Questions from a library

A library is featuring Killer Weekend as a pick of the week. Here are the questions they asked, and I answered...

Question #1: What was the last book you read?

1421 How China Discovered America

Question #2: What is the next book you plan to read or are currently reading?

Mayflower

Question #3: If you could make everyone read one particular book, what would it be?

To Kill A Mockingbird, followed by a close second: Rebecca

Question #4: How do you work reading into your weekly schedule?

I read at night before bed, and I read a great deal when I travel, and I travel a great deal. Even so, I wish there were more hours in the day, because I'm rarely satiated with reading!

Question #5: Why do you read?

My mother makes me. (Just kidding.) Reading is a portal to other places and other times, past, present and future. It is both entertainment and education, a chance for the imagination to take over the much over-worked and inundated senses. It is an intimate look into either a time or place through another's eyes, and therefore has elements of secrecy and sharing. Finally, reading is the mind's calisthenics, and I'm afraid of what I might become without it.

KILER WEEKEND DISCUSSION&QUESTIONS

Killer Weekend will be published by Putnam on July 10th. It's a new series, set in central Idaho, with a mixuture of town/backcountry rich/not-so-rich and wildlife. The story revolves around a female NY politician delcaring her candidacy for president at a major business conference being held in Sun Valley, Idaho -- an assasin's plan to kill her, and the local sheriff's desperate effort to untangle the threat in time.

The Killer Weekend prologue is now posted on www.ridleypearson.com

Amazon blog is up

I am blogging on Amazon Connects now as well. For those of you who want a free short story, exclusive to Amazon, you'll want to keep checking back on Killer Weekend's page -- it will be posted soon.

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Just back from the Book Expo in New York City, where Dave Barry and I signed copies of Peter and the Secret of Rundoon, and I signed for Killer Weekend. The ROCKBOTTOM REMAINDERS, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom et al, performed both on Good Morning America and at Webster Hall, raising money for Dave Edgers' New York 826, and also for Get Caught Reading.

But the highlight of the weekend was, when Dave and I couldn't get a cab at midnight, following the Remainders show, we were approached by a pedacab driver named Omar, who then pedaled us 20 blocks to the band hotel. It was a surreal moment, but one of those weird other-worldly ones I won't soon forget.

I got home last night to our new dog, Tater, who is about the size of a bedroom slipper, running around like crazy while my daughters and I watched the first Harry Potter movie. The contrast to a jam-packed trip to New York couldn't have been more. But just guess where I'd rather be?

Have a good week. There are two surprises coming up on Amazon (for Killer Weekend) in the next week or two. Keep your eyes out. One is a video Dave Barry and shot; the other is a free short story we're offering....

Ridley