Back in action

With a new baby and two crashed computers, I've been limping along on the Internet lately. One of my machines (my older, slower one) is back up and running now, so I should be posting more again.

For those of you who may have missed the earlier post, In Cold Blog is in full swing now. That blog is a joint effort by 30 true-crime authors, police officers, prosecutors, crime victims, and editors. It is the brain child of Corey Mitchell, author of Strangler, Evil Eyes, Hollywood Death Scenes and others. I've kept up with my once-a-month duties on that blog. You can find my latest post updating the case I wrote about in Precious Blood at that site.

True crime has a new home on the web

I wrote last week that our new true crime blog was about to launch. I'm happy to report that the launch was successful.

Last Friday (June 1) marked the first day for In Cold Blog, a blog devoted specifically to true crime. I had the honor of being the first to blog.

The new blog features 30 true crime experts. The lineup includes 22 true crime authors and eight others., including a police officer, a prosecutor, crime victims, forensic artists, editors, and television and Internet reporters. Each blogger will be featured one day a month, but may also post at other times.

In Cold Blog is the brainchild of best-selling true crime author Corey Mitchell, who recruited the other bloggers to join him in the venture. Bloggers will write about cold cases, current crimes, and other subjects related to true crime. Readers are welcome to comment, and we'll try our best to answer.

The complete roster of bloggers is as follows:

Sam Adams, author of Precious Blood

Pat Brown, criminal profiler & author of Killing for Sport

Andrea Campbell, forensic artist and aspiring true crime author

Kathryn Casey, author of Die My Love, The Rapist’s Wife, A Warrant to Kill, She Wanted it AllCarol Anne Davis, author of Sadistic Killers, Women Who Kill, Couples Who Kill, Children Who Kill

John Ditmars, Travis County Sheriffs’ Deputy and Senior Corrections officer and aspiring true crime author of The Candy Man

Joseph Foy, witness who put serial killer Coral Watts behind bars for life

Ron Franscell, author of Fall

Michaela Hamilton, Executive Editor of Kensington True Crime

Steve Huff, true crime blogger

Laura James, Editor of CLEWS Historic True Crime Blog

Aphrodite Jones, author of The FBI Killer, Cruel Sacrifice, A Perfect Husband, Red Zone, All She Wanted and more

Andy Kahan, Director of the Crime Victims Assistance of the Mayor’s Office of Houston and leading voice against murderabilia

Joyce King, author of Hate Crime, Forgotten Hurricane, Growing Up Southern: White Men I Met Along the Way

Paul LaRosa, author of Tacoma Confidential & Nightmare in Napa and producer of CBS' 48 Hours

Gary Lavergne, author of A Sniper in the Tower, Bad Boy from Rosebud, Worse Than Death, Lives of Quiet Desperation

David Lohr, featured true crime writer for CourtTV’s Crime Library

Steven Long, author of Out of Control, Every Woman’s Nightmare, Death Without Dignity

Dennis McDougal, author of Blood Cold, Angel of Darkness, In the Best of Families, Mother’s Day, The Yosemite Murders and more

Corey Mitchell, author of Strangler, Evil Eyes, Murdered Innocents, Dead and Buried, Hollywood Death Scenes + more ***Editor of In Cold Blog***

Gregg Olsen, author of Starvation Heights, Cruel Deception, Mockingbird, If Loving You is Wrong, Bitter Almonds and many more

Donna Pendergast, Michigan Assistant Attorney General

M. William Phelps, author of Murder in the Heartland, Every Move You Make, Lethal Guardian, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Perfect Poison

Dr. Katherine Ramsland, author of The Science of Cold Case Files, Inside the Minds of Serial Killers, Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers, The Human Predator, The C.S.I. Effect and many more

Simon Read, Author of In the Dark, On the House, The Killing Skies

Fred Rosen, author of Lobster Boy, Body Dump, Needle Work, Did They Really Do It?, The Historical Atlas of American Crime and many more

Harriett & John Semander, mother and brother of Elena Semander, a victim of serial killer Coral Watts (Harriett was instrumental in keeping Watts from being released from a Texas prison. John is a freelance writer and film producer living in Los Angeles)

Suzy Spencer, author of Wages of Sin, The Fortune Hunter, Wasted, Breaking Point

Mike "Necrolagnia" Stinski, Drummer/lyricist for death metal band Divine Pustulence and hardcore true crime fan

Carlton Stowers, author of Open Secrets, Innocence Lost, Scream at the Sky, Sins of the Son, Careless Whispers and many more.

A busy time

There are a lot of things going on right now. PRECIOUS BLOOD will be officially released April 3, but I've already been distributing copies to people who helped me and to media. The response has been good so far, and I'd like to thank those of you who have pre-ordered the books.

I'm also involved in another project that I can't talk much about yet, but keep checking this blog. There will be a pretty major announcement soon that should be of special interest to true crime fans.

Blog interview on Emerge

Jennifer Prado interviewed me in February for her blog " Emerge - New Authors," and the interview went up Monday -- by coincidence, the same day that Precious Blood became available for sale. You can read Jennifer's interview with me here.

MySpace not my bag

I was proud of myself. I had never signed up for MySpace. I had never visited it. I wanted nothing to do with it.

But then magazines and authors started putting up MySpace pages and I felt I was
obliged to visit and see how other writers were using it. Then I learned that you have to sign up for MySpace to view the content. I signed up, and I immediately regretted it. It is everything I imagined it would be, only worse. Crappy color schemes, virtual "friends" that show up unbidden, and faux popup ads.

Aren't the real popups bad enough?

I now have an empty MySpace profile, an empty MySpace page, and I'm sure I'll soon have a full email inbox -- full of spam messages because I had to give an address to MySpace.

Jeepers creepers, Harry's got a brand-new name

J.K. Rowling has gone to great lengths to keep young readers on her web site, with a puzzle required to find the title of her newest (and last) Harry Potter book. No doubt my son will go crazy with it until he finds the title -- unless he looks here. The title is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.