“The Insomniacs is a winner for sure. This is a book about four people who meet in the night and the life-changing decisions that they make. It has suspense, interesting characters and a wonderfully unique story to tell. I never really thought about the world inhabited by people who can't sleep at night. These are the people who play competitive online games at 2 AM, meet to talk in all-night restaurants, or visit chat rooms to converse with others who are also wide awake when the rest of us are sleeping. This book could actually keep the sleepy reader awake at night quickly turning the pages as this very entertaining story unfolds.” —Linda M. (Ocala, FL)

“I am not a cozy fantasy reader, but this was just what I needed! So light, so fun...and so me. A bibliophile princess who is cursed to be trapped in a bookstore? A need to unlock her heart's desire to break the curse? Princes sent to rescue her, who all fail miserably at delivering true love's kiss?…The characters! A teenage emo assistant who looks like every teenager I have ever known, other than being part dragon; seven bumbling and narcissistic princes, with one who uses the WRONG WORDS every time he forms a sentence; a handsome but cunning pirate who is cursed to fear the sea; a cat who is there, but NOT really there...the list goes on…An ensemble to rival the best fairy tales.” —Melissa R. (Springfield, PA)

As a longtime fan of a podcast hosted by two comedians who are trying to make it in Hollywood, I have been plagued for years by one question: How do these people have so much money??? They take "general meetings" with executives that, they joke, go nowhere; they are staffed as writers on shows, but it only lasts for a few months before they have to scramble for more work; they live expensively but complain about how little it pays to work in the arts. What's the deal?

Luckily, Hallie Cantor's debut novel, Like This, But Funnier, has filled in some gaps for me. For one thing, there's the "development deal." A writer might pitch and sell an idea to a network and net "six figures" (not exactly the specifics I was hoping for, but I'll take it), but never see (or have their fans see) anything get made at all. 

In I Am Agatha by Nancy Foley, the protagonist is loosely inspired by the late Agnes Martin, a famed abstract expressionist painter who spent a period of her life in New Mexico, during which the story is set. In 1967, Martin stopped painting and left New York City, then disappeared from public view for 18 months before reappearing in northern New Mexico, where she lived as a hermit for nearly a decade, much like Agatha in the novel. Foley mentions in her author's note that she spent time in the same area during that period. "She built an adobe house at Mesa Portales and lived a hermit's existence for nearly a decade; during that same time, I spent much of my childhood visiting my grandparents in the house where my mother grew up, not far from where Martin was living."

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