Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Getting off on Frank Sinatra
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 12/17/1952
WEBSITE: https://meganedwards.com/
CITY: Las Vegas
STATE: NV
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Edwards * https://living-las-vegas.com/author/megan/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2010022944
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2010022944
HEADING: Edwards, Megan
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670 __ |a Caution funny signs ahead, c2008: |b t.p. (Megan Edwards)
PERSONAL
Born December 17, 1952, in Great Lakes, IL; married Mark Sedenquist (a travel columnist).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, journalist, and editor.
WRITINGS
Also author of website Road Trip America, 1996; executive editor of website Living Las Vegas. Contributor to anthologies, including The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Short Stories Inspired by Iconic Las Vegas Photographs, Stephens Press (Las Vegas, NV), 2010. Contributing writer, Desert Companion, Nevada Public Radio, 2012—.
SIDELIGHTS
Megan Edwards began working as an independent writer in the early 1990s, following a career as a teacher, school principal, and journalist. She and her husband lost their California home to an out-of-control wildfire. The couple then purchased a motor home and began a series of trips across the country that Edwards chronicled on a blog called Road Trip America. “Not only was it a wonderful experience, it provided me with settings and characters to last a lifetime,” Edwards said in an interview with a contributor to the website Where the Reader Grows. “I wouldn’t have burned my house down to make it happen, but I am thankful to have had such an unusual opportunity to explore North America.”
Later, Edwards explained in a short autobiographical sketch appearing on her website, she released some of the stories about their travels in the book Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, “six years after all my earthly possessions went up in smoke.” “This tapestry of life on the road weaves the best of travel, technology, survival skills, and relationships,” enthused Jo-Anne Mary Benson in Library Journal. Later she released a collection of pictures that had originally appeared on Road Trip America titled Caution: Funny Signs Ahead. Edwards explained on her website that while she was traveling she “started my first novel. Eager to add detail beyond the stereotypical, I visited Las Vegas to do some research. I’m still here … years later.”
Edwards published three novels in 2017: two mystery novels and a love story. Her first published novel, Getting Off on Frank Sinatra, features journalist Copper Black and is set in Las Vegas. “Black is a reporter at the fictional Las Vegas Light newspaper who accidentally discovers the dead body of Marilyn Weaver, the founder of an exclusive private school whom Black had interviewed just hours before,” stated Carl Kozlowski in the Pasadena Weekly. “Drawn into the resulting murder investigation, she not only has to evade the sociopathic killer, a suspicious homicide detective and a disturbed cowgirl, but also deal with the fact that her boyfriend has just impregnated his not-quite-ex-wife.” “Copper learns enough secrets to make deadly enemies,” said a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “before emerging bruised, battered, [and] victorious.”
Critics enjoyed Edwards’s first mystery. “Copper herself is written as a good-hearted millennial with a touch of attention deficit disorder,” explained Gary Presley in ForeWord. “She speaks in snappy, sometimes off-kilter language; she is smart, but … [has] a short attention span.” “Copper’s debut has enough pizzazz to make readers want to try just one more roll of the dice,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. “This is a wacky adventure,” assessed Francine Brokaw in the Provo Daily Herald, “filled with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for readers as they take on the city of neon signs right alongside this new sleuth.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Daily Herald (Provo, UT), March 3, 2017, Francine Brokaw, review of Getting Off on Frank Sinatra.
ForeWord, February 27, 2017, Gary Presley, review of Getting Off on Frank Sinatra.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2017, review of Getting Off on Frank Sinatra.
Library Journal, May 1, 1999, Jo-Anne Mary Benson, review of Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, p. 100.
Publishers Weekly, January 9, 2017, review of Getting Off on Frank Sinatra, p. 45; July 3, 2017, review of Strings: A Love Story, p. 60; September 11, 2017, review of Full Service Blonde.
ONLINE
Fab Foods, http://fabulousfoods.com/ (September 1, 2007), review of Roads from the Ashes.
Living Las Vegas, https://living-las-vegas.com/ (February 28, 2017), H.G. McKinnis, review of Getting Off on Frank Sinatra; (October 18, 2017), author profile.
Megan Edwards Website, https://meganedwards.com (October 18, 2017), author profile.
Pasadena Weekly, https://www.pasadenaweekly.com/ (June 15, 2017), Carl Kozlowski, “Megan Edwards Found a Career as a Novelist after Losing Her Home in the Altadena Fire of 1993.”
Where the Reader Grows, http://www.wherethereadergrows.com/ (March 13, 2017), “Review and Author Q&A: Getting Off on Frank Sinatra by Megan Edwards.”*
Megan Edwards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Megan Frances Edwards (born December 17, 1952) is an American writer and editor.
Megan Edwards
Edwards was born in Great Lakes, Illinois, near North Chicago. She graduated with a B.A. from Scripps College in classics and an M.A. in education from Claremont Graduate University, after which she worked in Germany, Greece, California, Texas, and Nevada, as a teacher and also a school principal. She was also a columnist (1993–1998) for the Pasadena Weekly and a contributing writer (2000–2001) for the Las Vegas Weekly.
On October 27, 1993, the house where she and her husband lived in California burned down in a wildfire, destroying nearly all their possessions. Instead of rebuilding, they bought a custom motorhome, christened it "Phoenix One" and began a road trip that lasted six years. During this time the couple pioneered the (then difficult) art of connecting to the Internet while traveling.[1][2] One result was "RoadTrip America", a web resource started in 1996 for touring in North America.
The first four years of her adventures in Phoenix One are recorded in the book "Roads from the Ashes".[3] In general, the book was well received.[4][5][6][7][8]
In 2008 a collection titled "Caution: Funny Signs Ahead" was published. The book contains pictures of actual signs that are humorous due to juxtapositions, misspellings, double entendres, etc., and which were originally published online at RoadTripAmerica.com.[9]
In 2010 Edwards contributed a short story to "The Perpetual Engine of Hope," an anthology featuring stories written by seven Las Vegas writers.[10] She became a contributing writer for Nevada Public Radio's Desert Companion magazine in 2012.
In 2017, Edwards debut novel "Getting off on Frank Sinatra: A Copper Black Mystery," was published by Imbrifex Books, March 2017.[11]
About M.E.
Megan Edwards
Photo by Sean L. Taylor
I was born around the time cool houses in Las Vegas boasted swimming pools shaped like guitars and sparkles in their ceilings. I would not discover this for several decades, having sprung into being on the outskirts of Chicago. It would be years before I learned about slot machines, the Rat Pack, or even Elvis Presley. Even by the time I finished college, all I knew about Las Vegas was that you could get a cheap prime rib dinner on the Strip on your way to Zion. Beyond that, the place held no appeal. I don’t come from a smoking-and-gambling kind of family. “Sin City” was something to look down on.
Honoring familial respect for the classics, I studied Greek and Latin in school. I spent time in Italy and Greece visiting ancient sites and soaking up the wonders of the past. Not surprisingly, I taught Latin after that. I was following a well-worn, well-regarded path grounded in the past and heading toward a predictable future.
Life has a way of disregarding maps, though. My first marriage imploded. My new husband and I had just celebrated our third anniversary when our house burned down. Suddenly “stuffless,” I focused less on the wonders of the past and pondered the possibilities my own future held.
Palms Girls and M.E.
Enjoying the view at the top of The Palms with the lovely — and tall — “Palms Girls”
Long story short, I went from talking about Caesar’s Rome to gawking at Caesars Palace in the space of about seven years. My first book was published during that time. Roads from the Ashes is a memoir about living on the road for six years after all my earthly possessions went up in smoke. I started my first novel. Eager to add detail beyond the stereotypical, I visited Las Vegas to do some research. I’m still here, seventeen years later.
While I could never have predicted that life would introduce me to Las Vegas and that Las Vegas would beguile me into staying, it is now my favorite bit of serendipity. My adopted city, which reinvents itself at least once a decade, provides me with more stories than I could ever hope to tell. Guitar-shaped swimming pools are now “historic.” Elvis has a shrine. “Sin City,” the same place I grew up disdaining, fascinates me with its unique history and unpredictable evolution every day.
Thanks for checking out my site!
About Megan Edwards
Website
Email
twitter
Rss
Megan Edwards is Executive Editor of Living-Las-Vegas. Her new novel, Strings: A Love Story, is now available. She's also the author of Getting off on Frank Sinatra, a Las Vegas mystery, and Roads from the Ashes, the story of a six-year road trip that began with a California wildfire that burned her house down. Before that cleansing fire, Megan lived and worked in Costa Rica, Germany, Greece, California, and Texas. Now at home in Las Vegas, Megan's at work writing more novels set in her fabulous adopted hometown. Learn more at meganedwards.com
Monday, March 13, 2017
REVIEW and AUTHOR Q&A: Getting off on Frank Sinatra by Megan Edwards
NO COMMENTS AUTHOR INTERVIEW, AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT, COPPER BLACK MYSTERY, CRIME FICTION, FICTION, GETTING OFF ON FRANK SINATRA, IMBRIFEX, LAS VEGAS, MEGAN EDWARDS, MYSTERY, Q&A, REVIEWS, SERIES, SMITH PUBLICITY
Getting off on Frank Sinatra
My rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Imbrifex / Smith Publicity
Publishes March 14, 2017
Take a look below for a synopsis of the story, my review and a Q&A with the author (provided by Smith Publicity).
From the back of the cover: Aspiring journalist Copper Black has just found out that her boyfriend is responsible for his not-quite-ex-wife's pregnancy. An unexpected house-sitting job at a notorious Vegas "party house" should provide much-needed distraction, but Copper's summer takes a turn for the worse when she discovers the dead body of a local philanthropist behind a door she should never have opened. As she tries to solve the murder, deal with her family, advance her career, and sort out her love life, Copper stirs up a world of trouble. Her efforts to foil a sociopath, evade a suspicious homicide detective, and trap a killer make Getting off on Frank Sinatra a nonstop roller coaster of a read.
Review: Read in one-sitting, this is a delightful, fun and entertaining read from start to finish. As a habitual visitor to Las Vegas it was fun to read a book in this setting and learn more about the history and backdrop of one of the most exciting places in the United States. Copper is quite the fun character - she misplaces her phone more than any person that I know and clearly doesn't make the best decisions re her love life... this is real life people! I'm utterly fascinated with the house she agrees to sit and now want to take on meat-eating plants and tortoises!
While I didn't feel the story was very suspenseful or twisty, it kept me turning the pages and I fell in love with Copper Black (what a cool name). She certainly has a lot to deal with between her exes, new interests, parents and their complex lives, the situations she gets herself in and maintaining her career. This is a fantastic read for those looking for a lighter mystery that will make you smile, shake your head and learn more about Sin City. I rated this solely based on entertainment value. What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there, no matter what you think. 😉
Author Q&A
1. What is your name and where can you be found? Website, Facebook, Twitter
Megan Edwards
Web: https://meganedwards.com
Authors Guild: https://www.authorsguild.net/services/members/1660
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megan.edwards.31
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeganEdwards
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganfedwards/
2. Other than writing, what is your favorite hobby or thing you do for fun?
Road trips! I’ve been a road trip junkie all my life. After my house burned down in a wildfire, I spent nearly seven years on an extended road trip all over The U.S. and Canada. Not only was it a wonderful experience, it provided me with settings and characters to last a lifetime. I wouldn’t have burned my house down to make it happen, but I am thankful to have had such an unusual opportunity to explore North America.
These days, my road trips are shorter, but I’m fortunate to live in a city surrounded by fabulous natural wonders and western history. Even two hours is enough time for a road trip to someplace cool, and a weekend offers world-class possibilities: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Lake Tahoe, and the list goes on.
3. How long have you been writing? How many books have you written – including those unpublished?
I began my professional writing career 18 years ago with a newspaper column that I wrote for five years. I’m the author of a three published books and three unpublished ones. Getting off on Frank Sinatra is my first published novel. Two more of my novels will be released this year. Full Service Blonde, a prequel to Getting off on Frank Sinatra, will be released in November. Strings: A Love Story is the tale of star-crossed lovers and a very expensive violin. It’s due out in September.
4. What genres do you like to write about? Do you also read those same genres?
I like thrillers and mysteries. I read those genres along with others, and I also enjoy nonfiction.
5. Why did you write your book? Is it inspired by true events?
I came to Las Vegas in 1999 to do research on a novel I had begun writing. The main character was from Las Vegas, and I wanted to avoid basing her on clichéd stereotypes. I thought I could learn everything I needed to know in six weeks, but Las Vegas had other plans. Within a week, I realized the city was nothing like what I expected. Six months later, I was moving into my new home in a city I never dreamed I’d love.
I wanted to write a novel that reflected my experience getting to know Las Vegas. It surprised and enchanted me back then, and it still is, even after seventeen years. Although the story is fictional, some events, settings, and characters were inspired by real ones.
6. How did you begin your project? Did you write outlines and character profiles, jump right in or focus on one section at a time?
I decided on the general arc of the story I wanted to tell and did some outlining. I profiled the major characters. Everything always morphs as I write, but I do like having a basic map when I start out.
7. Where do you like to write? Do you have a “ritual” you do before writing?
I like to write at my desk in my home office, and I also enjoy writing at Grouchy John’s, a wonderful coffee house not far from my home. It’s filled with books, art, and friendly folks, and their cappuccino is fantastic.
I don’t have a precise ritual, but I do use tricks to get myself “primed.” Most often, I read what I wrote at my last session. That’s usually enough to get my motor running. If it doesn’t, I force myself to type a sentence—any sentence. Then I make myself type another one. It’s sort of like starting a lawn mower. I keep yanking that chain until the motor catches. Sooner or later, it always does. I’m grateful for the days when it starts on its own!
8. What is your next project?
I’m working on the novel that first brought me to Las Vegas for what I thought would be six weeks of research. I finished it back then and got my first agent, but no publisher picked it up. I shelved the project, but I kept thinking about it. I dusted it off a few months ago, and I’m finishing up a draft of a whole new version. I was disappointed when it didn’t sell back in 2000, but now I’m happy about it. Some books need more baking time.
9. Who do you ask first to look over your writing?
My husband has always been my greatest supporter and my harshest critic. I know I can trust him to tell me the truth, so he gets the first look.
10. What is your favorite beverage and food to eat while writing?
I am a coffee lover. I usually don’t eat while writing, but if I do, I’ll likely munch on carrots or an apple. I’d eat popcorn, but I don’t like getting little pieces stuck in my keyboard.
Megan Edwards found a career as a novelist after losing her home In the Altadena fire of 1993
Posted by Carl Kozlowski | Jun 15, 2017 | 0 |
Megan Edwards found a career as a novelist after losing her home In the Altadena fire of 1993
Altadena fire
If life is a journey filled with unexpected twists and turns, then Megan Edwards is someone who has done more than her fair share of driving. After her house burned to the ground in the epic 1993 Altadena wildfire that destroyed 200 homes, she and her husband Mark Sedenquist opted to hit the road with their dog in a custom-built motor home for a planned six-month road trip that wound up lasting six years.
Their final destination was Las Vegas, where Edwards had planned to spend a few weeks researching a novel set in the famed gambling utopia. But she and Sedenquist — the publisher of roadtripamerica.com and a travel columnist for MSNBC— loved the area so much they never left, settling into another home there for the past 18 years.
Edwards has become an expert on the “other side” of a city that is often overshadowed by its famed Strip, founding the site Living-LasVegas.com. But more importantly, she began a flurry of writing that will result in three novels being released by the end of this year.
That impressive feat has led to an appearance Wednesday night at Flintridge Books in La Cañada Flintridge, where Edwards will discuss her debut novel, “Getting Off on Frank Sinatra: A Copper Black Mystery,” and the rest of her unusual life.
“I wrote my travel memoir ‘Roads from the Ashes’ in 1999, which gave me the inspiration to try my hand at fiction,” Edwards recalls. “I started writing a novel that required my coming to Vegas awhile because I knew nothing about it other than a childhood bias against it. My main character needed to be here, and I needed to know more to write it.
“I came for a few weeks, and I’m still here, because it’s a fascinating place to live and it’s nice,” she continues. “The book I came to live here for will come out in 2019, but as I was working on that, I got inspired to finish my book on Copper Black first.”
In “Sinatra,” Black is a reporter at the fictional Las Vegas Light newspaper who accidentally discovers the dead body of Marilyn Weaver, the founder of an exclusive private school whom Black had interviewed just hours before. Drawn into the resulting murder investigation, she not only has to evade the sociopathic killer, a suspicious homicide detective and a disturbed cowgirl, but also deal with the fact that her boyfriend has just impregnated his not-quite-ex-wife.
Edwards’ creation of Black was partly inspired by her own brief stint as a writer for the Pasadena Weekly. She had just started writing a column about the local singles scene called “Getting Out There” a month before the wildfire occurred, and was so devoted that she even submitted one the week her house went up in flames.
“The fire was a pretty big surprise, and it completely cleaned us out except for our cars and our dog,” says Edwards. “My husband was a real estate broker and property manager and had just moved his office to the house, and he didn’t have an ID card left after the fire.
“Not having any stuff is remarkably liberating, and I very rapidly realized it gave us opportunities we might never have again — like hitting the road in an RV because we didn’t have to store anything,” she continues. “I don’t think either of us thought we would still be out there after six years, and we certainly would never dream we’d wind up in Las Vegas.”
Edwards had often “looked down upon” Las Vegas while spending her high school years in Sierra Madre and Pasadena, as her nature-loving family drove through the desert metropolis while en route to vacations in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park in Utah. But when she and Sedenquist settled into an RV park outside Vegas so she could do her novel research, she wound up discovering there was much more to the city than its famous flash.
“I made Copper a transplant to Vegas because I was one myself, and wanted her to have her discover the city like I did,” explains Edwards. “Beyond the Strip, it’s a surprisingly conservative place to live, because it was founded by Mormons and still has the biggest Mormon population outside of Utah. There’s a huge community of Cubans that started after Cuban casino workers fled here after Castro’s revolution, and it’s known as the ninth island of Hawaii because so many Hawaiians wind up here.”
“Sinatra” was released in March and is the first in a planned trilogy of Black’s adventures, with the second book “Full Service Blonde” scheduled for November. And in September, Edwards will release the novel “Strings,” a romance involving a couple affected by the mysterious discovery of a rare and long-lost violin.
Her ties to the Pasadena area remain strong, as she and Sedenquist visit his mother in La Cañada Flintridge every month. Even better, the novel slated for 2019 strongly involves Caltech.
“That will be a literary novel, and the main character is a woman who was born and raised in Vegas but studied Latin in a college prep program,” says Edwards. “She gets involved as an interpreter in a secret Caltech time-travel project that brings Julius Caesar to the present day. Things don’t go as planned and they wind up in Vegas, where her contacts get them a fancy suite in Caesar’s Palace, because where else is he going to stay?”
Megan Edwards will discuss and sign “Getting Off on Frank Sinatra: A Copper Black Mystery” at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Flintridge Books, 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge. Call (818) 790-0717 or visit flintridgebooks.com.
Print Marked Items
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra
Gary Presley
ForeWord.
(Feb. 27, 2017): From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2017 ForeWord
http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Megan Edwards; GETTING OFF ON FRANK SINATRA; Imbrifex Books (Fiction: Mystery) 15.00 ISBN:
9780997236903
Byline: Gary Presley
A young detective stumbles over clues in this light and amusing mystery.
Megan Edwards's Getting Off on Frank Sinatra debuts a mystery series featuring Copper Black, a newbie writer for Sin
City's newspaper, the Las Vegas Light.
Young and ambitious, Copper wrangles an invitation to a diamond-and-champagne fundraiser seeking introductions to
the city's movers and shakers. She meets Vegas socialite Marilyn Weaver, who is involved with Parks Academy, a
cutting-edge private school. When Marilyn is murdered, Copper gets caught up in the hunt for her killer.
Further complications arise, some lending to the story's authentic foundations: Copper's recent ex-boyfriend; a selfabsorbed
coworker whom she could fall for. A stint house-sitting finds Copper in a setting with mobsters, and there may
be a sexual predator at Parks Academy. Even Copper's brother finds himself in the mix, as he works to build a center for
the homeless.
Copper becomes obsessed with finding Weaver's killer. She comes to believe that there are connections with her
brother's project, the school, even the mobsters -- all of which leaves her with little time to cope with personal issues,
like her parents' divorce following her father's decision to come out of the closet.
Characters aren't always fresh in the genre, including the stoic, hard-eyed Las Vegas policeman Detective Booth, who
seems to show up at times that are inconvenient for Copper. Copper herself is written as a good-hearted millennial with
a touch of attention deficit disorder. She speaks in snappy, sometimes off-kilter language; she is smart, but sometimes
plagued with a short attention span. Hers is a personality that well suits her role as a detective, still learning while on the
job.
With a narrative highlighted by light violence, and a fish-out-of-water protagonist stumbling over clues, Edwards's
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra proves to be a nimble beginning for this crime series. Whether Copper matures into Plum
or Millhone country awaits further review.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Presley, Gary. "Getting Off on Frank Sinatra." ForeWord, 27 Feb. 2017. Literature Resource Center,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA483135399&it=r&asid=f33e0e002c2d0b27e7d0727707d29308.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A483135399
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra
Publishers Weekly.
264.2 (Jan. 9, 2017): p45. From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra
Megan Edwards. Imbrifex, $15 trade paper
(320p) ISBN 978-0-9972369-0-3
Edwards (Roads from the Ashes) makes an assured fiction debut. This amusing mystery stars aspiring journalist Copper
Black, a contributor to a Las Vegas, Nev., newspaper, who must navigate a multitude of personal and professional
hurdles. Copper juggles romantic entanglements with almost-divorced David Nussbaum and former boyfriend Daniel
Garside; deals with awkward visits from her mother and her boyfriend, as well as from her father and his boyfriend;
helps her priest brother, Michael, deal with protesters who believe his new homeless-services-center site was an Indian
burial ground; and house-sits for architect Curtis Weaver at the old Nash house, which has a 50-year-old tortoise and a
history of past murders. But her real problems begin when she accidentally discovers the body of Curtis's wife, Marilyn,
founder of Anna Roberts Parks Academy, "the most prestigious school in Las Vegas." While Det. Michael Booth
investigates and makes her feel like a suspect, Copper learns enough secrets to make deadly enemies before emerging
bruised, battered, victorious, and primed for new comic adventures. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Getting Off on Frank Sinatra." Publishers Weekly, 9 Jan. 2017, p. 45. Literature Resource Center,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA477339288&it=r&asid=d5e32989d2e5b3bb7e992d25aba2191c.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A477339288
Edwards, Megan: GETTING OFF ON FRANK
Edwards, Megan: GETTING OFF ON FRANK
SINATRA
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 1, 2017): From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Edwards, Megan GETTING OFF ON FRANK SINATRA Imbrifex. (Adult Fiction) $15.00 3, 14 ISBN: 978-0-9972369-
0-3
A would-be reporter probes a socialite's death.Covering routine community events requires lots of local travel, and
Copper Black, the Las Vegas Light's "calendar girl,"quickly learns that getting off on Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, or any
of Vegas' celebrity-named local streets is a reliable time-saver over fighting the traffic on I-15. If only she could find a
similar shortcut to domestic bliss. First her current flame, David Nussbaum, tells her that an ill-planned visit to his
almost-ex-wife Rebecca has resulted in the anticipated arrival of a son for the still-wed couple. A visit from her college
boyfriend, Daniel Garside, crashes and burns when admirer Sean DuBois turns up at the Nash house, a romantic retreat
where Copper hoped to entertain Daniel. Sean's visit is especially creepy since he's still a suspect in the murder of his
mother, philanthropist Marilyn Weaver. Copper's been touring Marilyn's pet project, the Anna Roberts Parks Academy
in Henderson, hoping a juicy insider article will prompt her boss, Chris Farr, to take her off the calendar and give her a
regular column. Like her love life, her career plans stall when she discovers Marilyn's body in a closet in the Weaver
mansion. Between suspect Sean, disappearing Daniel, and dad-to-be David, Copper seems to have her hands full. But
the aspiring newshound digs deep and finds resources to cope with a life that just keeps coming at her in a city that never
sleeps. Despite an ill-timed and easily guessed solution, Copper's debut has enough pizzazz to make readers want to try
just one more roll of the dice.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Edwards, Megan: GETTING OFF ON FRANK SINATRA." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2017. Literature Resource Center,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475357478&it=r&asid=dd93b0322599da382b5558b20ef32ad1.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475357478
Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life
Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life
on the Virtual Frontier
Jo-Anne Mary Benson
Library Journal.
124.8 (May 1, 1999): p100. From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Edwards, Megan. Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier. Trilogy. May 1999. c.210p.
ISBN 1-891290-01-0. pap. $14.95. TRAV
Most people are reluctant to make drastic changes in their lives, but sometimes events happen that cause us to reevaluate
ourselves and the direction in which we are going. In 1993, after losing their California home to a raging fire,
Edwards, her husband, and Marvin "the road dog" saw an opportunity to set forth on a new mobile lifestyle. Their
ongoing journey resulted in an award-winning web site and a successful marketing company. Readers follow their
adventures from the beginning of the trip to the present. The Phoenix One, the ultimate RV warrior, became a permanent
residence and workplace. Readers will delight in the miracle of the albino buffalo and get caught up in the excitement of
the 42-mile Kinetic Sculpture Race. By sharing unusual treasures--a remote war memorial near Eagles Nest, the
oversized Boeing Surplus Store--Edwards demonstrates the joys of exploration. From the mountains to Manhattan, this
tapestry of life on the road weaves the best of travel, technology, survival skills, and relationships into an engaging work
of art.--Jo-Anne Mary Benson, Osgoode, Ontario
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Benson, Jo-Anne Mary. "Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier." Library Journal, 1
May 1999, p. 100. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA54655123&it=r&asid=1271d9ab345636cb1c1ad4496ad1491a.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A54655123
Strings: A Love Story
Strings: A Love Story
Publishers Weekly.
264.27 (July 3, 2017): p60. From Literature Resource Center.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Strings: A Love Story
Megan Edwards. Imbrifex, $13 trade paper (210p) ISBN 978-1-945501-03-6
Edwards follows two would-be lovers through three decades in this lovely tale of pining and performance. The snobs of
a ritzy 1960s Southern California boarding school are scandalized when Olivia de la Vega, a cleaning lady's daughter, is
cast as the female lead in the school musical. Her first rehearsal stuns her classmates with her talent and catapults costar
Ted Spencer into love. Ted's snooty parents conspire to end the relationship but begrudgingly allow him to break the
family's Yale tradition to pursue his violin training at Juilliard. As he finds massive professional success as a violinist,
Olivia becomes a famous movie star, and their paths continue to cross at intervals that never seem to have the right
timing for a relationship to blossom. Ted narrates the story, slowly revealing how Olivia figured into his acquisition of a
priceless violin that was assumed to have been destroyed. This one-sided perspective obscures some of Olivia's story but
creates a lovely picture of pining and frustrated desire. Edwards's prose glides as smoothly as Ted's playing as she
articulates how deeply teen love shapes her characters' adult lives. Readers wanting to dwell on the melancholy of illtimed
loved will devour this beautiful novel. (Sept.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Strings: A Love Story." Publishers Weekly, 3 July 2017, p. 60. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=LitRC&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498381392&it=r&asid=d79420287bcaee87a8ceb191f375e32a.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498381392
Book review: 'Getting off on Frank Sinatra' by Megan Edwards
Francine Brokaw Community Columnist Mar 3, 2017
'Getting Off on Frank Sinatra'
Megan Edwards knows about Las Vegas, and the first rule of writing is to write what you know.
The title of her book “Getting Off on Frank Sinatra” is a bit misleading, especially if you are looking for something about Old Blue Eyes. The Frank Sinatra in the title refers to the name of the freeway exit in Las Vegas. That gives you a bit of insight into the wit of this first-time novelist.
“Getting off on Frank Sinatra” is a wild romp through Sin City through the eyes of the main character, Copper Black, who finds herself knee deep in a murder mystery.
There are many fun elements in the story, including the house — or mansion — she house-sits. What luck getting to house-sit an amazing mansion that has everything anyone could want, especially when she is coming from a small apartment. And the house is rich in Las Vegas history.
Copper is a journalist looking for a good story so she sets her sights on writing about a private school. She then discovers a dead body. This is no ordinary dead body. It’s the body of the founder of the school. Now, not only does she have the story about the school, she has a murder story.
Copper manages to stir up trouble but she also has a fun outlook on life. This is a wacky adventure filled with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for readers as they take on the city of neon signs right alongside this new sleuth, who also happens to have a boyfriend that is having a baby with his ex-wife, which puts a bit of a damper on their relationship.
There are some interesting characters in the novel, but none like that of Copper Black. This woman has a lot going on and manages to juggle everything with her delightful sense of humor.
Edwards lived in Los Angeles. After a wildfire destroyed everything, she and her husband traveled and ended up settling in Las Vegas, where she founded www.Living-Las-Vegas.com, so you know she knows all the ins and outs of this city.
“Getting off on Frank Sinatra: A Copper Black Mystery” is the first in a series.
— Series: A Copper Black Mystery (Book 1)
Paperback: 309 pages
Publisher: Imbrifex Books (March 14, 2017)
H.G. McKinnis
February 28, 2017
“Getting off on Frank Sinatra,” a book review
GOOFS
“Getting off on Frank Sinatra”
a debut novel by Megan Edwards
What’s a Vegas girl to do when the chips are down? What else? Get off on Frank Sinatra.
Getting Off on Frank Sinatra is a fun-filled thrill-ride on the day-time side of Las Vegas. After a romantic dinner with her current boyfriend, David, Copper Black retires to his sofa expecting an intimate end to the evening. Instead, David tells her that his not-quite-ex-wife is pregnant. The announcement not only kills the mood, it ends the relationship, and Copper doubles down on her journalism career determined to write a break-out story that will rocket her up the news ladder and reward her with her very own column.
While working on a story featuring the Neon Boneyard, Copper meets Marilyn, the philanthropic founder and principal of a cutting-edge school for talented students. Just the warm-fuzzy story she needs, she thinks. In an unexpected stroke of luck, Marilyn also hooks Copper up with a housesitting job, taking care of an old Mafia party house with a past full of secrets and crime.
Over the next few days, Copper meets an elderly tortoise, a horror-movie director, and a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants. But when she opens a closet and finds a freshly dead body, her human interest story spirals into a dark tale of psychological abuse and murder.
megan edwards
Megan Edwards at Red Spring
Photo by Sean Taylor
As the clues to the killer’s identity lead nowhere, and the detective in charge starts to focus on Copper, she pulls out all her journalistic snooping skills to find the murderer, but she needs to hurry, because the killer is looking for her.
Author Megan Edwards brings to Las Vegas an expert eye for quirky, and a knowledge of hidden sights even the natives might miss – the Mob museum, the Neon Boneyard, the Valley of Fire, and, of course the Strip. She takes us on a tour of the city’s stranger side, driving up and down the side streets of Sin City in Copper’s white minivan nicknamed the maxi-pad.
This quirky, funny and sometimes tragic account of a young woman trying to make her way in a competitive field is Megan’s love letter to a city well known, but little understood. There is a book launch party at The Writer’s Block on Tuesday, March 14th. More information about the party here.
Full Service Blonde: A Copper Black Mystery
Megan Edwards. Imbrifex, $15 trade paper (306p) ISBN 978-1-9455010-0-5
MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Edwards’s entertaining prequel to Getting Off on Frank Sinatra finds East Coast transplant Copper Black working at a Las Vegas, Nev., newspaper as a recently hired assistant editor, doing jobs like getting coffee for the arts and entertainment editor. Eager to make her mark as a journalist, Copper seizes the chance to accompany a colleague to interview Victoria McKimber, who has just flown back from an appearance on TV’s Morning Show in New York. Victoria, the winner of a sales contest sponsored by a beauty products company, has become a hot news item since the company’s top brass rescinded her crown and other perks after learning she worked as a prostitute at a Nevada brothel. Victoria later dies in an unlikely accident, and a visit to her husband ends with Copper stealing Victoria’s tape recorder. Meanwhile, Copper’s Episcopal priest brother and his wife are having trouble putting together a big land deal for the Alliance for the Homeless. Readers will enjoy smart, sassy Copper as she handles family and professional crises with aplomb. (Nov.)
Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier
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Travel book review of Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier by Megan Edwards
What would you do if a fire destroyed your home and virtually all your belongings? Megan Edwards and husband Mark Sedenquist had to ask themselves just that in 1993 when a wildfire destroyed their California home. Rather than lament their situation, Megan and Mark looked at it as an opportunity. Their current "lightness" made it easy to pursue a dream that most people only fantasize about. They bought a motorhome, gathered up their dog Marvin and pointed the wheels towards an adventurous new way of living on the road.
Megan and Mark were also pioneers in the early days of the internet when they launched their website RoadTripAmerica.com soon after hitting the road. What makes RTA so pioneering is not its longevity, but the fact that Megan and Mark run the entire operation from their motorhome on the road.
Roads from the Ashes is an interesting account of one couple's journeys, not only on the open roads of America, but within their own hearts. It is a story of compromising, learning, growing and not only accepting but embracing the curveballs that life always manages to throw. It also serves as inspiration that, with perseverance, we can make our dreams come true.
Whether you are considering a mobile lifestyle yourself, or are a nine to fiver with a gypsy's soul, this book is a fun and fascinating read.
For more information about life on the road and especially about staying wihrefessly connected, be sure to follow this link and visit Megan and Mark's website.