Category James L’Etoile

Little River Available at Face In A Book

I’m happy to announce that the paperback edition of Little River is now available at a great local indie bookstore, Face In A Book, in El Dorado Hills, California. I chose Face In A Book , because it is more than a place where books are sold.  Anyplace can sell a novel, hardware stores, grocery […]

2013 Wasn’t All Bad

In 2013, we suffered the likes of Anthony Wiener as Carlos Danger,  Sharknado and a strange, on-stage grand-mal seizure by Miley Cyrus which caused flights of Angels to weep.  2013 was a year mired in Syrian civil war violence, the Boston Marathon bombing, school shootings and government shutdowns.  At times, it appeared the Mayan prediction […]

Pipe Fitting Bookends

My daughter gave me a set of really cool bookends for Christmas.  They’re made from iron pipe fittings and make a great addition to the new writing space.  We’ve finished the install on the new wood floors and found the salvaged wood for the “new” desks in the room.  The wood comes from a barn […]

Tis the Season to Chill the F Out

When did it happen? When did Christmas change from a season of joy and happiness to a time of fear and loathing?  Every day, I watch news reports of shopping mall shootings, department store riots over a new Air-Jordan release, and don’t get me started on the Black Friday stampedes that make running with the […]

Newspaper Marketing for Your Novel

Getting new eyes on your work is what it’s about. No…not in a creepy way. It doesn’t matter if you choose to self publish, or go the traditional route through a publisher – getting attention about a book means looking at every possible marketing avenue.  Much of that will fall on the author.  In October, […]

Readers Know Best

You release your hand-fed, carefully crafted book out into the wilds and you’re bound to get feedback.  Reviews, critiques and comments from readers come in different flavors – Loved it, Hated it, or the worst feedback of all, the sound of crickets. By the time your book hits the streets, at least a dozen sets […]

Conspiracy Theory

Pssst… Come here… There is a conspiracy out there, I tell ya.  A cabal of ruthless, black-minded villains put in overtime this week to keep me from writing.  They’re cagey, these evil-doers.  At every turn, they construct a barrier, obstacle, or canyon, so deep and wide that I have no choice, but to retreat and […]

Don’t Let the Y.A. Label Fool You

I had the chance to read a Y.A. paranormal novel, The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos.  I’ve known Brenda for years and much to my embarrassment, I hadn’t read her work.  We write two different types of fiction.  I write crime and thriller novels like Little River and she creates paranormal beings living in with […]

You Are What You Read

When did choosing a literary genre become so difficult? In the “olden days” of books, there were vast collections of works contained within a single place. The Library.  In this mystical building, there existed a structure, a set of expectations to guide those who sought out new tales and adventures.  All books were created along […]

The Stuff That Binds

You need something to bind your story together. No I’m not talking about adding more fiber to your literary diet.  What I’m talking about is the thing that makes your story stand out in a field of similar work.  There are a finite number of story lines and when you filter down to stories within […]