of what she wanted to say when she was angry. (You can figure it out). So anyway, do you have any replacement swear words you'd be willing to share and let Izzy use? Let me know about that, too. Thanks!
8.4.09
I went on WGN Radio yesterday and had such a fun interview with Steve Cochran. I'll try to get a tape of the show and put it up here.
Today I've got an event at the law firm of Jenner & Block with the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (a group I adore). Thursday, I'll be signing all three books of the trilogy at the Tree House Café in Michigan City, Indiana. It's a fun place, and you can bring your kids and yet still get a glass of wine. Perfect!
A few upcoming events: August 19 at the Thaddeus C Fine Art Gallery (LaPorte, Indiana), Aug. 21 with Marcus Sakey at the Book Cellar (Chicago), August 25 also with Marcus Sakey at Read Between the Lynes (Woodstock, IL) and August 27 at Bloomingdales (Chicago/Gift with purchase). More details are on the News page of my web site. Hope to see you!
7.24.09
I’ve had a whirlwind couple of weeks.
I turned in my non-fiction book (the first I’ve ever written) to Simon & Schuster. The next day, I was off to New York for ThrillerFest, where I got to see some good buddies and authors I admire including Jason Pinter, Kelli Stanley, Lee Child, David Morrell, Heather Graham, James Rollins, Steve Berry (and his amazing wife, Liz), Sandra Brown, M.J. Rose, Jon Land, Joe Finder and so many more.
After 24 hours I was back in Chicago for the American Library Association. I spoke on a panel with Debbie Macomber who astounded us with the fact that she has written 150 (!!) books. I truly enjoyed the ALA. Librarians are the best, and I got to see some of my favorites from around the Chicago area.
I’m taking a break now (I swear!), while I get ready for the release of the third book in my Izzy McNeil series. Red, White & Dead will hit the shelves on August 1st. It will also be available on Kindle and on audio the same day (through iTunes or Audible.com). I'll be signing books at the Tree House Cafe in Michigan City, Indiana on August 6th. On August 21st, Chicago’s the Book Cellar, on Lincoln Avenue, will be hosting Marcus Sakey and me for an author cocktail party, and books will be available there as well.
A couple other signings are soon to be added. Please check back to the ‘news’ section on my web page for updates. Thanks!
7.14.09
Red Blooded Murder, the second in the Izzy McNeil trilogy, is out! I can't
say thanks enough to everyone who has written me about it because I'm hungry
for reader responses. (I realize this is OCD, but I'm actually keeping
a chart of reader thoughts on different characters, settings, future plots
for Izzy, etc.). So keep 'em coming please! Send to info@lauracaldwell.com.
I'm also heading this week to the Drury Lane Theatre in Oak Brook to see my assistant, Liza Jaine, in Pump Boys & Dinettes. She's gotten fantastic reviews. http://www.drurylaneoakbrook.com
6.19.09
Red Hot Lies is now available on audio (iTunes and Audible.com)!
To me, having an audio book feels like I've really arrived. My mom is a certifiable
audio junkie and has had me listening to "Books on Tape" since the 80's. She
gets miffed the books she gets are cut or edited. When she heard Red Hot Lies
was coming out on audio, she was relieved it would be unabridged.
I was there for part of the recording of the book at the fabulous Audible.com.
I flew to New York, took a train to New Jersey, and lost my wallet while on the
train (a rather traumatic event when you're out of town). But I still thought
the recording of my audio book was one of the coolest things I had ever seen
or heard.
Audible had called me about the casting of Izzy McNeil. I told them that although
she was a Chicagoan, she shouldn't have a nasal "Chicago" accent. This was an
exuberant young woman, possibly naïve (although she doesn't see herself like
that), but she is also smart and cultured and just plain fun. When I got to Audible
and heard the production, I was blown away. Nancy Lim is an actor, narrator and
an amazing reader all at once. She brings every single character in the Red Hot
Lies to life.
I listen to it when I take jogs around the city now, and it's such a treat.
Nancy has made the book new for me again. I was lucky enough to interview her
about her process, and discuss my own. If you buy the book on Audible.com, you'll
get that interview on the expanded material. Otherwise, the book is also available
in your iTunes music store. Soon, the other two books in the trilogy--Red Blooded
Murder and Red, White & Dead--will be too. Please check them out and let me know
what you think.
6.04.09
The book launch last night at Lizzie McNeill's (chosen, in part, because my character's name is Izzy McNeil, was an absolute blast. Hello Dave, one of my most favorite bands in the world, played. http://www.hellodave.com Thanks guys! You rocked, and it was an honor. I wrote about the party on The Outfit blog, so if you'd like to read more, you can do so here: http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com
5.27.09
Had a dinner party for my Life After Innocence law students last night to kick off our summer semester. (My version of a dinner party, of course, is buying already cooked (delicious) turkey breasts at Treasure Island). Life After Innocence will be updating our blog soon and sending out a quarterly newsletter to those of you who have signed up. If you would like to receive the newsletter, please send an email to afterinnocenceproject@gmail.com.
Tomorrow is a big book giveaway for the start of my trilogy, Red Hot Lies. I'll be on WGN Radio with Steve Cochran and then my street team will be giving out a hundred free, signed copies on Michigan Avenue in front of the studio between 4:45 and 5:15. (By the way 'street team' is code for 'law students who were cajoled into the job before they knew what their grades were.') Come and hang out with us if you're in the area.
Red Hot Lies is available at Amazon now and everywhere else in the next few days, for certain by Monday, June 1. Check it out and let me know what you think. This is going to be interesting with another book (Red Blooded Murder) coming out in July and the final in the series (Red, White & Dead) hitting the shelves in August. You can link to Amazon, read the first chapters of the books, see the early reviews and more here http://www.lauracaldwell.com/books.html
If you'll be at Book Expo this weekend, I'll be signing Red Hot Lies at the Harlequin Booth at 10:00 on Saturday and at Mystery Writer's of America at 3:00.
Next week - June 3 book party at Lizzie McNeills (www.lizziemcneills.com). Come one, come all. Music by Hello Dave.
5.21.09
I'm blogging twice a month now for The Outfit, a group of cool Chicago mystery/thriller
authors—Sara Paretsky, Libby Hellman, Sean Chercover, Marcus Sakey,
Michael Allen Dymoch, David Ellis, Kevin Guilfoile, & David Heinzmann.
www.theoutfitcollective.com. Check it out if you get a chance, and put
up a comment letting us know what you think.
5.15.09
Had a great interview this week with Kim Alexander of Fiction Nation on Sirius
XM Book Radio. We chatted about my new trilogy, and the fact that Red Hot Lies
comes out in only a few weeks. (Wow.) You can pre-order all three books at any
local booksellers or on Amazon. They even have an option for purchasing the whole
trilogy, if you click here: www.amazon.com.
(If someone can tell me how to hyperlink to web sites like that from Word Pad,
I will give you my first born AND an advanced signed copy of Red Hot Lies).
I'll post the Sirius interview as soon it's aired. In the meantime, you can check out Kim Alexander's book reviews and interesting author interviews at fictionnationonline.com. (And check out the art work - Kim swears that's a drawing of her on the web site (done by her artist mother), but I kinda think it looks like me. Except I'd swap out that martini for a glass of Chardonnay and the cat for a bowl of popcorn).
I also had an interview with Loyola Magazine, and the interviewer ended up being one of my former law students, Brendan Keating. Next up, a chat with Rebecca from Book Page.
5.8.09
Mark your calendars: Book launch and signing for Red Hot Lies at Lizzie
McDave. Open to public, so bring friends! www.lizziemcneills.com,
(We just had to have it there since my character's name is Izzy McNeil),
Wednesday June 3, 6:00, Music by Hello.
5.2.09
Manhattan was a blast. The Edgar Awards ran like a tight ship, thanks to Margery Flax, Laura Durham and the efficient and charming Lee Child.
The people at Audible.com are an amazing bunch. What a great, creative hub they've got going out there.Beth Anderson was kind enough to take me around and show me the ropes, and I got to watch actor Nancy Wu (who looks nothing like Izzy McNeil and yet SOUNDS just like her) narrate Red Hot Lies under the guidance of ace producer Mike Charzuk and cool sound engineer Nic Cameron.
The Life After Innocence Project at Loyola got a nice mention in the National Law Journal last week: law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202430318881&slreturn=1.
4.30.09
I'm getting ready to leave for NY for the Edgar Awards and to watch Red Hot
Lies be recorded for audio by Audible.com. The audio version will be available
on ITunes the same day the book is released – June 1 – but you
can pre-order all three books of the trilogy now at Amazon, B&N, Borders
or any local book seller.
The reviews on Red Hot Lies keep coming in, and I've been very lucky. Here's the latest from the Romantic Times: “4.5 out of 5 stars. Told mainly from the heroine's first-person point of view, this beautifully crafted and tightly written story is a fabulous read. It's very difficult to put down–and the ending is terrific.”
The semester has ended at Loyola Law School and I had to say goodbye to my Advanced Litigation Writing class, a great bunch of students who will make exceptional lawyers. My Life After Innocence project (where we offer guidance to people who were imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit) will continue to meet in the summer, because we've just got too much work to do–getting the records clear of Jerry Miller and Dean Cage (so the world no longer sees them as felons when their convictions were overturned), getting Jovan Mosley through college so he can be a lawyer, writing an amicus brief on the constitutionality of the Certificate of Innocence (which gives wrongfully convicted persons some funding from the state). If you'd like to receive our quarterly email of our project, what we're working on and support we're looking for, please email egreene@luc.edu. Or check out our blog (and a recent video of me) at http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
4.20.09
Wow, just got some cool news. I've been lucky enough to be published in 10
languages and twenty-some countries, but this past week I found out that
The Rome Affair is available in German--my first German book. (amazon.com).
Now I learned that two of my titles are coming out in Malaysia. (bernama.com).
Sweet! I was already thinking of going to Southeast Asia in the fall, but
now I think it's a must-do.
4.15.09
Publisher's Weekly--thank you for the great review of my June book, Red Hot
Lies! Here's some of it: "Former trial lawyer Caldwell launches a mystery
series that weaves the emotional appeal of her chick lit titles with the
blinding speed of her thrillers. Young, sassy Izzy McNeil, lead entertainment
lawyer at Pickett Enterprises, has earned envy for her success (much of
which she owes to the patronage of CEO Forester Pickett) and cheeky manner,
but she's starting to panic about her upcoming wedding to charming Sam
Hollings. Then Pickett is killed and Sam vanishes, as do $30 million worth
of Panamanian real estate bonds....[R]eaders will be left looking forward
to another heart-pounding ride on Izzy's silver Vespa."
You can pre-order Red Hot Lies, or the other two books in the trilogy--Red Blooded Murder and Red, White and Dead by clicking on the "Books" page of my web site (lauracaldwell.com) or by calling your local independent bookseller. (And I would love you forever if you did).
Speaking of Red Hot Lies - Save the date! Launch party here in Chicago on June 3 at Lizzie McNeils, the great Irish bar on the river. Open to the public. Lots of other dates for book events are on the News page of my site, and more to come.
I went to a lovely dinner party last night for a German film crew in town filming a documentary about the Center on Wrongful Convictions. The filming is focusing on how the law students work to exonerate people who have been imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. A fascinating group of guests. I tried to employ a lyric from one of my favorite Bob Schneider songs: "I want to be like Jesus Christ; Keep the party moving, give the good advice."
Today, I'll be on the Steve Cochran show on WGN somewhere between 6:30 and 7 to review a few books. 720 am in Chicago or listen at wgnradio.com.
Lastly, gosh it's nice to have a publicist who likes you enough to put you on his home page: www.authorandbookmedia.com. Any authors out there should check out Tom Robinson.
4.8.09
You can pre-order
my Chicago mystery trilogy now! The novels--Red Hot Lies, Red Blooded Murder
and Red, White & Dead--feature
a sassy redheaded lawyer from Chicago who moonlights as a private investigator
after her fiancé disappears and her client is killed. Check out excerpts
and the covers and pre-order by clicking on the "Books" page of my
web site (lauracaldwell.com) or by calling your local independent bookseller.
We're getting lots of appearances together, which you can read about on the "News" page of my web site. There will be a book launch party at Lizzie McNeils (It had to be there since my character's name is Izzy McNeil) in the first week of June, right on the Chicago river. It will be open to the public. Date soon-to-be-announced. And Steve Cochran from WGN asked me to be in his celebrity golf outing June 29. Clearly, I am just there for the hilarity factor as my golf skills are tragic. If you're a better golfer, though, and you want to join, it's open to the public too and it's for a great cause--juvenile diabetes. He always has a pack of cool Chicago broadcast people there and the event is a blast.
Yesterday, I got together with my law students from the Life After Innocence Project, as well as two of our clients, Jerry Miller (www.colbertnation.com/video/tag/Jerry+Miller) and Dean Cage (www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOsJsPxD_ag). Both did time (Jerry 26 years and Dean 14 years) for crimes they didn't commit and from which DNA evidence exonerated them. When both men went into the penitentiary, they hadn't used computers before, didn't have email accounts. There was no Facebook yet, no Twitter (yeah, I caved and I'm on Twitter now (user name: LauraACaldwell). Anyway, yesterday the Life After Innocence Project got to give Dean his very first laptop, and we hooked him up with a GMail account. He wants to use the Internet to explore learning a trade and getting an apprenticeship. A photo of yesterday will soon be posted on our blog: http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
3.15.09
The city was jumping yesterday with early St. Patty's day revelers. It'll
be interesting to see the place on Tuesday when the real professionals
come out. On the 17th, I'll be at the Celtic Lawyers Lunch (which I lovingly
refer to as the Drunken Lawyers lunch).
My oldest friend in the world, Ace Baker, was in town last night doing sound for a band called Kinky. Before I went to the Congress Theatre to meet him (by the way, the Congress has got to be the coolest theatre in Chicago), I looked up Kinky on the internet. I read something like this, "Kinky makes dance music with guitars, a North African confluence of reggae, hip hop, Arabic pop, and traditional tribal music. Kinky is electro-rock fusion, a borderless funk.” To which I replied, "Huh?" But when I saw them in person, I got it. They've got to be one of the best live bands performing today. Highly recommended. I’ll be on the Erik and Kathy show on Thursday with Anna Davlantes. You can listen at wtmx.com or 101.9 f.m. in Chicago.
2.26.09
I just got back from New York, where I went to the Rachel Maddow show with my hysterical cousin-in-law, Kent Jones, who wraps up Rachel's show every day. Here's Kent from last week talking about someone else's cousin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19-z1hZcl4
2.17.09
I'm in Maine with author Elizabeth Flock. We're writing
lots and talking about writing even more. Liz is getting ready for her new
book, "Sleepwalking in Daylight" to hit the shelves on February 24. (elizabethflock.com)
You probably remember Liz from her NYT bestseller, "Me & Emma". I had the pleasure
of interviewing Liz for Shore Magazine's April, 2009 issue. Check it out if
you get the chance. On Friday, I'll be heading to the Auto Show and will be
on WGN radio with Steve Cochran in the 4:00 hour with Anna Davlantes. (720
AM if you're in Chicago or listen at www.wgnradio.com)
2.12.09
At midnight this past Saturday, I found myself dancing in a ballroom to Brown
Eyed Girl with my agent, Amy. Dancing with us was a Roman soldier, a civil
war army general, a woman dressed as Anne Boleyn and a World War II officer.
No, I wasn't dreaming. (I believe dreams should only be recounted to your
spouse or your therapist). I was actually at “Love is Murder”, a mystery
writers' conference here in Chicago, held at a Westin hotel. On the other side
of the hotel, another conference was taking place—a reenactors festival,
where people gather from around the nation to dress as their favorite historical
characters, ones they like to re-enact on a regular basis (reenactorfest.com).
They had been kind enough to invite my agent and me into their ball to see what
it was all about.
My initial thought was that this reenactor stuff was slightly crazy, but when the song was over General Ulysses S. Grant and I got talking, and he explained to me reenactors do the same thing that fiction writers do. He asked me, for example, why I like being a novelist. I responded that I love to walk into other people's worlds. He said it was the same for him. He was a history buff. He had done scores of research on Ulysses S. Grant and became fascinated with what it would have been like to be him. Instead of writing a novel about it, he decided to be the General, to find out what it would be like to dress like him, to act like him. At that point, a woman in a can-can outfit walked by and, hearing our conversation, asked if I wanted to try on part of her costume, just to see what it was like. When I said yes, she promptly dropped her multi-layered flouncy red skirt (she had a full sassy costume on underneath) and put it on me. Before I knew it I was kicking up a storm with a big grin on my face. Ben LeRoy from Bleakhouse Books was there, and I can only hope and pray the video camera he was holding ended up breaking.
I'm featured this month in Today's Chicago Woman, if you want to check it out, go to www.tcwmag.com. On February 19, the March issue of Chicago Magazine will be released and will feature an article by me on Anna Devlantes' new show, Rewind, on Channel 11. The show is fabulous, as is Anna (who can also be seen on NBC5 news), and she and I will be on Steve Cochran's show on WGN on Thursday, February 19, in the 4:00 hour to talk about it. You can listen at wgnradio.com. Finally, an article I wrote about some of my favorite Chicago books is in Michigan Avenue Magazine this month. If you're in the city, pick one up at your local bookstore or newstand.
1.23.09
I'm thrilled to be starting the Life After Innocence Project at Loyola University
Chicago Law School. The Life After Innocence Project is a new practicum where
my law students will have the opportunity to offer guidance and legal assistance
to clients who have been exonerated after serving time in a county jail or those
who have spent time in a penitentiary before having their convictions overturned.
Our first two clients are Jerry Miller and Dean Cage, who served 26 years and
12 years respectively in prison for crimes they didn't commit before Barry Scheck's
Innocence Project in New York helped to exonerate them. Check out Jerry on the
Colbert Report, showing his incredible mix of humor and grace: www.colbertnation.com.
To read more about the Life After Innocence Project, visit our new blog at http://blogs.luc.edu/afterinnocence.
Or if you're in Chicago, we'd love to see you at our launch event on Wednesday,
January 28 at 5:00 p.m. at Loyola (25 East Pearson, Kasbeer Hall, Chicago, Illinois).
1.2.09
Happy New Year! The holidays have been great; hope for you, too. I was in Phoenix for Christmas, hanging with my sisters and dad, and it was a blast. I went on the WGN morning show on Christmas Eve to recommend some books for last minute gifts. For those of you who have written asking for those again, here they are.
- For the mystery lover: Trigger City by Sean Chercover;
- For young kids: To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda & Janet Stevens;
- For the dog lover: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein;
- For the Harry Potter fan: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling;
- And for the book by the big name you can't go wrong with: the Gate House by Nelson DeMille.
Today, my assistant, Liza Jaine, and I took the day off and spent the afternoon at Spacio on Halsted. The spa was showcasing work by Chicago artist, Matthew Lew, and I couldn't help but think about how I'd met Matt. About a year or so ago, I went to Spacio by myself and was struck by the artwork on the walls. I noticed the artist's name--Matthew Lew--and went home and stalked his website (www.matthewlew.com), wishing I could buy fifteen of his paintings. The next night, I met some friends for a drink and soon we were talking to the lovely man at the next table. We all finally got around to introducing ourselves and the lovely man said his name was Matthew Lew. Yes, he said when I finally stammered out my question, he was the same Matthew Lew who showcased some of his art at Spacio. Matt and I became friends that night, and a month later I owned four of his paintings, painted just for my house. Meanwhile, I've watched as Matt's career has skyrocketed. (He's now designing for CB2). Check out his great stuff if you get the chance.
12.16.08
Last night, I turned in the third book of my mystery series for next summer--Red,
White & Dead. In the book, I revisit two of my favorite settings--Chicago
and Rome. It was a blast to write.
I'm taking the day off for a photo shoot for Today's Chicago Woman for
their "Hottest Singles in Chicago" issue.
Please stop laughing. And please don't email me to remind me
that most of the appropriate people must have had the flu.
I get it.
Last weekend, I had an amazing time at a holiday book club luncheon in Wacounda, Illinois with about fifty wonderful women. One of them, my new friend Melissa, sat at my table and later posted some details on her blog, along with photos of the cool ornaments that the hostess extraordinaire, Terri Suda, gave as gifts. Click here to visit her blogspot.
12.8.08
I just spent a great week in Portland visiting family. Ate at some great
restaurants, too--Saucebox with my brother, Southpark with author Phillip
Margolin, and Thai Mango more than once with my mom.
I'm closing in on the first draft of my third novel in my Red mystery trilogy due out next summer. We changed some of the titles around. The first one is still Red Hot Lies. The second one now Red Blooded Murder and the third Red, White & Dead. What do you think?
11.19.08
Thanks for all the calls and emails after my mugging last week. I am doing very
well. I was a little disappointed after the incident happened because I had this
idea that as a thriller writer, it might translate into real life and I might
to be able to kick some ass. Um, no. But I do cower well. And on the upside,
I've learned that I'm a fast healer, which is good to know. I've gone away for
the week to recuperate some more.
I wanted to pass along some street safety tips that Officer McGrath of the Chicago
Police Department shared with me when he called me yesterday:
- Be aware, not just of who is around you but exactly where you are. Even if it's a route you walk normally, every few blocks or so check in with yourself and say, "Okay, now I'm in the 2700 block of Racine," maybe even notice an address or two along the way. This apparently helps increase your overall awareness and then if, God forbid, something happened you could easily identify your location to the authorities.
- Carry your cell phone on you, even if you are running, again so you can contact the authorities if need be. (Although in my case, they probably would have taken it along with my IPod).
- According to Officer McGrath not just Spider Man has super senses, we all have them. So when your "Spidey sense" is telling you "get the hec out of here" - do it. (He used a word stronger than 'hec', but I'll let you fill in your own).
- He wasn't sure that there were statistics to support this but it was Officer McGrath's observation as a police officer that incidents rise sharply on the night of a full moon, which was when my robbery occurred. So if you believe in that kind of thing, be extra careful on those nights.
11.15.08
You might see some media reports about me being mugged while out for a run in
my Chicago neighborhood. Yep, kind of got my butt kicked. Lost some teeth,
but got some new ones. The swelling is way down, the ego is still a little
bruised. I'll be back to writing on Monday.
10.21.08
I went to University of Iowa, and like most people who did the same, I think
Iowa City is a gem. That impression was only solidified this past weekend
when I headed back to Hawkeye-land for a few speaking engagements and
the football game against Wisconsin. But first, when I got into town on
Thursday, I went to just about one of the coolest parties I'd ever been
to. About 40 or so people in a penthouse apartment atop the newish Hotel
Vetro and readings by four amazing authors–Ethan Canin, Michael Cunningham,
Jane Hamilton and Scott Spencer.
The game itself was on one of those seductive autumn days, and the Hawks beat the Badgers easily. I spoke to the Honors Program, an exceptional group of students and faculty who made me wish I'd been a part of it while I was there. I was also lucky enough to speak to some of David Hamilton's non-fiction writing students, as well as a few law students and by the time I left last night, I only wished I had a few more days there.
10.15.08
Boy, who knew Baltimore could be so fun? Bouchercon, the international mystery conference, rolled into town this past weekend. Great to see so many friends like David Ellis, Ken Bruen, Dana Kaye, Heather Graham, Jamie Freveletti, David Montgomery, Rick Mofina, Barry Eisler, Jason Pinter, Kelli Sanley, Michelle Gagnon, David Corbett, Philip Spitzer, Henry Perez, Joe Konrath and Lukas Ortiz. Cool to finally meet Harlan Coben (the French film based on his book, Tell No One, is supposed to be amazing). Really wish I could have met one of my favorite writers, Thomas H. Cook. Thanks to Lee Child for throwing the big bash at Lucy's Pub.
10.3.08
I was just in Niagra Falls for my publisher's sales conference. They are truly
the most amazing group of people to work with.
Recently, I was interviewed on an internet radio show called Revolutionary Muse. You can listen to it at: www.blogtalkradio.com
My article about working with a personal fashion editor was on the cover of Shore magazine this month. You can read it here: visitshoremagazine.com.
An anthology I was in (Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume) got a shout out from Diablo Cody in Entertainment Weekly.
I'm headed to Iowa City soon to speak at the University of Iowa, my alma mater, and attend the Iowa/Wisconsin game. I plan to start tailgating at 7 a.m. There's nothing like a Bud Light first thing in the morning. Go Hawks!
9.17.08
I just finished editing my new novel, Red Hot Lies, thanks to some sweet
work from my new editor, Valerie Gray, and my assistant, Liza Jaine. The
book will be out in June 2009. It'll be followed in July 2009 and August
2009 by Red Blooded and Code Red. Yep, I finally found my third red title.
Thanks to all of you who wrote in to make suggestions.
The new Michigan Avenue Magazine, put out by Niche Media, just hit newsstands today with Cindy Crawford on the cover and with articles by Michelle O'Bama, Mariel Hemingway and Bill Maher to name just a few. Look for a piece by me in the next issue due out in November or February.
8.21.08
This has been a WGN Radio kind of week for me. Rick Kogan accidentally asked
me to be on his Sunday show when I saw him a few nights before at the opening
of Jenniffer Weigel's show at the Viaduct Theatre (www.staytunedwithjen.com).
Kogan's real guest was Marcus Sakey, my buddy and a great writer (www.marcussakey.com).
His new book, Good People, is out now. Kogan is a genius interviewer who makes
you feel like you're just sitting on the couch next to him (or maybe the bar
stool). On Monday, I went on Steve Cochran's show with another author friend,
Tasha Alexander, whose new book is A Fatal Waltz(www.tashaalexander.com).
The other books I recommended were Ethan Canin's America, America and Christopher
Reich's Rules of Deception.
6.29.08
I just got back from Italy, where I was teaching about the International
Criminal Court at the Rome campus of Loyola University. It was my 5th visit
to Rome, but it was somewhat different this time since I had an apartment
and was trying to act like a local. Of course, that's hard to do when you
have red hair and your Italian is wretched, but I had a blast trying.
Anyone who has been there knows that Italy is far from perfect. Lots of things often don't work–air conditioning and shower heads to name a few–and the nonchalance when you mention such things to management can be maddening. The Italians have perfected the grand shrug, that slow, exaggerated lift of the shoulders that says, "Yes, it's broken. What can I do? It is what it is." After a few such incidents, I decided that this response was a fairly Buddhist approach to life and spent much of my time there practicing the shrug and the surrender.
Of course, there's so much to love about Italy, and I found la dolce vita in a lot of little things. The packaging for one. How is it that a mini-bar chocolate somehow looks like a gift for a 15th century princepessa? And I fell in love with the word Complimenti!, which is basically a really succinct way to say, "Congratulations! Fantastic! Good job!" When the dean of my law school introduced me to the local staff on campus and mentioned that my mother, Margaret Caldwell, had been one of the first students ever at the Rome campus in the 1960s, they gasped and said, "Complimenti!" as if I had anything to do with my mother's fabulousness. Ditto for when the dean told them that I had been third generation at Loyola Law School (my grandfather, uncle and dad, William Caldwell, all having gone there). When you tell someone you're in town for a month–"Complimenti!" Show them a pair of shoes you bought (T-bone silver espradilles)–"Complimenti!" Mention just about anything worthy of the tiniest bit of praise–"Complimenti!" Ya gotta love it.
I managed to get a fair amount of writing done while I was there, mostly while enjoying the plentiful local scenery. To hear more about that, you can read my guest blog post at The Outfit, a collective blog of very cool crime writers here in Chicago, like Sara Paretsky, Libby Hellman, Marcus Sakey and Sean Chercover. theoutfitcollective.blogspot.com.
Ciao for now!
5.7.08
I was in New York last week, and the streets were abuzz
with the great weather. I stayed with my good friend, author Elizabeth
Flock, and got to congregate with a larger pack of amazing writers at the
Edgar Awards. The Edgars are sort of like the Oscars for mystery writers–replete
with the black tie gala, the cool trophies and the acceptance speeches.
A former Edgar award winner, Theresa Schwagel, who I'm thrilled is living
in Chicago now, gave the award for Best Paperback Original to Megan Abbott
for her book, Queenpin. Tana French won Best First Novel for In the Woods.
My friend, Ken Bruen, was up for Best Novel, along with John Hart, Michael
Chabon, Reed Farrel Coleman and Benjamin Black, all wonderful and funny
men. Congrats to John Hart, who won for his novel, Down River. At the
cocktail party, I got to hang out with Michael Chabon and was fascinated
to learn that as part of the Obama campaign he's been cold-calling Democratic
voters to discuss the issues. This fact alone nearly made me move to New
York. Can you imagine a city where a Pulitzer Prize winner (and a really
cool dude) like Chabon calls you while you're unloading the dishwasher??
Yesterday, I went on the Steve Cochran show on WGN Radio. Steve called the scene in the studio an "estrogen den" because two other ladies stopped by--Patti Vasquez (www.pattivasquez.com), a whip-funny and ultra-cool comic I met last summer at Steve's annual celebrity golf outing, and Chris Blumer, a/k/a the Wine Diva (www.winedivaent.com). I'd like to officially request that Patti and Chris accompany me to every appearance I make. These girls are hysterical, and when you combine them with a pro like Steve Cochran, an hour on the radio flies by like it's mere minutes. I'll be golfing horribly at Steve's celebrity outing this summer (a performance sure to be made more ghastly by jet lag since I'll just be back from teaching in Rome).
Meanwhile, if you're interested in the books I recommended on Steve's show, they are Black & White by Dani Shapiro, Extraordinary Circumstances by Cynthia Cooper ("Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower") and Charley's Web by Joy Fielding (mystery). I also chatted about the upcoming ThrillerFest this summer in New York. For more information visit www.thrillerfest.org.
4.27.08
This summer I'll be teaching about the International Criminal Court at Loyola's
international program in Rome, Italy. The International Criminal Court (ICC)
is a new addition to the world of international law. The ICC came into force
in 2002 and at this time, 105 countries have joined the court, including
Canada and nearly all of Europe and South America. The U.S., along with
Russia, China, Iraq and India have not joined the court. The ICC is a permanent
tribunal, sitting in the Hague, and it will prosecute individuals for genocide,
war crimes and crimes against humanity in situations where the nation states
involved are unable or unwilling to prosecute such crimes.
On April 25, I had the pleasure of accompanying Loyola Law Professors Alan Raphael (with whom I'll be teaching in Rome this summer) and Jerry Norton to a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the ICC. I had a chance to meet Moreno-Ocampo, who was as charming, intelligent and engaging as I had heard. For a great read about the situation in Darfur and the efforts made by Moreno-Ocampo and the ICC, click on www.nytimes.com.
The night before the conference I went to the opening party for Artopolis, Chicago's massive exhibition devoted to art, culture and antiques. Attendance at the weekend event is usually over 50,000 in one weekend. The art on the opening night was amazing--everything from Warhols to new artists--but the watching the people, a splashy, fascinating crowd from around the world, was even better. To see videos about some of the goings-on at Artropolis, go here: www.merchandisemart.com.
4.21.08
Some of my author friends and I are finalizing plans for a book signing on July 10 in Manhattan to coincide with ThrillerFest, a great event open to readers who want to meet thriller authors, like James Patterson, David Baldacci, Sandra Brown (and me). The book signing is going to be MC'd by the wonderful Lee Child. Here are the authors I'll have the pleasure to read with: Michelle Gagnon, Tim Maleeny, Alexandra Sokoloff, Mario Acevedo, JT Ellison, Laura Benedict and Shane Gericke.
Speaking of ThrillerFest, I'm going on Steve Cochran's show on WGN Radio to talk about it on Thursday, May 6, at 4:38 p.m. (Apparently, they're very precise in the radio world). You can listen at www.wgnradio.com.
4.8.08
I've been back from Denver and the Left Coast Crime convention for a month, and I can't believe I haven't written about it. Too much damned fun. Have you ever seen the movie Best in Show? It's kind of like that. But with laptops. And people who like to kill their characters. And people who like to read about it. Some of the characters I had the pleasure of hanging out with--Theresa Schwegel, Lori Armstrong, Tasha Alexander, Marcus Sakey, Michael Dymmoch, Twist Phelan, Libby Fischer Hellman, Joan Johnston, Rick Mofina, Con Lehane, Judy Bobalik, J.T. Ellison, Les Klinger, Michelle Gagnon, Doug Lyle, and Tim Maleeny.
One of the last stops on my book tour was a signing at Bloomingdale's in Chicago. This happened to be on the same day of the St. Patty's Day parade. After that, I made a silent vow to always have book signings when drunk people roam the streets, and the stores, wearing green and shamrocks. Entirely entertaining.
My last stop was at the Plainfield Library, a delightful place with a delightful group of women. Thanks much, ladies.
Next up for me--the Edgar Awards Banquet New York with my friend, Ken Bruen; Book Expo in L.A. in May; teaching in Rome in June; and back to New York in July for the fantastic and fun Thriller Fest.
2.27.08
Musicians tour together, why not authors? I hit the road recently with Marcus Sakey and found out that book signings are a hell of a lot of fun with a friend, especially someone like Marcus who takes a healthy dose of mocking and dishes it right back. Thanks to the great people at M is for Mystery in San Mateo and The Mystery Bookstore in L.A., not to mention all the authors who stopped by to heckle us along the way--Michelle Gagnon, Rip Gerber, Les Klinger, Keith Raffel, Rob Gregory Browne and Brett Battles.
And you have to love a bookstore owner who will help mix drinks and set up for the party, too. Thanks to Suzy Takas, owner of the awesome Book Cellar in Lincoln Square, for pitching in at Dustin O'Regan's soiree for The Good Liar (and to all the sassy Lake Forest ladies who turned out in Bond gear to celebrate).
1.24.08
Wow, what a blast at the Landmark last night for the book launch party! Thanks
to everybody who packed the place and the the stellar crew at Landmark for
making it sparkle and look so easy. Check out Landmark at www.landmarkgrill.net.
1.16.08
A few years ago, I had the great fortune to be a defense lawyer for Jovan Mosley, a Chicago man who was forced into a murder confession when he was 19 and then spent 6 years without a trial in a holding cell in the Cook County jail, essentially lost by the system. He was saved by my friend, Catherine O'Daniel, who came upon him while visiting another inmate. ABC reporter John Garcia recently did a great story on the case. You can watch the video here: abclocal.go.com.
I also went on WGN Radio last week with Steve Cochran, one of my most favorite people. You can listen to majority of the interview on Cochran's podcast: http://caster.wgnradio.com/podcasts/scpod-121-080116.mp3.
I'm looking forward to the Chicago book launch party next week, on Wednesday January 23 at the Landmark Grill, which I'm sharing with my good friend, author, Marcus Sakey. The booze is on us, and the books will be sold, so come out and visit! It's from 7 - 9 p.m.
1.9.08
I never thought anyone would bring up my brief but brilliant career as a french horn player, but journalist Teresa Budasi managed to work it into a great piece in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times.
12.30.07
Thanks to the hundreds of you who have emailed me about my new book, THE
GOOD LIAR! One of the best things about being an author is knowing
that someone is reading your book. Maybe it's entertaining them, maybe
it's
making them think, maybe they're using it as a coaster for a New Year's
Eve highball. It's all good.
Here's to a great and safe New Year!
12.18.07
The reviews are starting to come in for THE GOOD LIAR.
From Publisher's Weekly:
"Caldwell's taut, enjoyable thriller hits the ground running, crafting a
married-to-the-mob scenario that's believable and chilling, then taking
the show around the world... Caldwell's plot moves smoothly, juggling a number
of perspectives without losing steam."
From Booklist:
"Caldwell, best known for chick lit, including The Night I Got Lucky,
now ventures into thriller territory. When Liza Kingsley set up her best
friend, Kate Livingston, with Michael Waller, she never imagined they'd
fall in love and marry within a matter of months. Liza and Michael share a
secret: they're both members of the Trust, a covert operation founded by Liza's
father to protect U.S. interests. Kate happily settles into her new marriage,
but she can't help but notice strange things about her husband's life. Why
is she forbidden to enter the private meeting rooms at his restaurant? Why is
their house bugged? Liza is chasing down a mystery of her own: Who killed her
former lover, a Russian journalist who was investigating the Russian mob? Filled
with romance and intrigue,this thriller will both please Caldwell's fans and
attract new readers."
From Armchair Interviews:
"Laura Caldwell has climbed the literary ladder right to the top of romantic
suspense/thriller writers. She is a master at characterization and the
multilevel plot is filled with near unbearable tension as the danger mounts.
Nothing is as it seems in this exciting novel that kept me reading most of
the night. Armchair Interviews says: You will love the climax of the story that
is satisfying and totally unexpected."
From The Chicago Contingent:
"Laura Caldwell got her start in Chick-Lit, inched toward Romantic Suspense,
and although The Good Liar does revolve around a relationship, she has
definitely crossed into the realm of espionage and international thriller.
After a recent divorce, Kate Livingston didn't think she'd fall in love again
so quickly. But when her friend Liza sets her up with a colleague, just to
take her mind off her ex, they hit it off immediately and end up getting married.
At first, the rush and spontaneity is romantic, but soon Kate realizes her
husband isn't exactly who he seems, and neither is her friend. Another solid
read, Caldwell kept me glued to my seat and flying through the pages, not letting
up until the very end."
September 16th
5:30 PM
Chicago, IL
September 19th
8:00 AM
Chicago, IL
September 21st
7:00 PM
Winnetka, IL
September 22nd
DePaul University Bookstore
6:00 PM
Chicago, IL
September 25th
2:00 PM
Forest Park, IL
October 1st
7:00 PM
Woodstock, IL
October 2nd
8:00 - 9:00 PM
Madison, WI
October 21st
Iowa City, IA
You can also follow Laura on:
and blogging twice a month at:
www.theoutfitcollective.com