You don't need to talk with a game warden to learn that poaching is a widespread phenomenon in rural Maine. If you live in the sticks, it's not uncommon to hear gun shots in the woods at night, and every fly fisher I know has witnessed someone poaching fish. Today's Portland Press Herald carries a story about one recent episode in Mount Abram Township — not far from the setting of The Poacher's Son — that is noteworthy in only one regard: the poachers here were caught, literally red-handed.
A Million Monkeys
"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true."
—Robert Wilensky
Testing My Title
The Web is a wacky and wonderful thing. Spend enough time browsing, and you're bound to come across some elegant time waster. Recently, I stumbled across Lulu.com's Title Scorer, an app that uses algorithms to determine whether the proposed title of your novel will increase or decrease the chances of it being a national bestseller. Of course, I plugged in "The Poacher's Son" as a test. According to Title Scorer, my book has a 35.9% chance of hitting it big. That's not very reassuring, although it could be worse. Then again, Lulu (which specializes in self-publishing and print on demand) thinks Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has only a 14.6% chance of being a bestselling title, so maybe there's hope for me yet.
Not a Bad Way to Go
In the days before he died, Senator Ted Kennedy — may he rest in peace — spent his time visiting with friends and family and watching every James Bond movie on DVD.
Boyle at His Best
Full disclosure: The company I work for now publishes Gerry Boyle's mystery novels. But my own self-serving interest in recommending his work shouldn't stop you from discovering one of the most consistently entertaining detective writers out there today. As a veteran newspaper reporter and columnist, Boyle understands the funny, freakish, and foul nature of crime in Maine better than anybody. Read his new blog, and you'll get a sense of his sensibility.