Have you ever heard of Z!NK magazine? It’s may very well be the hippest publication on earth and I’m not using the word ‘hip’ casually. If you check out their website you’ll understand what I mean. Anyway they reviewed my book in their May issue and it is a rave!!!
Usually there’s one good quote that an author or publisher can pull out of any given book review. But this review was so good that I literally don’t know which quote to pick! Seriously, consider some of my choices:
“In the thrilling chick lit murder mystery….Kyra Davis creates effortless genre fusion”
“Davis…explores (and explodes) racial boundaries with the book’s charming protagonist”
“Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is good to the last drop.”
I swear it’s enough to turn a girl’s head! It couldn’t have come at a better time either. You see there are a lot of things I love about being an author. I love the writing process, I enjoy giving interviews (which is a good thing because I’ve done a lot of them lately) and I adore public speaking so the readings I have scheduled shouldn’t be a problem.
But I’m not very good at waiting and that’s exactly what I’m forced to do right now. I won’t have access to any sales numbers for another 6 weeks and while that really isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of things it still feels like an eternity. I spend an obscene amount of time checking my Amazon and Barnes & Noble ranking even though I know they’re not a very accurate representation of how my book is doing. I Google myself daily checking for new reviews. I check the stores to see if my book is there and take special notice of it’s placement within the store. Unfortunately none of that tells me a lot. I’ve put a lot of effort into the publicity of this book but right now everything I’ve been working on in that capacity has already been set in motion and I just have to sit back, chew my nails and wait to see if my hard work is going to pay off.
So to see that kind of review in a glossy magazine thrills me while it simultaneously puts me at ease.
It’s just amazing; they like me! They really like me!
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
For The Love Of A Dog--A fun online read!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Monday, April 25, 2005
Off To A Flying Start!
I have so much to tell and so little time to tell it! First of all, Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is in most bookstores now! I’ve been driving around this city and (I’m a little embarrassed to admit this) a few neighboring cities visiting my baby. In most Barnes & Nobles it’s facing out in the New Mystery section but in one store they had it right up front and displayed!! By displayed I don’t mean that it was lying on some table. Oh no. They were stacked on the top shelf of this special pyramid shaped free standing table deal and the top book was propped up on this plastic thing so that literally the first thing you saw when walking in the door was my beloved novel! It honestly took my breath away. I just stood there in the entryway gawking!!!
There’s been other wonderful stuff going on too. I was interviewed by The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. It is a wonderful article and a lot of people who read it have emailed me or stopped by to see me when I was signing at the LA Times Festival Of Books. Which of course brings me to my next topic: My first signing!!
It really was a blast! I sat at a table with Denise Hamilton, author of the Eve Diamond Novels, Karen McCullah Lutz, author of The Bachelorette Party, and Cathy Yardley, author of Couch World and many other fabulous Red Dress Ink novels. I was terrified that no one would want my book but as it turns out I got a rather nice turn out! It wasn’t huge but it was enough to keep me busy which is more than I had the right to expect considering the fact that I’m a new author. Everyone was incredibly nice and when I was done I literally skipped out of there! It’s just so flattering to have people not only want to read what I write but also want me to autograph it for them! And I think I was even more touched by the few men who asked me to sign a book for a woman in their life so they could give it away as a gift! Just think—something I wrote is worthy of a gift!
Okay, so moving on to my next announcement. I wrote a short chick lit story for eharlequin. A new chapter is posted every day. I’m actually rather proud of this little project. It’s my first short story and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it off. Especially since each chapter needed to be between 500-700 words. To give you an idea of how long that is this blog entry is just over 530 words. It’s hard to develop a storyline and characters in such short installments. But as daunting as the task initially seemed it was actually a lot of fun to write. Anyway, if you would like to read it just click here.
So that’s all the news for today! If you’re already reading Sex, Murder And A Double Latte I hope you are enjoying it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
There’s been other wonderful stuff going on too. I was interviewed by The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. It is a wonderful article and a lot of people who read it have emailed me or stopped by to see me when I was signing at the LA Times Festival Of Books. Which of course brings me to my next topic: My first signing!!
It really was a blast! I sat at a table with Denise Hamilton, author of the Eve Diamond Novels, Karen McCullah Lutz, author of The Bachelorette Party, and Cathy Yardley, author of Couch World and many other fabulous Red Dress Ink novels. I was terrified that no one would want my book but as it turns out I got a rather nice turn out! It wasn’t huge but it was enough to keep me busy which is more than I had the right to expect considering the fact that I’m a new author. Everyone was incredibly nice and when I was done I literally skipped out of there! It’s just so flattering to have people not only want to read what I write but also want me to autograph it for them! And I think I was even more touched by the few men who asked me to sign a book for a woman in their life so they could give it away as a gift! Just think—something I wrote is worthy of a gift!
Okay, so moving on to my next announcement. I wrote a short chick lit story for eharlequin. A new chapter is posted every day. I’m actually rather proud of this little project. It’s my first short story and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it off. Especially since each chapter needed to be between 500-700 words. To give you an idea of how long that is this blog entry is just over 530 words. It’s hard to develop a storyline and characters in such short installments. But as daunting as the task initially seemed it was actually a lot of fun to write. Anyway, if you would like to read it just click here.
So that’s all the news for today! If you’re already reading Sex, Murder And A Double Latte I hope you are enjoying it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte IN STORES NOW!!!
Friday, April 22, 2005
Any Of You In LA?
On Sunday the 24th I will be doing my very first book signing at the LA Times Festival Of Books! It’s being held at UCLA and I’ll be there at 12 at Borders/ Brentano's booth # 201 located on the far west side of Dickson Plaza, in front of Powell Library. I’m very excited about this although I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that anyone other than Visa would want my signature on anything. My book will be available for sale there which is a day or two before it will become available at most bookstores. I’m thrilled that Red Dress Ink arranged for this early release so I could participate in the event, but on the other hand I’m at a slight disadvantage---being a new author not many people have heard of me so I kind of doubt that my booth will be attracting a large crowd. Plus I could probably count the number of people I know in LA on my fingers so please, please, please stop by to chitchat if you’re in the area. If you do I promise to provide you with candy. I have this cute serving bowl that I would love to serve the candy from but it’s ceramic and I’m not sure if they’ll let me take it on the plane. I guess theoretically I could hit someone over the head with it. The newspaper headlines would read: Overly caffeinated chick lit author attacks fellow airline passenger with a really cute pastel purple bowl!
Speaking of my book: it’s sitting next to my keyboard right now!! It came a few days ago and I’ve been lovingly fondling it ever since. When it arrived my 5 year old helped me rip the package open and we both just gazed at it. Finally my son smiled and said, “Well, this is an occasion!”
We went outside for a while and ran around throwing water balloons at one another and enjoyed the moment. When we came back in I expected my son to request television time or something along those lines. Instead he looked at me almost timidly and asked, “Mom, would you read me a few funny scenes from your book?”
Well I’ll admit that Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is not exactly a 5-year-old-friendly novel but I was so touched by the request that I took the time to find a few humorous nonviolent scenes with little to no foul language or sexual innuendo (this was no small feat). Anyway he actually found the scenes very funny and we laughed together while sitting on the couch. Later that night he asked if I would skip his normal bedtime stories and read those scenes to him again because he wanted to “laugh in (his) dreams.”
That night I realized how incredibly lucky I am. I am at the beginning of a wonderful writing career and I have such an amazing son. And the funny thing is I wouldn’t have had either of those things if I hadn’t gone through a really rough time a few years back. It’s odd but in retrospect I see those previous hardships as a gift. They made me wiser, more compassionate and motivated me to do things with my life that I would otherwise never have dreamed of doing.
What can I say? Life is good.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte
Available at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.com now!
Speaking of my book: it’s sitting next to my keyboard right now!! It came a few days ago and I’ve been lovingly fondling it ever since. When it arrived my 5 year old helped me rip the package open and we both just gazed at it. Finally my son smiled and said, “Well, this is an occasion!”
We went outside for a while and ran around throwing water balloons at one another and enjoyed the moment. When we came back in I expected my son to request television time or something along those lines. Instead he looked at me almost timidly and asked, “Mom, would you read me a few funny scenes from your book?”
Well I’ll admit that Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is not exactly a 5-year-old-friendly novel but I was so touched by the request that I took the time to find a few humorous nonviolent scenes with little to no foul language or sexual innuendo (this was no small feat). Anyway he actually found the scenes very funny and we laughed together while sitting on the couch. Later that night he asked if I would skip his normal bedtime stories and read those scenes to him again because he wanted to “laugh in (his) dreams.”
That night I realized how incredibly lucky I am. I am at the beginning of a wonderful writing career and I have such an amazing son. And the funny thing is I wouldn’t have had either of those things if I hadn’t gone through a really rough time a few years back. It’s odd but in retrospect I see those previous hardships as a gift. They made me wiser, more compassionate and motivated me to do things with my life that I would otherwise never have dreamed of doing.
What can I say? Life is good.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte
Available at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.com now!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
A Eulogy For My Fatty Cat
Those of you who have been following my blog from its original conception know that I have a cat named Fatty. He was an old cat and he was ailing not so long ago. He experienced a brief recovery when I switched his food but in the last few weeks his health has been declining again. This morning when I got up to feed him he wasn’t waiting by his food bowl. That was a very bad sign. There are a lot of things Fatty is willing to skip out on but a meal is not one of them. I found him in my backyard under a tree barely moving. I immediately understood what that meant. I gave him a bowl of water which he didn’t touch. I know that animals (including humans) lose their appetites during their last hours of life but I offered Fatty a bowl of his favorite cat food anyway. True to form he mustered up his last bit of energy to lift his head and then dropped it right into his food which he proceeded to consume with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. When the food was almost gone he staggered to his feet in order to get himself in to a better position to lap up the last few bites and then dropped back down again with an appreciative grunt.
It’s cliché to say that you never know how much something means to you until it’s gone but it’s also completely true. I found myself crying mournful tears over the loss of my pet. I loved that dumb animal.
And he was dumb. When you start reading Sex, Murder And A Double Latte you’ll meet Sophie’s friend Mary Ann. Fatty was kind of the Mary Ann of the cat world, sweet, loving, tolerant and totally clueless. Day after day I would come home to find him sitting smack-dab in the middle of my driveway. I would slow my car to a crawl assuming that the cat would understand the danger and move. That rarely happened. So I would stop and beep my horn at which point he would lift his head and blink at me as if to say “Yeah, I hear you honking. What’s your point?”
Eventually one of two things would happen.:
1) He would decide to move. If that was the case he would leisurely stroll to the left of the driveway, pause and then change his mind and stroll to the right while I waited for him to make up his mind.
2) I would get out of the car and move his kitty-butt out of the way (this always seemed to surprise him).
But he was sweet. If you so much as smiled at Fatty he would break into a loud purr. Actually it wasn’t so much a purr as it was a coo like a dove. And he was so patient with my son. I can’t tell you all the ways my child has tormented that cat in the past. He tried to clean him with detergent, play ball with him and encase his little paws in socks and through it all Fatty would just sit there and coo. Again, not the smartest beast in the jungle but incredibly sweet.
I’ll miss his cuddling up with me while I lose myself in a book. I’ll miss waiting for him to move while I’m trying to park my car.
I guess I’ll just miss him period.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte available on Barnes & Noble.com now!
It’s cliché to say that you never know how much something means to you until it’s gone but it’s also completely true. I found myself crying mournful tears over the loss of my pet. I loved that dumb animal.
And he was dumb. When you start reading Sex, Murder And A Double Latte you’ll meet Sophie’s friend Mary Ann. Fatty was kind of the Mary Ann of the cat world, sweet, loving, tolerant and totally clueless. Day after day I would come home to find him sitting smack-dab in the middle of my driveway. I would slow my car to a crawl assuming that the cat would understand the danger and move. That rarely happened. So I would stop and beep my horn at which point he would lift his head and blink at me as if to say “Yeah, I hear you honking. What’s your point?”
Eventually one of two things would happen.:
1) He would decide to move. If that was the case he would leisurely stroll to the left of the driveway, pause and then change his mind and stroll to the right while I waited for him to make up his mind.
2) I would get out of the car and move his kitty-butt out of the way (this always seemed to surprise him).
But he was sweet. If you so much as smiled at Fatty he would break into a loud purr. Actually it wasn’t so much a purr as it was a coo like a dove. And he was so patient with my son. I can’t tell you all the ways my child has tormented that cat in the past. He tried to clean him with detergent, play ball with him and encase his little paws in socks and through it all Fatty would just sit there and coo. Again, not the smartest beast in the jungle but incredibly sweet.
I’ll miss his cuddling up with me while I lose myself in a book. I’ll miss waiting for him to move while I’m trying to park my car.
I guess I’ll just miss him period.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte available on Barnes & Noble.com now!
Monday, April 18, 2005
My Hero
I called a friend of mine to tell him about Sex, Murder And A Double Latte being in Cosmo and Elle and how exciting it is to see it selling on the Barnes & Noble website. I expected a congratulations and a verbal pat on the back. Instead he paused and said, “Kyra, no one deserves this more than you—I mean that with all my heart. You are such an inspiration to me and when I’m in physical therapy I think of everything you’ve gone through and everything you’ve accomplished and it motivates me to push forward.”
Let me explain: My friend is a teacher who also used to coach high school football. A few years back he was diagnosed with a very rare form of pneumonia and there were severe complications that led to almost complete paralysis. For months all he could move was his facial muscles and even that took a major effort. At times his chest congestion would almost wipe out his lung capacity but he was unable to cough up the phlegm so if there was no one in the room when the alarm on his respirator went off he was in big trouble. He couldn’t press a button to call for help. All he could do was pray that someone would get there in time to save him. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know that you’re on the brink of death but being unable to call for help.
The doctors assured him that the paralysis was temporary but the recovery has been a lot slower than anyone anticipated. I’ve lost a friend to suicide before and I know others who have threatened to end their lives. While I sympathize with these people’s problems they are miniscule in comparison to the things this man has dealt with. And yet he never gives up. He wakes up each day and faces the physical and emotional challenges that lay before him and one by one he conquers them.
It’s true that I’ve been through some very bad times and there’s no question that I used my lemons and made a kick-ass citrus cocktail but I don’t really feel worthy of his admiration. I would like to think that I have the strength to survive what he has, that I too would have been able to hold onto hope but I honestly don’t know if I could.
My friend is on the verge of walking again and next year he’ll be back to teaching part time. I have no doubt that he will be coaching the football team in the near future and will be throwing that ball with the best of them. His name may never show up on a Google search and I doubt any national magazines will be doing articles about him but there is no question that he is a hero. One who has always and will always inspire me.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte available on Barnes & Noble.com now!
Let me explain: My friend is a teacher who also used to coach high school football. A few years back he was diagnosed with a very rare form of pneumonia and there were severe complications that led to almost complete paralysis. For months all he could move was his facial muscles and even that took a major effort. At times his chest congestion would almost wipe out his lung capacity but he was unable to cough up the phlegm so if there was no one in the room when the alarm on his respirator went off he was in big trouble. He couldn’t press a button to call for help. All he could do was pray that someone would get there in time to save him. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know that you’re on the brink of death but being unable to call for help.
The doctors assured him that the paralysis was temporary but the recovery has been a lot slower than anyone anticipated. I’ve lost a friend to suicide before and I know others who have threatened to end their lives. While I sympathize with these people’s problems they are miniscule in comparison to the things this man has dealt with. And yet he never gives up. He wakes up each day and faces the physical and emotional challenges that lay before him and one by one he conquers them.
It’s true that I’ve been through some very bad times and there’s no question that I used my lemons and made a kick-ass citrus cocktail but I don’t really feel worthy of his admiration. I would like to think that I have the strength to survive what he has, that I too would have been able to hold onto hope but I honestly don’t know if I could.
My friend is on the verge of walking again and next year he’ll be back to teaching part time. I have no doubt that he will be coaching the football team in the near future and will be throwing that ball with the best of them. His name may never show up on a Google search and I doubt any national magazines will be doing articles about him but there is no question that he is a hero. One who has always and will always inspire me.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte available on Barnes & Noble.com now!
Thursday, April 14, 2005
It’s Here!
It seems I have gone into premature labor. I went on Barnes & Noble’s website today and discovered that they have just started selling Sex, Murder And A Double Latte online. I don’t mean you can preorder it, I mean you can buy it and have it shipped overnight. I’m assuming that if Barnes & Noble are selling it then Amazon won’t be far behind so for those of you who have already ordered it just sit tight, it will probably be on its way shortly. For those of you who haven’t ordered it but want to get it before it hits the stores by all means, head on over to the B&N site.
The official release date was May 1st and while I knew it was a possibility that some stores would be selling Sex, Murder And A Double Latte as early as April 25th, April 14th is simply not a due date that I had considered. It has occurred to me that this early offering was prompted by the review in Cosmo and/or the ad in Elle but while those placements were a big deal for me, I have a hard time believing that they were big deals for the bigwigs at B&N. But to be honest I just don’t have enough experience in the publishing industry to try to explain this one.
Like most expectant parents I’m a little thrown by this early delivery. There’s a part of me that feels incredibly unprepared. I mean, I have to clean the house! I can’t bring my baby into a dirty house. It’s one thing for me to raise my son is squalor (a lot of the mess is of his making anyway) but I really don’t want to subject my protagonist to it. Sophie likes things a little more orderly. And please don’t email me to tell me I’m insane—I hate it when people go out of their way in order to state the obvious.
This probably reads like I’m not excited about this and nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that I’m sort of in shock. I had all these ideas about what I was going to blog about today but now thanks to this inexplicable but wonderful development I’m blogging about Barnes & Noble.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but as of this very day I am officially a published author!
Geez, I guess I better go clean the house.
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte
The official release date was May 1st and while I knew it was a possibility that some stores would be selling Sex, Murder And A Double Latte as early as April 25th, April 14th is simply not a due date that I had considered. It has occurred to me that this early offering was prompted by the review in Cosmo and/or the ad in Elle but while those placements were a big deal for me, I have a hard time believing that they were big deals for the bigwigs at B&N. But to be honest I just don’t have enough experience in the publishing industry to try to explain this one.
Like most expectant parents I’m a little thrown by this early delivery. There’s a part of me that feels incredibly unprepared. I mean, I have to clean the house! I can’t bring my baby into a dirty house. It’s one thing for me to raise my son is squalor (a lot of the mess is of his making anyway) but I really don’t want to subject my protagonist to it. Sophie likes things a little more orderly. And please don’t email me to tell me I’m insane—I hate it when people go out of their way in order to state the obvious.
This probably reads like I’m not excited about this and nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that I’m sort of in shock. I had all these ideas about what I was going to blog about today but now thanks to this inexplicable but wonderful development I’m blogging about Barnes & Noble.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but as of this very day I am officially a published author!
Geez, I guess I better go clean the house.
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
A Little On The Elated Side
What a difference a day makes. Yes, I’m sure the panic will return but right now I’m floating on cloud 9---make that cloud 18 because not one, but two spectacular things happened today.
The first was announced by my stepbrother who called to tell me that his friend had been flipping through Elle magazine while getting a pedicure and stumbled upon an advertisement for (drum roll please) Sex, Murder And A Double Latte!!! That’s right, my book is in Elle Magazine’s May issue on page 208. To say that I’m a little excited about this would be a major understatement.
But it gets better. Shortly after receiving that call I got another from my publicist. It seems the May issue of Cosmopolitan also hit the stands today and guess which book was selected as one of their three “sizzling page turners.” Yep, you got it! According to Cosmo my storyline “packs a bigger jolt than a Venti latte at Starbucks.” Which is kind of a big deal when you consider that even a caffeine addict like me rarely dares to indulge in anything bigger than a Grande.
So I’m a very happy girl. Better than that---I’m a Cosmo girl!
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
The first was announced by my stepbrother who called to tell me that his friend had been flipping through Elle magazine while getting a pedicure and stumbled upon an advertisement for (drum roll please) Sex, Murder And A Double Latte!!! That’s right, my book is in Elle Magazine’s May issue on page 208. To say that I’m a little excited about this would be a major understatement.
But it gets better. Shortly after receiving that call I got another from my publicist. It seems the May issue of Cosmopolitan also hit the stands today and guess which book was selected as one of their three “sizzling page turners.” Yep, you got it! According to Cosmo my storyline “packs a bigger jolt than a Venti latte at Starbucks.” Which is kind of a big deal when you consider that even a caffeine addict like me rarely dares to indulge in anything bigger than a Grande.
So I’m a very happy girl. Better than that---I’m a Cosmo girl!
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
A Little On The Panicky Side
Things are looking good for Sex, Murder And A Double Latte. It will be featured in at least twelve different publications with circulations between 65,000 and 1.7 million. I will be doing readings at more than nine different bookstores and literary venues. I will be interviewed by two radio shows and the pre-orders for the book are well above predictions. In addition to that it is scheduled to hit Europe by the end of September. So there’s no need for me to be panicking. And yet that’s exactly what I’m doing.
Panic isn’t the most logical of emotions so I suppose I don’t need to rationalize it but I will anyway.
I’m sure everyone’s heard the expression “the higher you climb the further you can fall.” Well I’m kind of high right now. Not Dan Brown kind of high—he’s on the literary world’s equivalent of Mount Everest with only J.K. Rowley to keep him company. I’m not there…instead I’m sort of on the top of a three story building. If I fall I probably won’t die but I’ll be seriously hurt.
Have you ever gone to see a movie that was billed as the next big summer blockbuster and then left the theater disappointed? The problem was that while the movie may have been enjoyable it couldn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it. That’s what I’m afraid of.
The worst part is that I won’t know how the book’s doing for a long time. All I’ll have to judge my success by will be reviews and there are bound to be a few negative ones. And while my book is not exactly serious literature and writing it was more of a joy than a burden the fact of the matter is it is still part of who I am. The storyline, the characters…they all came from my imagination. In a very weird way Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is a part of my soul. Yes that’s right, a portion of my soul will be available for purchase on May 1st for the bargain price of $17.95. And everyone out there will tell me what they think of it. Better yet, they’ll publish their criticisms on Amazon. While writing my book I was very open to constructive criticism, in fact I welcomed it. I wanted people to be brutally honest with me so I could improve my manuscript and hopefully get it published. But now they’re going to be telling me what they don’t like and there won’t be anything I’ll be able to do about it. I can’t rewrite it at this point. All I can do is pray that the majority of people will enjoy it enough to recommend it to a friend and that the minority who hates it will keep their mouths shut.
There’s another problem with reviews---they’re one person’s opinion and it’s rarely an opinion that is in sync with that of the general public. For instance, Publisher’s Weekly had this to say about Elizabeth Flock's second novel Me & Emma:
After nearly 300 pages of rambling drama, the twist at the end is revealed so haphazardly that it will probably bewilder readers more than surprise them…instead of delivering profundity, Flock's tough love turns poor forsaken Carrie into a caricature.
Me & Emma made the New York Times Best Sellers list and everyone I know who has read it loves it.
So in other words I shouldn’t let the reviews get to me. I know that logically. But I can’t get my heart to fully buy into it.
Anyway, I’m rambling. That’s what panicky writers do. We ramble and blog.
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
Panic isn’t the most logical of emotions so I suppose I don’t need to rationalize it but I will anyway.
I’m sure everyone’s heard the expression “the higher you climb the further you can fall.” Well I’m kind of high right now. Not Dan Brown kind of high—he’s on the literary world’s equivalent of Mount Everest with only J.K. Rowley to keep him company. I’m not there…instead I’m sort of on the top of a three story building. If I fall I probably won’t die but I’ll be seriously hurt.
Have you ever gone to see a movie that was billed as the next big summer blockbuster and then left the theater disappointed? The problem was that while the movie may have been enjoyable it couldn’t live up to the hype that surrounded it. That’s what I’m afraid of.
The worst part is that I won’t know how the book’s doing for a long time. All I’ll have to judge my success by will be reviews and there are bound to be a few negative ones. And while my book is not exactly serious literature and writing it was more of a joy than a burden the fact of the matter is it is still part of who I am. The storyline, the characters…they all came from my imagination. In a very weird way Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is a part of my soul. Yes that’s right, a portion of my soul will be available for purchase on May 1st for the bargain price of $17.95. And everyone out there will tell me what they think of it. Better yet, they’ll publish their criticisms on Amazon. While writing my book I was very open to constructive criticism, in fact I welcomed it. I wanted people to be brutally honest with me so I could improve my manuscript and hopefully get it published. But now they’re going to be telling me what they don’t like and there won’t be anything I’ll be able to do about it. I can’t rewrite it at this point. All I can do is pray that the majority of people will enjoy it enough to recommend it to a friend and that the minority who hates it will keep their mouths shut.
There’s another problem with reviews---they’re one person’s opinion and it’s rarely an opinion that is in sync with that of the general public. For instance, Publisher’s Weekly had this to say about Elizabeth Flock's second novel Me & Emma:
After nearly 300 pages of rambling drama, the twist at the end is revealed so haphazardly that it will probably bewilder readers more than surprise them…instead of delivering profundity, Flock's tough love turns poor forsaken Carrie into a caricature.
Me & Emma made the New York Times Best Sellers list and everyone I know who has read it loves it.
So in other words I shouldn’t let the reviews get to me. I know that logically. But I can’t get my heart to fully buy into it.
Anyway, I’m rambling. That’s what panicky writers do. We ramble and blog.
Kyra
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
Sunday, April 10, 2005
My Not-So-Secret Agenda
Every novel is burdened with the agenda of its author. No question about it, we want something from our readers. Some authors hope to change people’s minds about a particular issue. Others want readers to come to a greater understanding of a culture or lifestyle that is different than their own and (as I pointed out in a different post) Chick Lit novels often want to boost women’s self-esteem and confidence. I’m no different from any other author—I want something from you. Specifically, I want you to enjoy yourself.
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is not a social commentary. It will not provide you with deep insights into a world previously unknown to you. It’s just fun; period—end of story (pun intended).
There are lots of people out there who would read this statement, roll their eyes and bemoan the amount of fluff available at your friendly neighborhood bookstore. I’m not a big fan of the word ‘fluff’ because of the negative connotation that goes along with it but maybe those of us who write escapist fiction should adopt the term the same way feminists are trying to adopt the term “bitch” and Gay-rights activists are trying to change the feelings about the word “queer”. So fluff it is—and I’m here to say that fluff has an important role to play in our lives.
All over the world people happily hand over their hard earned dollars in exchange for tickets to see James Bond flicks. They buy fashion magazines, tune into Desperate House Wives and The Apprentice during their free time. They window shop, attend purse parties, or just indulge in a relaxing massage or facial. They don’t do this because they’re shallow or unintelligent, they do it because life is hard and sometimes we all need a break from it. Our personal lives are filled with challenges and uncertainties and if that isn’t enough to overwhelm you there’s always politics and the state of the world to weigh you down. Yes, I know—no one ever said it would be easy, but no one ever said you had to live in a constant state of anxiety either.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy deep piercing novels as much as the next guy. I was profoundly moved by Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (the book), I find the not-so-hidden social commentary within Edith Wharton’s novels fascinating and poignant and Orwell sets the standard when it comes to making strong and persuasive political statements with deceptively simple prose. But you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t want to read the works of these authors all the time. I’m a single mom trying to homeschool my five year old while simultaneously establish myself in a risky new career—in other words I have a lot on my plate and sometimes I want to kick back and get lost in a fun fluffy fictional world.
So when you buy Sex, Murder And A Double Latte (and I know you are going to buy it, right?) be aware that this is a book meant to be read while donning fuzzy slippers and eating bonbons. Unless of course you’re doing South Beach in which case substitute the bonbons for a low-carb Pria bar and the slippers for a pair of flip flops and a beach towel. The important thing is that you have a good time with it—that’s my agenda and I’m counting on you to help me execute it.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte is not a social commentary. It will not provide you with deep insights into a world previously unknown to you. It’s just fun; period—end of story (pun intended).
There are lots of people out there who would read this statement, roll their eyes and bemoan the amount of fluff available at your friendly neighborhood bookstore. I’m not a big fan of the word ‘fluff’ because of the negative connotation that goes along with it but maybe those of us who write escapist fiction should adopt the term the same way feminists are trying to adopt the term “bitch” and Gay-rights activists are trying to change the feelings about the word “queer”. So fluff it is—and I’m here to say that fluff has an important role to play in our lives.
All over the world people happily hand over their hard earned dollars in exchange for tickets to see James Bond flicks. They buy fashion magazines, tune into Desperate House Wives and The Apprentice during their free time. They window shop, attend purse parties, or just indulge in a relaxing massage or facial. They don’t do this because they’re shallow or unintelligent, they do it because life is hard and sometimes we all need a break from it. Our personal lives are filled with challenges and uncertainties and if that isn’t enough to overwhelm you there’s always politics and the state of the world to weigh you down. Yes, I know—no one ever said it would be easy, but no one ever said you had to live in a constant state of anxiety either.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy deep piercing novels as much as the next guy. I was profoundly moved by Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (the book), I find the not-so-hidden social commentary within Edith Wharton’s novels fascinating and poignant and Orwell sets the standard when it comes to making strong and persuasive political statements with deceptively simple prose. But you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t want to read the works of these authors all the time. I’m a single mom trying to homeschool my five year old while simultaneously establish myself in a risky new career—in other words I have a lot on my plate and sometimes I want to kick back and get lost in a fun fluffy fictional world.
So when you buy Sex, Murder And A Double Latte (and I know you are going to buy it, right?) be aware that this is a book meant to be read while donning fuzzy slippers and eating bonbons. Unless of course you’re doing South Beach in which case substitute the bonbons for a low-carb Pria bar and the slippers for a pair of flip flops and a beach towel. The important thing is that you have a good time with it—that’s my agenda and I’m counting on you to help me execute it.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
www.kyradavis.com
Friday, April 08, 2005
Can We Say “Boundaries?”
Today I was standing in line at the grocery store basically spacing out when the cashier asked the woman in front of me how things were going.
“Fine,” she answered crisply, “but they’re about to be bad.”
“Oh,” the cashier looked up at her uncertainly, “okay.” And with that he started ringing up her items.
Now she should have taken that as a cue to shut up. The grocery store clerk didn’t really care how she was doing. He asked because it was his job to do so and if she was determined to bitch to a stranger she should have gone to one of the neighboring clothing stores where the salespeople work on commission. But apparently this woman isn’t very good at picking up on subtleties so she continued:
“Some guy parked right next to me and gave me this much space to open my door.” She held her hands two inches apart to demonstrate the severity of the offense.
“Uh-huh, that’s too bad.” The cashier was now ringing the groceries a little faster.
“It’s rude and inconsiderate. And if he doesn’t move his car by the time I need to get into mine I’m going to come back in here and hit him.”
I swear to God, I have never seen anyone ring up groceries that fast in my life. I mean this guy had turned cashiering into an aerobic workout.
“That’s him! That’s the man who parked too close to my car!” The woman pointed to a man walking past us with a shopping cart. I didn’t get a good look at him because I was focusing all my energy on not laughing. I certainly didn’t want to inadvertently offend her; she might have tried to beat me up.
Anyway, she finally paid for her groceries and then went over to her tormentor and demanded that he move his car which I think he did—thus sparing us all the inconvenience of having to call the police.
Having lived in San Francisco I’m used to seeing people go psycho over parking spaces, but it was her need to share her frustrations with someone who clearly didn’t want to listen that interested me. I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to basic psychology but this is one of those things that I’ve never been fully able to wrap my mind around. Telling the bartender how your lover broke your heart—that I get. And there are those times when you meet someone with whom you feel an instant connection and thus sharing personal details about your life with them feels natural and appropriate. But how connected could she have felt to the guy bagging her lettuce?
I also would have viewed the incident differently if I hadn’t of just left Borders where the cashier had informed me that last year she left her husband (who was apparently a lousy lover) after discovering that he had been cheating on her with hookers. Okay, did I ask for this information? I didn’t even care when Hugh Grant got caught with his pants down on Hollywood Boulevard so I certainly don’t need to know about the sexual problems of the woman who sells me my son’s Scooby Doo comics.
On the other hand before I left the house today I had no idea what I was going to blog about and now here I am with more material than I know what to do with. So if any of the insane people that I spoke to today are reading this let me take this opportunity to say thank you for keeping my life interesting. I’d feel bad about broadcasting your troubles to the world but as far as I can tell that seems to be your mission in life so think of this as my way of helping you reach your goals.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
“Fine,” she answered crisply, “but they’re about to be bad.”
“Oh,” the cashier looked up at her uncertainly, “okay.” And with that he started ringing up her items.
Now she should have taken that as a cue to shut up. The grocery store clerk didn’t really care how she was doing. He asked because it was his job to do so and if she was determined to bitch to a stranger she should have gone to one of the neighboring clothing stores where the salespeople work on commission. But apparently this woman isn’t very good at picking up on subtleties so she continued:
“Some guy parked right next to me and gave me this much space to open my door.” She held her hands two inches apart to demonstrate the severity of the offense.
“Uh-huh, that’s too bad.” The cashier was now ringing the groceries a little faster.
“It’s rude and inconsiderate. And if he doesn’t move his car by the time I need to get into mine I’m going to come back in here and hit him.”
I swear to God, I have never seen anyone ring up groceries that fast in my life. I mean this guy had turned cashiering into an aerobic workout.
“That’s him! That’s the man who parked too close to my car!” The woman pointed to a man walking past us with a shopping cart. I didn’t get a good look at him because I was focusing all my energy on not laughing. I certainly didn’t want to inadvertently offend her; she might have tried to beat me up.
Anyway, she finally paid for her groceries and then went over to her tormentor and demanded that he move his car which I think he did—thus sparing us all the inconvenience of having to call the police.
Having lived in San Francisco I’m used to seeing people go psycho over parking spaces, but it was her need to share her frustrations with someone who clearly didn’t want to listen that interested me. I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to basic psychology but this is one of those things that I’ve never been fully able to wrap my mind around. Telling the bartender how your lover broke your heart—that I get. And there are those times when you meet someone with whom you feel an instant connection and thus sharing personal details about your life with them feels natural and appropriate. But how connected could she have felt to the guy bagging her lettuce?
I also would have viewed the incident differently if I hadn’t of just left Borders where the cashier had informed me that last year she left her husband (who was apparently a lousy lover) after discovering that he had been cheating on her with hookers. Okay, did I ask for this information? I didn’t even care when Hugh Grant got caught with his pants down on Hollywood Boulevard so I certainly don’t need to know about the sexual problems of the woman who sells me my son’s Scooby Doo comics.
On the other hand before I left the house today I had no idea what I was going to blog about and now here I am with more material than I know what to do with. So if any of the insane people that I spoke to today are reading this let me take this opportunity to say thank you for keeping my life interesting. I’d feel bad about broadcasting your troubles to the world but as far as I can tell that seems to be your mission in life so think of this as my way of helping you reach your goals.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Judging A Book By Its Cover
My original plan was to post my book cover on this blog but I ran into a snag—mainly that I’m technologically challenged. So for the purpose of this post you can either check out my homepage or you can take my word for it when I tell you that my cover sums up the tone of the book perfectly.
I can’t tell you how happy I am about that. So many books have covers that are misleading. Take Kayla Perrin’s Delta Sisters. It's an interesting mystery and defiantly one I would recommend. My publicist is the one who recommended it to me which is a good thing because let me tell you something, there’s nothing about the cover that would have made me want to pick it up. First of all I would never have known it was a murder mystery. Instead I would have assumed it was a social commentary about three angry, depressed Black women—and I would have been completely wrong.
Which is why someone came up with the expression, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But that’s a stupid saying. We all judge books by their covers. Can you imagine flipping through every title at Borders no matter how unappealing the cover just on the off chance that the art department might have misrepresented the novel inside? You’d be there all day.
Of course the saying isn’t supposed to be taken literally and I would love to tell you that I apply the concept behind it when meeting individuals for the first time but that would be a big ol’ lie. I make split second judgments all the time.
Here’s a for instance:
I met a guy at a Halloween party a few years back. He was dressed up as the Biker from the Village People. He seemed nice enough so when he asked for my number I happily gave it. Granted I had consumed quite a few cocktails by that point so I probably would have happily given my number to a duck but that's another story. A few days later I met him at a neighborhood pub in the late afternoon for a let’s-make-sure-you’re-not-a-serial-killer-date. I was horrified to see that he was wearing close to the same outfit he was wearing the last time I had seen him. No, he wasn’t going to another costume party, he was a bona fide biker dude. I silently considered what kind of (straight) guy would wear chaps. What kind of job did ‘those people’ have? Were they mechanics? Bartenders? Criminals? What?
Well apparently they work for Intel. Yes, my chaps wearing biker man was a well paid engineer with an Ivy League education and a Silicon Valley two story house located in a suburban development.
So after that experience have I changed my view of the world? When I see a man sporting a three thousand dollar suit and a manicure do I think, “Gee, I wonder if he works for Greenpeace.” Umm, not likely. On the other hand if he does end up being an environmental activist with a weakness for Armani I don’t hold it against him.
We usually like our first impressions to be correct and when they’re not we resent the ones who we misjudged. As natural as that reaction is it’s not very helpful. So I try to let all that go and view those surprises as being positive at best and interesting at worst. Lots of people have been out with bikers and lots of gals have dated engineers. But how many of you can say you’ve been out with an engineer who looks like one of the Village People?
See that’s why I’m a writer. This kind of weird stuff happens to me all the time.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
I can’t tell you how happy I am about that. So many books have covers that are misleading. Take Kayla Perrin’s Delta Sisters. It's an interesting mystery and defiantly one I would recommend. My publicist is the one who recommended it to me which is a good thing because let me tell you something, there’s nothing about the cover that would have made me want to pick it up. First of all I would never have known it was a murder mystery. Instead I would have assumed it was a social commentary about three angry, depressed Black women—and I would have been completely wrong.
Which is why someone came up with the expression, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” But that’s a stupid saying. We all judge books by their covers. Can you imagine flipping through every title at Borders no matter how unappealing the cover just on the off chance that the art department might have misrepresented the novel inside? You’d be there all day.
Of course the saying isn’t supposed to be taken literally and I would love to tell you that I apply the concept behind it when meeting individuals for the first time but that would be a big ol’ lie. I make split second judgments all the time.
Here’s a for instance:
I met a guy at a Halloween party a few years back. He was dressed up as the Biker from the Village People. He seemed nice enough so when he asked for my number I happily gave it. Granted I had consumed quite a few cocktails by that point so I probably would have happily given my number to a duck but that's another story. A few days later I met him at a neighborhood pub in the late afternoon for a let’s-make-sure-you’re-not-a-serial-killer-date. I was horrified to see that he was wearing close to the same outfit he was wearing the last time I had seen him. No, he wasn’t going to another costume party, he was a bona fide biker dude. I silently considered what kind of (straight) guy would wear chaps. What kind of job did ‘those people’ have? Were they mechanics? Bartenders? Criminals? What?
Well apparently they work for Intel. Yes, my chaps wearing biker man was a well paid engineer with an Ivy League education and a Silicon Valley two story house located in a suburban development.
So after that experience have I changed my view of the world? When I see a man sporting a three thousand dollar suit and a manicure do I think, “Gee, I wonder if he works for Greenpeace.” Umm, not likely. On the other hand if he does end up being an environmental activist with a weakness for Armani I don’t hold it against him.
We usually like our first impressions to be correct and when they’re not we resent the ones who we misjudged. As natural as that reaction is it’s not very helpful. So I try to let all that go and view those surprises as being positive at best and interesting at worst. Lots of people have been out with bikers and lots of gals have dated engineers. But how many of you can say you’ve been out with an engineer who looks like one of the Village People?
See that’s why I’m a writer. This kind of weird stuff happens to me all the time.
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
The Beautiful People Of San Francisco
On Wednesday I attended the Launch party for Fashion Bliss at San Francisco’s MATRIXFILLMORE. Mika Takeuchi, the company’s founder and president, is a dear friend and former roommate of mine. Hers is the American success story. Mika’s an only child and while we were living together her father passed away and just two years ago her mother died of Breast Cancer. She promised her mother she would work to help find a cure for the disease and then turned around and created an online retailer that offered fashion forward designer clothing at dramatically discounted prices. A portion of each sale goes toward funding the fight against breast cancer. It was a huge financial risk but one that has paid off ten fold. In a very short time the site has become enormously successful and the party was evidence of that. A friend once pointed out that it is easy to be a good person when things are going well. It’s what you do when things start going wrong that is a testament to your true strength of character. Mika is a perfect example of how true that is.
So I hung out with the beautiful people (which is always fun) and then I started looking around and noting what the “beautiful people” of San Francisco actually look like. I’ve been interviewed by a few websites and publications in anticipation of Sex, Murder And A Double Latte’s release and two of the questions that keep popping up are:
1) Why did I choose to set the series in San Francisco?
2) What inspired me to create such an ethnically diverse cast of characters?
The answer to the first question is obvious. San Francisco is a city I know and love. The answer to the second question was represented at that party. Since I have always lived in and around the city I have a tendency to take its ethnic diversity for granted but when I push myself to see it through the eyes of a tourist I come to appreciate the fact that SF is about as close to a melting pot as you’re ever going to get. I’m not just talking about Black and White. At the party East Indians, Middle Easterners, Chinese, Japanese, South East Asians, Europeans and Latinos were equally represented. Plus there was a nice mix of socialites, straights, gays, club-goers and political and social activists. It’s the kind of mix that elevates a function from being a party to being a note worthy event. Not because these groups so rarely convene but because in San Francisco they convene all the time without a second thought and thus the party was a perfect representation of the city that contained it.
When I travel I’m always surprised when people treat mixed race relationships as a novelty. Here it’s practically a given. I remember being at a college party years ago in the company of several friends and being informed that one of the guys there was interested in an acquaintance of ours.
“But those two can’t get together!” protested one of my companions. “They’re both Iranian Jews. Wouldn’t that be incest or something?”
And the funny thing is it did seem odd to me that two people with such similar ethnic backgrounds would come together in a romantic sense. From my perspective it’s our differences that make us interesting and everyone that lives in my little bubble seems to agree with me. Some of my friends who live in Silicon Valley or the East Bay tell me that this is more of a San Francisco/Berkeley/Santa Cruz mentality than one that can be applied to every town in the greater Bay Area and that if I bothered to drive around some of the surrounding cities I would find that there is still a lot of self-imposed segregation going on. But I like my bubble. I’m comfortable here and thanks to my friend Mika I can now buy Prada purses for less than half the normal price without ever stepping out of it so why on earth would any self-respecting Black/Jewish shopping fiend ever want to burst it?
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
So I hung out with the beautiful people (which is always fun) and then I started looking around and noting what the “beautiful people” of San Francisco actually look like. I’ve been interviewed by a few websites and publications in anticipation of Sex, Murder And A Double Latte’s release and two of the questions that keep popping up are:
1) Why did I choose to set the series in San Francisco?
2) What inspired me to create such an ethnically diverse cast of characters?
The answer to the first question is obvious. San Francisco is a city I know and love. The answer to the second question was represented at that party. Since I have always lived in and around the city I have a tendency to take its ethnic diversity for granted but when I push myself to see it through the eyes of a tourist I come to appreciate the fact that SF is about as close to a melting pot as you’re ever going to get. I’m not just talking about Black and White. At the party East Indians, Middle Easterners, Chinese, Japanese, South East Asians, Europeans and Latinos were equally represented. Plus there was a nice mix of socialites, straights, gays, club-goers and political and social activists. It’s the kind of mix that elevates a function from being a party to being a note worthy event. Not because these groups so rarely convene but because in San Francisco they convene all the time without a second thought and thus the party was a perfect representation of the city that contained it.
When I travel I’m always surprised when people treat mixed race relationships as a novelty. Here it’s practically a given. I remember being at a college party years ago in the company of several friends and being informed that one of the guys there was interested in an acquaintance of ours.
“But those two can’t get together!” protested one of my companions. “They’re both Iranian Jews. Wouldn’t that be incest or something?”
And the funny thing is it did seem odd to me that two people with such similar ethnic backgrounds would come together in a romantic sense. From my perspective it’s our differences that make us interesting and everyone that lives in my little bubble seems to agree with me. Some of my friends who live in Silicon Valley or the East Bay tell me that this is more of a San Francisco/Berkeley/Santa Cruz mentality than one that can be applied to every town in the greater Bay Area and that if I bothered to drive around some of the surrounding cities I would find that there is still a lot of self-imposed segregation going on. But I like my bubble. I’m comfortable here and thanks to my friend Mika I can now buy Prada purses for less than half the normal price without ever stepping out of it so why on earth would any self-respecting Black/Jewish shopping fiend ever want to burst it?
Kyra Davis
www.kyradavis.com
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte--May 2005
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