The Danamaniacs will be doing their holiday chat on December 4 at 5pm Alaska/6pm California/8pm Kentucky/9pm Detroit&Boston. Go to their website for the chat room address and how to get in. I’m the password. I can’t tell you how much that tickles me.
In the meantime, here are some photos, first of the four website managers and then the four managers and me at Bouchercon 2007, and a photo of the prizes for the holiday giveaway. It’s not only fun to be ‘maniacs (they play a game they invented called “Where’s Mutt?” among other things), you get loot, too. 
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, here’s the first review of Prepared for Rage, coming out from Minotaur on February 5, 2008:
Brutal tribal injustice motivates a Western-educated Pakistani to compete with Osama bin Laden as a terror theorist, targeting America’s space shuttle.
An incendiary string of U.S. policy failures fuels this frightening, tightly written thriller by Stabenow (A Deeper Sleep, 2007, etc.). Akil, the Muslim villain at the story’s heart, is no Islamic fundamentalist. He is, rather, a smallish man with a very big grudge against the American enablers of Pakistan’s corrupt government. Akil firmly believes that the refusal of Western-backed authorities to rein in tribal leaders was responsible for the revenge killing of his beloved sister. That’s sufficient motivation for him to enlist with the forces of bin Laden’s great rival Musab al-Zarqawi, proving himself so loyal and effective as a terrorist that he becomes Zarqawi’s No. 2 man. When the Americans kill his mentor, Akil elects to operate independently, taking as his nom de guerre Isa, Arabic for Jesus. Using skills acquired in years as an employee of Western banks, he keeps Zarqawi’s fortune out of bin Laden’s hands, using it to build a cadre he will wield personally in his quest to humiliate America. The space shuttle that is his target counts among its crew members Kenai Munro, a sexy and smart Alaskan aviator whose parents will watch the launch from a Coast Guard cutter captained by Kenai’s equally capable lover, Cal Schuyler. Akil is able to elude both the Americans and bin Laden’s lieutenants, who are under orders to render him ineffective. When Akil starts to make errors, dedicated CIA officer Patrick Chisum begins to pick up his scent, and the Coast Guard is very much on the job.
Taut and alarming. (Kirkus, December)
Is “taut and alarming” anything like “compelling, brutal and true?” I remember how thrilled I was when the Boston Globe applied those adjectives to the Kate Shugak series. I never knew I wanted to be called brutal until I was. I’m proud I alarmed Kirkus, especially since they are known for their tough, independent reviewing. Everyone in NY publishing sweats out the Kirkus review.
13 Comments
Dana,
Thanks for the mention of the upcoming Danamaniacs Holiday chat. And having my photo on Stabenow.com…Wow!!
In reading your excerpt from Prepared for Rage I started wondering if any of your characters ever keep you up at night? Yikes! Looking forward to Feb. 5th!
CathyO
When they do, I know I’m doing something right.
Hi Dana, I met you in Kotzebue two years ago after 4th of July. We chatted in the airport about books.
In any case, I am an honor student at Clark College and I am taking a career exploration class this quarter. I am considering becoming a writer. Part of my final assignment for the class is to interview someone who is currently in the position I wish to persue. Would you be available for a really quick informal interview? I’d be eternally grateful.
~Tasha
Replying off the website…
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in “A Deeper Sleep”
This really isn’t the appropriate place to post this, but I didn’t have much luck finding a better place.
I started reading “A Deeper Sleep” last night. A few pages into it, Kate said to Willard, “You moron”, forgetting that this was almost exactly what he was.
A couple of pages later, the author describes Willard’s elfin features. I thought, uh-oh.
Then, the bombshell, when it is suggested that Willard’s grandmother is upset that she couldn’t get Willard’s mother to stop drinking while pregnant. My suspicions were confirmed-Willard has FAS, and the author called him a moron.
I have no problems with any actions that the character of Willard takes, or what the character of Kate says about him. It’s the literary nodding along of the author saying that Willard is basically a moron that I take umbrage with.
AS the mother of a child with FAS (he’s adopted from Russia), I really take issue with this. My son is almost 4, doesn’t speak, still wears a diaper, and is the love of my life. He has been diagnosed as mentally retarded, which is an ugly word itself. However, it’s a medical term. Moron is not. Moron means foolish or stupid, and is usually reserved for someone who makes foolish or stupid decisions, not for someone who is mentally disabled through no fault or decisions of their own. My son Tommy will be fighting this all his life, and I will be right behind him, hurting twice as badly as he ever will. I found it very irresponsible for Ms. Stabenow to nod along with Kate when she called a mentally disabled man a moron.
Dear Katrina,
Kate is not thinking about FAS when she calls Willard a moron, she’s thinking about Auntie Joy coming home to a cold house in the middle of an Alaskan winter. As Jim so aptly points out later, what Kate really wants is for Willard to be charged with Crimes Against Auntie.
Dana
I’ve reread most of the Kate Shugak books lately and I’ve noticed some errors. In the first book, Kate’s eyes are brown, while they’re hazel later. In most of the books, Jim Chopin is 6′10″, but in A Taint in the Blood, he is 6′2″. In one book, Mutt is said to be 1/2 malamute and 1/2 husky, when we all know she is 1/2 wolf. How do these mistakes happen?
Hey, Becky–
Bad editing on everyone’s part, starting with me. Kate’s eyes are hazel and were always meant to be changeable in color. Jim was always meant to be 6′4″, the same height as my dad. I don’t know how Mutt got to be half malemute in one of the books, that is so totally wrong and really was not my doing.
There is a long and involved process when it comes to bringing a book into publication. It goes through my hands at least seven times, through the hands of my editor’s at least three, and there is a copyeditor, a typesetter and at least one proofer as well. That’s how many people–five–and a minimum of 13 steps in the process. I die inside everytime one of these errors surfaces, but I’m also always surprised that there aren’t even more of them.
Let’s see….
The book goes through your hands a minimum of 7 times… then editors copyeditors,proofers and typesetters…. I think I could help out by inserting myself into the process after editor and before typesetter, thereby eliminating the copyeditor and the proofer. A sacrifice, I’m sure, but one I’m willing to make.
whaddayathink?
And an offer I believe you have made a time or two before. Be careful what you wish for, little girl.
(I think she’s on to me.)
I do not care what mistakes you make, I was reading some comments. I love all your books, keep writing <ate books. You books are so good, I cannot figure out who is the bad one are.
What a nice compliment, Grace! Thank you very much.
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