Recently there was a contest at E-guerrilla (author Julie Smith's blog) to name the best-selling mystery author who did the artwork for Phone Kitten, an e-book written by Marika Christian (available at booksBnimble and also at Amazon.com). Phone Kitten was a fun book to read. I had paid attention to the credits in Phone Kitten and knew this answer....Nevada Barr did that artwork. I entered the contest and I won.
My prize for winning this contest was my choice of one of Julie Smith's books, inscribed to me by Julie. I chose to ask "Aunt Julie" (not related, just how I think of her because of reading author Greg Herren's blog) if she had a copy of Louisiana Hotshot. She did, and she inscribed it to me and sent it on its way. I received it yesterday and now it is neatly filed with the other Julie Smith books in my collection.
I already had an uncorrected proof copy of Louisiana Hotshot (trade paperback) which Julie kindly inscribed to me at the Garden District bookstore one year during our visit to New Orleans. I will be keeping that copy, but am pleased to have the hardcover version to go into my collection of her books. The uncorrected proof copy was one I found on eBay. Julie asked where I got the copy and inscribed it appropriately, as seen in the photo below.
Most of my collection of Julie Smith books are in hardcover. There are 5 paperback books in this collection. They are: Death Turns A Trick, True-Life Adventure, Tourist Trap, Dead In The Water, and Other People's Skeletons. I keep looking at book sales and hoping that one day I will be able to find these books in hardcover, at a price I can afford.
My collection of Julie Smith books is just a small portion of a much larger collection of books written by New Orleans authors and/or about New Orleans. In a future post, I will show you the "bigger picture" of the New Orleans book collection.
