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Sarasota News Leader November 23, 2012 "I guess Chef Jean Bouvier, who hires James Lessor and Skip Moore of the More or Less Detective Agency," said Bruns. "He's sort of a combination of some of the more eccen- tric, odd and peculiar chefs you see on The Cooking Channel … Wait, I guess the truth is I think the best is the woman who never makes an appearance, the soon-to-be-famous sous chef who's killed in the beginning of the book. It was kind of interesting; I've never tak- en a character and made them a lead charac- ter without them being alive to speak. But you get to know her as the story unfolds." Asked how the changing world of publishing, with new electronic gadgets and the Inter- net, has affected authors, Bruns said, "It's un- charted territory. In some cases, particularly with small publishers, it makes them a little more agreeable to publish a book, because a big chunk of any book's sales will be in the electronic formats and doesn't have all the costs of printing a hardback. My book is be- ing released in all formats at the same time: hardback, paperback, the various electronic versions — and Brilliance audio is putting out the audio version. So hardbacks, which are Page 75 expensive, are still printed, but fewer than ever, and so it costs less to publish." Bob Gussin weighed in then with his opinion that Hot Stuff indeed is the best so far in the Stuff mystery series. "Don has given his two lead characters a lit- tle more depth," Gussin said. "The previous books were light, funny. His writing, as with most writers, has matured, and I think it shows in Hot Stuff." Asked how Oceanview is coping with the changing world of books, Gussin said, "I think it is affecting the big publishers, who are used to huge hardback print runs. Half of our book sales are in e-books, and we expect that to increase. We mourn the loss of the indepen- dent bookstore. Losing Circle Books [on St. Armands] was a big blow, but selling online allows for authors, publishers and books to still be a vibrant, growing business." Hot Stuff by Don Bruns is available from your favorite bookstore or Amazon or directly from Oceanviewpub.com, in whatever form you, the reader, prefer these days — electronic or the old-fashioned variety with pages you ac- tually can turn. % Author Don Bruns (center) chats with fans during the launch party for his new book hosted by Oceanview Publishing. Photo by Scott Proffitt