Month: July 2005

Daniel Alarcon’s War by Candlelight gets two reviews this weekend, one from the El Paso Times and the other from his hometown paper.

The Emerging Writers’ Network has joined the blogosphere.

This week I’m giving away an autographed copy of More Than They Could Chew (bought with my hard-earned cash, you lucky bastards.) The novel is set in Long Beach, California, where Nick Ray, an alcoholic night clerk, stumbles on a stash of computers with prized Witness Protection Program info on them. He decides to make a fortune off them. And it works, until he gets greedy. Anyway, you know the rules: First reader to email me with the subject line “More Than They Could Chew” gets the book.

Update: The winner is John Taylor.

Matt Briggs (The Moss Gatherers) and Kevin Sampsell (Beautiful Blemish) will be reading on Friday July 8th 7:00 p.m. at XV, which is located at 15 SW 2nd Avenue, downtown Portland. Call (503) 790 9090 for details.

Interesting profile of Reza Aslan over at the L.A. Times.

In the eyes of Los Angeles-based religious scholar Reza Aslan, Khomeini’s rise is a metaphor for the hijacking of his faith by power-hungry demagogues, self-serving clergy and the radical fundamentalists behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In Aslan’s new book, “No god but God,” he has become the latest of an emerging group of scholars who are turning to the Koran and the origins of Islam to oppose what they see as its misuse.

If you haven’t read No god but God, I really urge you to. It’s an excellent re-examination of the history of Islam and an inspiring argument for reform.

Another article on the current craze for books about the Middle-East.