ConQuesT Photos of My Art Display

I've been having a great time at ConQuesT 46 in Kansas City. I'm not sure I've ever had a show where I sold more--at least, not more paper sculpture! Here's a look at my display before the buyers descended.

You can sort of see the Dealers' Room being set up behind these two panels. 

Here's the third panel. ConQuesT Art Show panels are 2 feet wide.

I'm scheduled for ten program items at ConQuesT, including a demonstration called "How I Make Paper Sculpture," on Sunday. It will include a PowerPoint slide show and hands-on paper sculpture experience for attendees.

Also on Sunday (immediately after the demonstration), I'll do a reading. A bunch of people have signed up--I hope to see them there! (And I hope my voice holds up!).

Sunday afternoon will be the first time anyone outside my writers' group has heard Chapter One of my novel Dogged Pursuit. It's an sf novel about a genetically-engineered police dog who must prove he is sapient (and thus worthy of freedom) by helping to solve an important case before the Director of the project that made him and his Packmates can "recall" and destroy the "batch that turned out too smart." The Director claims they are "defective," because he hopes to keep control over the lucrative canine forensic tools the Project has created--something he can't do if they are declared "sapient" and set free. I hope my listeners enjoy Chapter One!

In the next few months, I'll be collaborating with my friend and fellow artist Lucy A. Synk, to create character images of my XK9 protagonist Rex, and his friends and colleagues from Chayko IV Habitat Space Station. Followers of my blog will be the first to see them!

 IMAGES: the photos in today's blog are by me, Jan S. Gephardt, of my artwork display at the ConQuesT 46 art show. You may re-post these images if you will please not alter them, and give an attribution and a link back to this site.

Book Review: A sure-fire author's semi-misfire

Book Reviewed: True Blue (2009)
Author: David Baldacci
Published by: Grand Central Publishing

I recently have been raiding my aunt’s bookshelf (I’m visiting), and just finished reading David Baldacci’s 2009 book True Blue.  It was compellingly written and held my interest throughout, but I found it ultimately unsatisfying.

The basic setup: Mace Perry is a former Washington DC cop who has just served two years in prison after being framed for crimes she did not (willingly) commit.  She’s the main protagonist.  Her sister Beth is the DC Police Chief, a fact that both complicates and simplifies her life. 

Her sort-of-accidental sidekick is a lawyer named Roy Kingman, who is a former collegiate basketball player and now works for a high-end law firm.  He discovers the second body of the book when he opens the fridge in the break room and it falls into his arms.

David Baldacci sure knows how to hook in a reader.

True Blue was one of those “over the top” books: exaggerated characters pulling badass shit and getting away with it.  Vast, deep government conspiracy.  Fabulous wealth and massive, corrupt power.  All that stuff. There was a lot of basketball, some patriotism, and a lot of ambiguous morality. 

I found its resolution unsatisfying because the protagonist solves the crime, but does not achieve her primary objective—and in the process, she and Roy break a lot of laws, for which they do not seem to answer. Although there appears to be a mutual attraction between Mace and Roy, we never get any action, beyond a fairly chaste kiss.

At the end of the book I don’t have much sense of “what happens next.”  What will Mace do now?  She’s still not a cop.  Will she and Roy wander off in separate directions?  What will Roy do, now that he’s been canned from his cushy job?  I checked to see if Baldacci wrote a sequel, but apparently not so far, so we may never know.

Image Credits: The cover image is courtesy of the author's website.  The True Blue page there includes a link for purchasing the book, as well as a short synopsis and background information. The photo of Baldacci is taken from an interview (well worth reading) on the Bitter Lawyer blog.