Editing by Elizabeth

February 02, 2011

The Story Behind the Story: Talking Borrowed Trouble with JB Kohl and Eric Beetner

Ever wondered what it would be like not only to write a book, but to do so with a co-author? That you’ve never actually met? By email? Today’s guest post is from authors JB Kohl and Eric Beetner who’ve done just that…twice. Here’s a peek behind the curtain on how exactly that works.

JB Kohl and Eric Beetner wrote this blog post the way they write their books – by sending a draft back and forth to each other and adding on bit by bit, entirely through email. Turns out they still have a lot of questions about their own book.

Eric Beetner: By now our backstory has gotten out there a fair amount. We live on opposite coasts and have never met. We’ve never even talked on the phone and yet managed to write two books together now. Thinking back to how the new one, Borrowed Trouble, came about I remember the seed of the idea began as an epilogue to the first book, One Too Many Blows To The Head, that contained the basic premise – Ray gets a note from a girl claiming to be his sister in need of help but Ray doesn’t think he has a sister and he enlists Dean for help. Then we cut the epilogue at the eleventh hour just before we went to press. Do you remember why we cut that out?

JB Kohl: I think we decided we didn’t want to be “hemmed in” regarding a plot. An epilogue –when it’s a preview for the next book – can be tricky if you aren’t well into the next novel. The plot idea was there, but we weren’t sure if we were committed to it. It’s so funny to me now, because in the end it was the exact plot idea we went with. So tell me, were you nervous about having Ray and Dean work together? →

February 01, 2011

Snow Angels by James Thompson (PB Release)

Originally released in January of 2010, Snow Angels marked the stunning English language debut of author James Thompson, and the first entry in the Inspector Kari Vaara series.

If for some insane reason you still haven’t picked up Snow Angels now is definitely the time to do it, as today marks its paperback release. And with the second book in the Inspector Kari Vaara series, Lucifer’s Tears, set for release on March 17, 2011, you need to get going now so you’ll be ready to hit the ground running when release day rolls around.

Set in Lapland, Northern Finland during Kaamos, the time of year just before Christmas when temperatures plunge to -40° and night never gives way to day, the exquisite descriptions of man’s crimes and nature’s beauty made Snow Angels one of the most hauntingly atmospheric books I’ve read in quite some time. In fact, it ended up being one of my top reads of the entire year. (Full review here.)

But don’t take my word for it, check out the video below in which Thompson himself talks about Snow Angels.

The paperback release of Snow Angels is available from Berkley Trade (ISBN: 978-0425238837).

Snow Angels is the first book in James Thompson’s Inspector Kari Vaara series. The second book in the series, Lucifer’s Tears, will be released on March 17, 2011. Thompson, American by birth, has lived in Finland for over a decade and currently resides in Helsinki with his wife. To learn more about James Thompson, visit his website.

– Author James Thompson on the inspiration for Snow Angels –

January 24, 2011

Choke On Your Lies: The Cover
by Anthony Neil Smith

Today I am pleased to welcome author Anthony Neil Smith (aka Doc Noir). In addition to his work as co-creator and editor of Plots With Guns, he’s also the author of five novels and dozens of short stories. Today he’s here to talk about his latest novel, Choke On Your Lies.

Choke On Your Lies by Anthony Neil Smith This week, I released my latest novel as an e-original direct to Kindle and Nook, bypassing the publishers. I still have major respect for publishers and would take a deal from them in a second (sellout? Yep), but I really wanted to get this book out as quickly as possible rather than let it swirl around for another year or so.

So, this cover. Gorgeous, ain’t it? I was lucky to find this amazing photo from model Erin Zerbe that reminded me of old sixties and seventies paperback covers. Very alluring, yet very “mysterious” in a way. I had to have it. And luckily, Erin was more than happy to let me use it. Kudos. I originally wanted to make the whole thing retro – fonts, colors, maybe even a bent corner or coffee ring stain. But in the end, I liked the very stark final cover you see here. It did the best job.

Some people won’t like it. Maybe because she’s half-naked. Maybe because she’s a proud plus-sized model. All I know is that I think it’s beautiful. Let’s get a couple of things straight: 1) I find plus-sized women very attractive, and 2) the novel revolves around the character of Octavia, who weighs about three-forty. She’s outrageous, mean, bitter, and sexually aggressive. And I think she’s an amazing woman. →

January 20, 2011

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli Day after day I go out with photographers who are tourists of the war. – Nguyen Pran Linh

One would be hard pressed to think of a war zone as a tourist destination. Yet, for the photojournalists in Tatjana Soli’s The Lotus Eaters that is exactly what, in a perverse way, war-torn Vietnam becomes for them.

Helen Adams, fresh from college and just cutting her teeth as a photographer, finds her way to Vietnam as part of her struggle to understand what her brother, a special forces solider who was killed in action, experienced before his death.

Once in country she meets veteran photojournalist Sam Darrow and his guide/assistant Nguyen Pran Linh. Together they take a journey deep into the horrors of war, finding that even amongst such darkness there still blooms dignity and hope.

The title of the book comes from Homer’s Odyssey, in which those who ate the lotus fruit became so intoxicated by it they lost all desire to return to their homeland. Just like the lotus-eaters, Helen and Sam become so intoxicated by the rush of combat photography that they actually resist the idea of leaving Vietnam. →

January 18, 2011

James Ellroy’s L.A.: City of Demons

Investigation Discovery: James Ellroy's L.A.: City of Demons Investigation Discovery is launching a new series called James Ellroy’s L.A.: City of Demons, in which author James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential) takes a fresh look at some of Hollywood’s most notorious crimes from the past to the present.

The six-part series showcases Ellroy’s larger-than-life personality, and debuts tomorrow night (Wednesday, January 19th at 10PM ET) with the episode “Dead Women Own Me:”

The series begins with a deeply personal account of the genesis of Ellroy’s fascination with crime: the unsolved murder of his mother in 1958. This harrowing event formed his moral and spiritual attachment to devastated women. “Murdered women own me,” he narrates, and after a long downward spiral with drugs, booze and petty crime, the obsession provided him with the fire and fury to write his unprecedentedly praised crime novels and memoirs. “Dead Women Own Me” also highlights the homicides of a young 16-year-old girl murdered in her own home and a woman kidnapped while using an ATM machine.

Future episodes will cover topics including: the mob and the LAPD; LA’s nightclub scene; 1950’s tabloids; serial killers, such as the “Hillside Stranglers”; and notorious celebrities who ended up”strung out, snuffed out, locked up, and lusted over.”

You can learn more about Investigation Discovery and the James Ellroy’s L.A.: City of Demons series by visiting the Investigation Discovery website. You can also find Investigation Discovery on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

James Ellroy is widely recognized as the world’s greatest living crime writer. His L.A. Quartet novels – The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz – have won numerous awards and were international bestsellers. His Underworld U.S.A. novels – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover – were even more acclaimed. Ellroy’s memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book and a New York Times Notable Book. Ellroy’s most recent memoir, The Hilliker Curse, was recently published by Alfred A. Knopf. To learn more about Ellroy, visit his website.

January 17, 2011

World’s Greatest Sleuth! by Steve Hockensmith

A cluster of curious tourists had stopped to gawp at us like we were another display at the Fair – the World’s Biggest Fools, perhaps. – Otto Amlingmeyer

First introduced to readers in Holmes on the Range, brothers Gustav “Old Red” and Otto “Big Red” Amlingmeyer are cowboys turned detectives in late 1890’s America. World’s Greatest Sleuth!, the fifth entry in the series, finds Sherlock Holmes disciple Gustav (“Some folks get religion. Gustav got Sherlock Holmes.”) and Watson-esque brother Otto summoned to Chicago to participate in a mystery solving competition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (aka Chicago World’s Fair).

Upon arrival, the brothers find themselves up against famous crime solvers from around the world, including frenemies Col. Crowe and Diana Corvus (On the Wrong Track and The Black Dove). The competitors are challenged with solving a set of clues each day, with the winner of the most daily competitions at the end of the contest being crowned the “World’s Greatest Sleuth.”

Things take a serious turn, however, when the competition’s organizer is found dead on the second day of the competition..face down in a giant vat of cheese (The Mammoth Cheese From Canada – Weight 22,000 Pounds). Though the local police seem inclined to write it off as an accidental death, Gustav and Otto think there’s more to it than meets the eye and, as Holmes would say, the game is afoot to find the killer. →

January 13, 2011

Four Kinds of Kitty by Chuck Wendig

Yesterday I reviewed Chuck Wendig’s new short story collection Irregular Creatures. Today I am thrilled to welcome the demented man himself for a guest blog.

Chuck Wendig Cats show up in three of the stories found within IRREGULAR CREATURES.

Not inappropriate, I suppose. Cats are definitely irregular around the margins. Quirky, kooky critters. And yet they have that kind of weird feline grace, too – an almost alien sense of the world around them.

We had a cat once. I was a wee tot at the bright young age of five. When I wasn’t solving complex mathematical theorems or creating new heart valves from wombat skin (I was a real Doogie Howser type), I was apparently busy putting our cat in the clothes dryer.

I know, I know, that sounds horrible. No need to go around assuming things. You know what they say about assuming, right? It gives you herpes.

Anyway.

I didn’t put the cat in there to hurt it. And I didn’t turn the dryer on. My motives were all candy canes and lemonade: I just wanted to give the kitty-kitty-boo-boo a warm place to lay down.

Thing is, when my father came and asked me, “Did you put the cat in the dryer?” it wasn’t a friendly question. It was a “jaw muscles locked into place” question.

“No,” I lied.

At that age, I was a terrible liar. My father smelled it on me like some kind of animal musk.

That’s when he dragged me away and beat my butt with a wooden paint stirrer (a stirrer marked with the MAB logo, should you be a stickler for detail). He never had to whup on me like that again: the only move necessary was a sly glance toward the aforementioned paint stirrer.

So, from early on, cats have been emblazoned upon my mind. Or, at least, my asscheek.

(I also apparently tried to make soup from kittens one time, but let’s not talk about that.) →

January 12, 2011

Irregular Creatures by Chuck Wendig

‘Neat’ wasn’t the word Benjamin was looking for. Might as well call the ocean ‘wet’ or a tornado ‘windy.’ Still, he nodded, because he had no other words to describe that which was all around him. – “The Auction”

Feeling a little post-holiday blues? Housebound by the Snowpocalypse? Well I’ve got something to occupy your time and cheer you up: Irregular Creatures, the new short story collection from mad genius penmonkey Chuck Wendig.

Except, a little like Benjamin in “The Auction,” I may not quite be able to sufficiently put into words how incredibly amazing the stories in this collection are.

Anyone familiar with Chuck’s always inspired, take-no-prisoners style of blogging over at TerribleMinds already knows how talented of a writer he is. I’ll do my best to convey the sheer awesomeness that is Irregular Creatures, but it’s really something you should do yourself a favor and experience firsthand. Here we go…

“Dog-Man and Cat-Bird (A Flying Cat Story)” – Seems kind of odd to call a short story epic, but this one certainly is. Joe, a struggling sculptor, gets more than a bad night’s sleep when he’s banished to the sofa one night after an argument with his wife. An injured cat shows up at the back door and, when Joe tries to shoo it away, promptly dies. Or so Joe thought: I came back to the garage, only to find that the cat had sprouted wings. This was not a possibility I had considered, nor was it a possibility I accepted upon its discovery. And yet not only does he come to accept it, but when he discovers his son is a pawn in a battle between good and evil Joe realizes that Cat-Bird is much more than a genetic freak. This is my favorite story in the collection, and it’s worth the price of admission for this one alone.

“A Radioactive Monkey” – A cautionary tale about the dangers of drinking strange concoctions, especially if done to impress a beautiful woman you barely know. This one would be right at home as a Tales From the Crypt episode.

“Product Placement”– You wouldn’t think a candy bar could have inter-dimensional ramifications, but buying a “Flix Bar” is exactly the thing that starts Donnie’s trip into a bizarre world where product placement takes on a whole new meaning. Oh, and you’ll never look a 9-volt battery quite the same way again.

“This Guy” – “Every day, I catch him before he makes it to the China Skillet… I drag him into the alleyway, and I beat him with a tire iron. Sometimes, I stab him with a kitchen knife. I do this every day. I think it’s starting to affect me.” A peek into a man’s descent into insanity, this one can be described as Groundhog Day gone murderously, insanely awry.

January 10, 2011

The Sentry by Robert Crais

“I told her I took care of it. That they wouldn’t be bothered again.” – Joe Pike

Funny how a seemingly insignificant decision can have such life-altering consequences. Surely Joe Pike couldn’t possibly have envisioned that a quick stop to put air in his tires would set in motion a chain of events that would eventually involve the L.A.P.D., F.B.I., Mexican and Bolivian drug gangs, and a highly motivated hitman.

And yet, that’s exactly what occurs when Pike notices two gang members enter a sandwich shop across the street from the gas station he just happened to choose for a little routine car maintenance. Pike’s former stints with both the Marines and L.A.P.D. have trained him to be very aware of people’s body language, and it’s clear to him the thugs are looking for more than a sub.

Sure enough, when he decides to investigate he finds the two viciously assaulting the shop owner. Pike intervenes, running one thug off and holding the other for the police. When the shop owner’s niece, Dru Rayne, arrives on the scene sparks immediately fly and Pike finds himself drawn to her in a way he’s not felt in a long time. So much so, he decides to take responsibility for making sure Dru and her uncle aren’t bothered again.

When a brick is thrown through the shop’s window the following day Pike goes to the source and brokers a truce with the head of the gang, then assures Dru the matter has been taken care of. Joe Pike doesn’t make promises lightly, and so he takes it particularly hard when not only is the shop vandalized again, but Dru and her uncle disappear. When Pike enlists best friend and private investigator Elvis Cole to assist in the search for Dru and her uncle, Cole quickly turns up information that suggests the two are not who they claim to be. →

– Author James Thompson on the inspiration for Snow Angels –

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