On the RITA® Nominations

I am floored. Speechless. Flabbergasted. Tickled pink. 

All I can say is thank you. From the bottom of my heart! And many kudos to my fellow nominees - I am honored to be in such august company. Just LOOK at this list, will you? 

2012 RITA^® Finalists for Romantic Suspense

Hidden Away by Maya Banks (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Cindy Hwang, editor)

Hot Zone by Catherine Mann (Sourcebooks Casablanca; Deb Werksman, editor)

Hush by Cherry Adair (Pocket Star; Lauren McKenna, editor)

New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb (Penguin Putnam; Leslie Gelbman, editor)

Secrets of Bella Terra by Christina Dodd (New American Library; Kerry Donovan, editor)

True Colors by Joyce Lamb (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

True Shot by Joyce Lamb (Berkley Publishing Group Sensation; Wendy McCurdy, editor)

Where All the Dead Lie by J.T. Ellison (Harlequin MIRA; Adam Wilson and Miranda Indrigo, editors)

Anaheim, here we come! : )

Writers Read

From the Campaign for the American Reader, by Marshal Zeringue

What is J.T. Ellison reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: J.T. Ellison, author of Where All the Dead Lie.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just started The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Fellow author and friend Jeff Abbott suggested it, knowing that I’m struggling with the knowledge that I’m reading less and spending more time online. Twitter and Facebook and blogging and the omnipresent “author marketing” has me flummoxed. I used to read at night, now I Tweet. I want to take back my time.

Hamlet's Blackberry, a brilliant book by William Powers, made me cognizant of just how much time I was spending online. The Shallows is giving me a deeper understanding of why I’m doing so. And, I hope, will give me the tools, the willpower, or at the very least, permission to step away from the Internet, and reclaim my mind from the influx of constantly streamed information on my tiny little screens.

More from the CAFTAR Network

The Page 69 Test: All the Pretty Girls.

The Page 99 Test: 14.

The Page 69 Test: 14.

The Page 99 Test: Judas Kiss.

My Book, The Movie: the Taylor Jackson series.

The Page 69 Test: The Cold Room.

My Book, The Movie: The Cold Room.

The Page 69 Test: So Close the Hand of Death.

Writers Read: J.T. Ellison (March 2011).

Writers Read: J.T. Ellison.

We Have Winners!!!!!!

HAUNTED CONTEST WINNERS:

The Haunted Contest turned out some seriously creepy, spooky and lovely stories. Thanks to everyone who entered - you're amazing.

Two stories really stood out to me, and both of them win the CASTLE GHOSTS OF SCOTLAND DVD, but the GRAND PRIZE goes to: S.A. Newby for the hair-raising story THE MEN WITHOUT FACES

God, that story freaked me out.

The close second is Barbara Geach's incredibly scary run in with the ghost of Jeffrey Dahlmer.

The rest of the winners have been chosen at random. I will say this, Laura Morefield and Andrea Shlasko really touched my heart with their stories, and Infinitieh and Mary Mac - your ghost pets made me cry...

So, without further ado:

3 $25 giftcards to the winners' choice of bookstore

Tracy Boulet, Donna Christie-Fobert, Mari

5 copies of Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA

Jeff Bennington, Andrea Shlasko, Infinitieh, Merri Bell, Theresa N.

and signed bookplates to all entries.

ALL WINNERS MUST EMAIL ME AT contests@jtellison.com with their information

If you want a signed bookplate, I'll need your address as well, so please send a note to the above email for yours.

AUTHORBUZZ WINNERS:

Signed copies to Muzette Alcocer, Heather Mays, Jess Moskowitz, Allison Moyer, Frederikke Reimer.

Thanks to everyone who entered - again, if you want a signed bookplate, write me at contests@jtellison.com with your address.

And so closesth the contest. You'll see the winning entry from SA Newby posted here on Halloween.

9.26.11

We have giveaway winners!

Alyssa Aguilera
Tracy Boulet
Vicki Thompson

Congrats, ladies! Email me your addresses and I'll get the book in the mail this week.

More housekeeping - a new poll has gone up on the Facebook page. Who's your favorite character in the Taylor Jackson series? Click here to take the poll.

Don't forget the Haunted Contest, which is open until October 1.

And I also have a free short story on the Facebook page, if you're interested. It's called KILLING CAROL ANN. You can find it on the bottom of the page.

Launch Saturday was a blast. We had fantastic cake, and a really nice time. Greg and Mary were amazing as always, and the cake was luscious! It's cool to have a local crowd because you can go into some of the details that are lost on folks not from Nashville, so we all had a few good laughs. Mostly at my expense, the best kind!

Took yesterday off to catch up on this poor house - straightened, planted some trees, did laundry, the works.

And then had a good solid work day today. Another 150 pages of revisions done, which means I only have 150 to go - so hopefully I can be finished by end of the day Wednesday, leaving all day Thursday for a last read through! Tomorrow is another local signing for WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE, this time at Barnes & Noble in Cool Springs (7-9) and a dentist appointment. Hopeful that the gas will give me great ideas.

Had to kill Firefox as my browser today, which really broke my heart. I've been a Fox since the very first days, but the new update creamed my system. That plus something hinky with Mozy, and things just screeched to a halt. I think my MacBook Pro may be getting a little long in the tooth, or overwhelmed, or both. It's had two software upgrades (Snow Leopard and Lion) and multiple other software updates (Office 2008 - Office 2011, iLife, etc.) This is one thing I miss from PCs - being able to defrag and clean things. If y'all know a way to do that on a Mac, lemme know. 

So I switched to Chrome, spent an hour getting things reset, and so far, so good. Safari runs terribly slow on my machine, which I know is counter to what should be happening, but I've just been too busy to worry about it. Chrome is slick and quick, so that's where I'll stick for now. Also switched to Carbonite as my main backup, though I need to get Time Capsule ASAP.

If you're a Mac, what's your favorite backup systems?

Off to make some penne with turkey arrabiata. Have a great night! 

9.24.11

I'm celebrating this afternoon's launch party a bit early, after receiving this insightful and lovely review from one of my favorite booksellers, Fran Fuller, from the Seattle Mystery Bookshop. This was sent out to their mailing list yesterday - and I couldn't appreciate it more! 

I wanted to share because it addresses exactly the same issues I was worried about with this book. She's alleviated my fears. From Fran:

I have got to start trusting my authors. I really do, even when they step outside my usual expectations for them.

The new J.T. Ellison, Where All The Dead Lie (Mira, $14.95) takes Taylor Jackson away from Nashville and drops her in the middle of a gothic story. I love J.T. Ellison’s writing, I love Taylor Jackson, and I admittedly love gothics, so you’d think this would have been something I would have looked forward to, but darn it, I’m used to Taylor being a Nashville police officer! I was skeptical, I admit it.

I was also wrong.

If you’ve been following this series, you know that with The Immortals (Mira, $7.99), Taylor’s had some bad things happen, and has made some dangerous choices. It makes perfect sense for Taylor to get away from Nashville to try to figure out what’s going on in her head, which is what is going on in Where All The Dead Lie. And J T. Ellison has blended together her police elements into a gothic atmosphere that really works brilliantly.  

The other concern I had (and didn’t realize I had until it was alleviated) was that I was afraid I wouldn’t enjoy a book without all of Taylor’s support characters, especially Baldwin and Sam. Fortunately, Ellison has woven them into the story so I am content.

If you haven’t read the Taylor Jackson series, let me recommend that you begin with All The Pretty Girls (Mira, $7.99). If you have read the series, I promise you’re really going to enjoy Where All The Dead Lie. And J.T. has hinted that she might make it out to the shop next year, which would be a total blast!

Seattle Mystery Bookshop
 117 Cherry St., Seattle, WA  98104
206-587-5737  staff@seattlemystery.com www.seattlemystery.com
21 Years of Mayhem: 1990 - 2011

Thank you, Fran, for both "getting" my intentions, and for being such an amazing support over the past four years.