Coquina

Coquina, Florida's natural stone, plays a role in the new novel. I wonder if anyone has ever heard of the stuff. Even in Florida I run across people who look at me blankly when I mention Coquina. I think it's a beautiful and metaphorically rich rock. Millions of marine creatures crushed by the centuries.

More on Kindle

More on Kindle. With Stephen King and everything!!!

Oh, Here It Is

Oh, good. Found the Fountain of Youth. It was here all along. Ponce missed it somehow.

Where Your Bailout Tax Money is Going

The many ways of getting screwed.

Not To Re-Kindle Anything, But...

I got into an interesting discussion the other night at Flagler College, regarding the Kindle. The discussion/argument got a little philosophical at times as I supported the Kindle as both an inevitable next step in the book business, and a pretty good way of greening an industry that uses a lot of paper and energy to send relatively heavy books from here to there and there to here when it could all be sent electronically as it is with the Kindle.

The other argument, which I thoroughly understand and sympathize with, is one that places a high value on the object that contains the content, that is, the physical book itself. The heft, the smell and all that. I certainly understand why there'll be some of those (us) who'll have to have their cold hard fingers pried off their hardbacks before yielding to this new direction.

And I certainly understand the downward pressure that such a technology puts on the money side of the business. What are publishers left with beside simply being a "filter" if there is no physical book anymore, no cover, no typeface, no paper.


Still, I love my Kindle, use it every day, and love the freedom it gives me to lie in bed and download a few sample chapters of this book and that book so I can check them out for free. It's an incredible device. It, or some version of it, is here to stay.

Jumping Fish

The fish are jumpin, and the cotton is high. Ah, Florida.

A Stimulating Conversation

Give this about two or three minutes. It's sobering.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here's a Writer

Here's a writer I like a lot, giving a talk in a store I love.

If You Happen to be Near St. Augustine on Thursday

Year End List

Well, Hell's Bay made one year end list. That's nice to see. And such fine company.

Independent Mystery Booksellers' Association Bestsellers for all of 2008



Hardcover

1 – Charlaine Harris, From Dead to Worse, Ace

2 – Donna Andrews, Cockatiels at Seven, St. Martin’s

3 – Lee Child, Nothing to Lose, Bantam

4 – Dennis Lehane, The Given Day, Morrow

5 – Michael Connelly, The Brass Verdict, Little Brown

6 - tie

James W. Hall, Hell’s Bay, St. Martin’s

Elizabeth George, Careless in Red, Morrow

8 – Robert Crais, Chasing Darkness, Simon & Schuster

9 – Jacqueline Winspear, Incomplete Revenge, Holt

10 – tie

Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules, Putnam

James Lee Burke, Swann Peak, Simon & Schuster