I have every faith that YOU are going to need this tip some day when your novels are in the bookstores. (If I believe in you, I can believe in myself, OK?) The ever-wonderful Tess Gerritsen has an easy tip for finding out detailed info about how Borders stores stock your books.

Technorati Tags: book tours

I think I’m in love with Scott Adams’ blog readers. They pounded out some irresistible book blurbs for him at this posting. My favorite?

“This book is so good, I’m buying two so that each eye can have its own copy.”

Go — read ‘em and weep with glee.

Technorati Tags: Scott Adams, Dilbert, book blurbs

I’m responding to an author’s challenge to write five reasons about where the best writers come from. I instantly thought of my former home state of Mississippi, and the only real dilemma was cutting the list down to just 5. What to leave out?

Small-town life gives us so many stories to tell. There’s no shortage of local eccentrics to chronicle. It’s a culture that reveres good dogs, family ties, loyal friends, the glory of sports, and, of course, storytelling. It’s also a state known for its potent brew of politics, civil rights struggles, fundamentalist religion, and poverty; pain, controversy, fire and brimstone, and struggles make for stronger characters on the page and poised over the keyboard. (Do you like how I worked in more reasons in this intro? We’re sneaky, too.)

But I decided on these key points:

1. We can ALL pronounce “Yoknapatawpha.”

2. A love of home and history seeps into the bedrock of our lives. No one really has to explain that “The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.”

3. Quirky, complicated and highly individualistic writers/artists fit right in with the Southern love of characters. There’s no problem if you want to move through life stages that include watercolor artist, Baptist preacher, Harley owner, newspaper journalist, and murder mystery writer.

4. Grit from our day jobs — lawyers, firefighters, and National Park Service Rangers — filters into the fiction.

5. We know dark comedy and crazy families.

How’s that, Rosina? The meme contest is a great marketing idea and a fun project.

Technorati Tags: Mississippi authors, Southern writers, Southern authors, Southern fiction, Mississippi writers

Tied to the Tracks by Rosina Lippi. July 3, 2007. ISBN: 0425215326″[This] is a hilarious, smart, sexy novel with a heart of gold.” — Susan Wiggs

“[Lippi] turns her buoyant creative talents to the romantic comedy genre with an effervescent tale of a trio of offbeat Yankee filmmakers plunked down deep in the heart of Dixie.” — Booklist

Read an excerpt. (Adobe Reader required)| Watch the book trailer

You can find Tied to the Tracks at Amazon , Barnes & Nobel, Borders, Powells, or at your local independent bookseller.

This meme has been entered in the Tied to the Tracks contest, originating on Rosina Lippi’s Storytelling2 weblog. If you’d like to enter the BUCKS & BOOKS meme contest, get the rules here.