Editing by Elizabeth

June 06, 2014

Reaching for the Light by Sam Hawken

Very pleased to welcome Sam Hawken back to the blog. For my money, Sam Hawken is one of the most underrated authors working in crime fiction today, and it’s been my pleasure to both read and review Sam’s novels, such as The Dead Women of Juárez and Juárez Dance, as well as work with him on the Camaro Espinoza novellas (currently on hiatus). Sam’s novel Tequila Sunset, which has already had a successful run in the UK, is set for its official US release next week (though some outlets are already selling it).

Two years ago saw the US release of my debut novel, The Dead Women of Juárez. Nominated for a Crime Writers Association John Creasy New Blood Dagger — whew, that’s a long name! — it had garnered some degree of critical and commercial success in the UK, where it was first published. When it hit over here, however, it made no impact at all. Few copies were sold and fewer readers were satisfied with what they read. One memorable Goodreads review declared that the book “commits entertainment suicide” at the midpoint, when a major plot twist kicks in. Not exactly the sort of thing that breeds confidence. People didn’t like the characters, they didn’t like the setting and they weren’t all that interested in the plight of the real dead women of Juárez, the victims of what Mexicans call the feminicidios.

I wrote another Mexico-set novel after The Dead Women, this one called Tequila Sunset. It was likewise critically lauded and the Crime Writers Association again nominated it for an award, this time the far more easily named Gold Dagger. This was satisfying, as you might expect. To make matters even more gratifying, Tequila Sunset did so well in the UK that it even went bestseller. And when the book was tapped for an American release, Publishers Weekly and Booklist raved. This was a whole other level, and it got me thinking about what was so different about this book than the one that came before.

The Dead Women is essentially two interlocking stories with lead characters who are, shall we say, deeply flawed. There is very little light in the novel and it both turns and ends on bleak notes. Some got what I was going for and even liked it, but I think it’s safe to say most didn’t. Entertainment suicide, indeed. →

June 01, 2014

Palm Beach Busybodies

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May 02, 2014

Hustle by Tom Pitts

He hated Rich for his cynicism, for his instinctual inability to trust anyone. He didn’t want to end up that way, with that black hole for a heart.

Street hustler Donny is wise to be concerned about that path he’s walking. Though relatively new to the life of a male prostitute turning tricks with gay men in order to fund his drug habit, he’s already been in long enough to know it’s a fast track to a dead end. Donny doesn’t have to look far to see what lies in store for him, after all.

Big Rich, Donny’s friend and mentor of sorts, has been in the life longer than any of the other guys working the corner in San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin where Donny plies his trade. And while Donny’s learned some valuable lessons for staying alive and getting over from Rich, there’s no denying they’re both going nowhere fast, spinning their wheels waiting for the next high or the next john, whichever happens to be on deck.

The opportunity to escape the boomerang cycle of drugs-hooking-drugs presents itself in the form of Gabriel Thaxton, one of Rich’s routine customers. Thaxton is a wealthy, well-known defense attorney, one Rich is convinced will be willing to pay handsomely to keep his proclivity for young, gay men a secret.

Rich’s plan is for the two of them to use a cell phone to record Thaxton in a compromising position, then threaten to upload it to YouTube unless they’re paid off—a seemingly solid, if sleazy, plan. It would have been, that is, if Thaxton weren’t already so far down the blackmail rabbit hole he’s willing to go to extreme measures to get out from under it, enlisting the help of a biker ex-client of his to do whatever it takes to remove the threat. If they don’t watch their step, Donny and Rich may just end up collateral damage in a situation far beyond their control. →

April 30, 2014

Big Money by Jack Getze

Here it is again, that special Austin Carr moment when I know I am about to speak words that will produce inevitable, disastrous repercussions.

Stockbroker Austin Carr can be forgiven for his somewhat bleak outlook. After all, the divorced father of two is barely on the comeback trail following a pretty rough series of events in the first entry in the series, Big Numbers.

Big Money, the second chance for readers to take Carr for a spin, finds Austin serving as a consultant/advisor at the investment firm he’s a part owner of, Shore Securities, while he waits for the suspension on his license to be lifted.

Trouble is, it may not matter whether or not he gets that license back, because Shore is being investigated by the feds for allegedly commingling funds, a problem his boss, Vic Bonacelli, leaves Austin to handle while Vic runs off to Tuscany. Of course, if that were the only problem Austin had to deal with he may still be okay.

Instead, he’s also saddled with keeping an eye on Vic’s daughter, who’s in the midst of a messy breakup, and Vic’s mother, the infamous Mama Bones, who’s been known to have a hand in some underhanded dealings involving bookmaking…and bingo fixing. (Don’t ask.) →

April 28, 2014

This Thing of Ours by Jack Getze

Anyone who’s been around the crime fiction community for any length of time knows the name Jack Getze. In addition to serving as the Fiction Editor for Spinetingler Magazine, Jack is an accomplished author himself, his work having appeared in A Twist of Noir, Beat to a Pulp and The Big Adios, among others. Today I’m pleased to welcome Jack for a guest post in conjunction with his Austin Carr Mystery series (Big Numbers and Big Money having been reissued by Down and Out Books), wherein Jack proves that, once again, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction, and that some authors have very deep wells from which to pull for inspiration.

He was short, dark and handsome, with thick black hair and tunneling eyes that could warm you with a twinkle or drive you away with quick, venomous anger. The ex-boxer’s temper and willingness to fight were legendary, but so was his generosity, and so was his love for Sam, the German Sheppard who went with him everywhere. In the car or on his leash, the tri-colored, one hundred pound dog named Sam was Domenic’s closest friend.

“We’d be loafing on the job, smoking,” one of his former workmen recalled. “We’d see and hear that huge dog of his in plenty of time to get back to work before Dom arrived. We fooled him every time, convinced him we were one of his hardest-working crews. Man, we loved Sam.”

That workman’s employer, Sam’s owner, the man with the legendary temper, was also my father-in-law. He owned a successful electrical contracting business, served in World War II and worked like a dog all his life. Everyone called him Dom except his mother-in-law, Angelina, who called him Don as a passive-aggressive insult. (You had to love Angelina). And were it not for Dom and his daughter, who single-handedly dragged me to Jersey, the crazy story that is Big Numbers would not have turned into a series.

Let’s face facts, stockbrokers are boring by themselves. Austin Carr needed trouble with the mob. And luckily for me, my father-in-law provided introductions. Not personally (Well, there was that time Dom and I met the handsome “Big Frank” Condi in a restaurant), but mostly through stories about Dom in the newspaper. Trust me, Dom was not the kind of man you slap on the shoulder and say, “So Dom, tell me about this limo ride. Were you scared?” →

April 11, 2014

Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat Graphic Novel Kickstarter Campaign

It’s no secret that I love the hell out of anything and everything Andrez Bergen is involved with. In fact, his novel Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat (TSMG) is one of my all-time favorite reads.

With one foot planted firmly in a futuristic world where Seekers—people employed by the government to hunt down so-called Deviants for what is euphemistically called “hospitalization”—routinely undergo Matrix-like virtual reality “tests” to ensure they are still in the fold and capable of carrying out company orders, TSMG manages to simultaneously have its other foot rooted in an authentic, throwback, hardboiled detective vibe. And it is in that fuzzy blending of post-apocalyptic and old-school noir that TSMG carves out what is one of the most wonderfully unique books I’ve had the pleasure to read.

Needless to say, when Andrez told me he was doing a Kickstarter campaign to fund a graphic novel version of the story in collaboration with Fée Romney I was overjoyed. If you’ve had the pleasure of reading Andrez’s work (One Hundred Years of Vicissitude, Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?), I hope you’ll get behind this campaign. As you know with these things, every little bit helps. →

March 28, 2014

Writing Comics: A Newbie’s Perspective by Christopher Irvin

I originally met Chris Irvin when I steered some graphic novels I had on my hands but wasn’t interested in his way. So in that regard, I guess I’ve always known he was into comics. Most of my interaction with him, however, has revolved around his crime fiction, both his short stories and his recently released novella, Federales. But when it came time for Chris to do a guest post in support of Federales, we thought it’d be interesting if he explored a slightly different side of writing, one many authors never think about: how to write for comics. So without further ado, here’s Chris on comics. (But do go buy a copy of Federales!)

I’ve been a fan of comics since I was young, collecting shiny Fleer trading cards and staring wide-eyed at the explosion of comics in the early-90’s (yes, that young.) I drew a lot as well, though that petered off as I got older and began to see true talent in those around me.

Skip forward a couple of decades and I’m knee deep in prose, working on short stories and a novella. But I’ve still got that itch to work on a comic. I sign up for a class on graphic novels at Grubstreet in Boston, taught by Katherine Roy and Tim Stout, who inspire me to work on mini-comics (four, six, eight page stories) and I’m off to the races.

Taking a cue from Dark Horse Presents, who run eight page stories/chapters, I write an eight page comic entitled, EXPATRIATE, about an American criminal who flees to Rio de Janeiro in the shadow of the coming 2016 Summer Olympics. The pages sit for a while, Boston Comic Con is postponed from April to August due to the marathon bombing, and I stumble into Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, a fantastic artist out of Brooklyn. I’ve sworn off purchasing a commission prior to going in, but I dig his art so much I pull the trigger anyway and he sketches a killer head shot of Judge Dredd for me.

Fast forward again a few months and I’ve been able to somehow rope Ricardo into this crazy project, which has now bloomed into a five issue mini-series. Fingers crossed, with a little blood and sweat and a lot of luck, this might turn into something. →

March 03, 2014

Federales by Christopher Irvin

The Internet is a strange and wonderful place. I originally met Chris Irvin when I found myself with some graphic novels on my hands I wasn’t interested in and asked around on Twitter to see who may want them. Chris took me up on the offer, and from there we did the Facebook friend thing and started getting to know each other better.

Despite working as an editor himself at Shotgun Honey, Chris is a smart enough guy to know it’s always wise to have someone else look at your own work, so he reached out to me to look at a few short stories he’d written. One thing lead to another, and at this point I’m proud to call Chris a regular editing client and someone I’ve worked with on numerous projects.

So, I was particularly happy when I learned one of those projects, a novella entitled Federales, had been picked up as the debut publication for the One Eye Press singles series. Federales officially drops tomorrow (ISBN: 978-0615916545), but here’s what people who’ve had a sneak peek have been saying about it:

“Christopher Irvin’s FEDERALES is an absolute gut-punch of a novella. The story of one man’s search for redemption and justice within a Mexican system that has long-forgotten the meaning of either will haunt you long after the last page is turned.” — Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce

“FEDERALES is a sweaty, feverish sojourn into a fetid limb of the Mexican drug war, where sentiment, principles and fellow feeling have no place. Christopher Irvin’s read will carry you swiftly through to the fitting end.” — Sam Hawken, CWA Dagger Awards-nominated author of The Dead Women of Juárez →

February 28, 2014

Where Would We Be Without Imagination? by Stephen Paul

I’m pleased to welcome Stephen Paul to the blog today. I had the pleasure of working with Stephen on his debut novel, The Perfect Game, a fast-paced supernatural thriller involving a little baseball, a little science, a little sleuthing, and a lot of fun. And while I enjoy working on every manuscript I get the opportunity to help an author bring to life, it’s a special treat when one involves matters which are actually new and enlightening for me in the process—and I definitely wasn’t up on things like Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance prior to working with Stephen on The Perfect Game! But, as Stephen discusses in his guest post, that’s part of the power of imagination in action.

Lately, evolution has been on my mind. The whole notion that every single one of our attributes stems from a necessary purpose fascinates me. But what about imagination—the cornerstone of the inventor, the necessary tool for the artist, and the life-blood of a writer? What survival element did imagination possess that allowed it to flourish into what it is today?

A quick Google search provides a host of answers. I’ll go with the one from Richard Dawkins because it seems pretty easy to grasp. Dawkins, the atheist-extraordinaire, opines that imagination started out as simulation processes helping our ancestors avoid physical trial and error and then exploded in leaps and bounds.

Although I get where he’s coming from, as imagining the pain one might experience from falling off a cliff would definitely do the trick in teaching our ancestors not to fall off cliffs, it’s the explosion by leaps and bounds part that puzzles me. What evolutionary purpose allowed creative imagination to flourish in a way that resulted in Salvador Dali’s paintings or Stephen King’s books? How did we go from using imagination to avoid falling off cliffs to creating paintings about melting clocks and stories about killer cars and dogs? →

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