A very perceptive reviewer...

Thought you might like to know that a very perceptive reviewer has written up my latest novel. Nice things were said, so I'm grateful. I think my book is like the fifth one on the page so you'll need to scroll down a little.

This site is also a source of mystery short fiction, so be sure to take a look around.

Coming Soon...

I've met a lot of writers who are new to me this past year and that, of course, means that I've asked if they'd be willing to be interviewed. The most recent victims will be Laura Lippman and Jonathan Santlofer. Ms. Lippman is well known for her work a reporter at a Baltimore daily, but did you know she also wrote mystery novels? She's got a whole series of them going. Perhaps some are still in print...

Jonathan Santlofer is known as an artist - the type with an easel and paintbrushes, but he's also managed to turn out some gripping, page-turning suspenseful...suspense novels. I read his novel, The Death Artist - who knew the art world was so bloody?

Now which of these two authors do you think might have said the following about the writing process:

"I try to outline, but can never follow them. My characters refuse to behave. They are always doing unexpected things so it's hopeless."



This much as a clue - the characters really do do unexpected things.

What Ken Bruen Said...

I first met Ken Bruen at the Chicago Bouchercon where I was introduced by Jon Jordan (thank you Jon!). It was a quick introduction and the bar was quite loud. I'm no afficionado of bars so I left soon after. Then I enjoyed "The Guards" and I happened to be reading it while writing my own novel (then called A Bronx Jam, but now called The Concrete Maze). Reading the novel was quite an experience (enjoyable) and when I was done with my own novel and had sold it which took almost literally no time at all, I figured I'd ask Mr. Bruen for a blurb. It couldn't hurt to ask because the absolute worst that could happen would be he'd say no and change his email address. He said yes. I sent him the book with the understanding that he'd be going on a tour of continental Europe so he might not get around to blurbing it for a while. Fine by me. This, however, is what he sent me a few weeks ago and before he'd actually started the trip:


I HAD PLANNED ON STEVE TORRES, THE CONCRETE MAZE, BRINGING ME THROUGH THE FIRST LEG OF MY EUROPEAN TOUR, AND CERTAINLY THE FRENCH LEG OF THE TRIP - I HAD IT FINSIHED BEFORE I BOARDED MY FIRST FLIGHT
IT IS THAT READABLE AND COMPELLING.
THIS IS HILL ST BLUES ON CRACK
THE WIRE ON HYPER DRIVE
THE SHIELD BLASING OUT OF LEFT FIELD.
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, A TRUE ELEGY OF NOIR DESPAIR AND WITH PASSAGES OF SUCH TREMONDOUS POETIC POWER, YOU HAVE TO READ THEM ALOUD TO SAVOUR THE FULL INTENSITY. THERE IS A STRAND OF AGONISING COMPASSION ALL THROUGHOUT THIS ELEGANT SPARSE NOVEL.
THE CHARACTER OF JASMINE AROUSED SUCH FEELINGS OF
HEART WRENCHING PAIN THAT IF I WASN'T SO HARBOILED, I'D HAVE DAMN NEAR WEPT
AND FOR A NOVEL OF NOIR, IT HAS THAT RARE AND RARER
QUALITY, TRUE NOBILITY AND IT IS THE PROOF THAT JUSTICE MAY INDEED BE SERVED BEST IN THE ALLEYWAY THAN THE COURTROOM.
THE NARRATOR IS INDEED A GOOD MAN LIVING IN VERY BAD TIMES AND HIS ACTIONS, LEGALLY WAY OFF THE RADAR, CERTAINLY ARE THE VERY STUFF OF MORALITY.
THIS A DARK WONDROUS JEWEL OF A BOOK.

Ken Bruen, Shamus award winning author of
The Guards and American Skin


Sounds good to me.

Bronx Noir Cover

I just saw the cover work for the Bronx Noir anthology coming out August 2007. It's an impressive photo, but I'm horrible with directions and can't tell you what the view is of. Maybe if I ask my wife... Take a look.

Anyway, thought you might want to hear the lineup for the book. It impresses the hell out of me: Thomas Adcock, Kevin Baker, Thomas Bentil, Lawrence Block, Jerome Charyn, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Ed Dee, Joanne Dobson, Robert Hughes, Marlon James, Sandra Kitt, Rita Laken, Miles Marshall Lewis, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres, and Joe Wallace.

There are some big names there and good writers. I'm honored.

I Just Heard...

David Blaine, magician, is going to spend two days in a spinning gyroscope, chained. Then he's going to try to escape. Here's my problem with this - WHY? What does this man want from us? Is it just attention seeking? I know about attention seeking - as an author one is forced to seek attention. But wouldn't being in a gyroscope cause puking? I don't mean from Blaine...I'm assuming he'll retch his guts out or do some permenant damage to his inner ear. I mean among the viewers. I don't think I could watch for more than a few minutes.

This is the same man who lived inside a block of ice, and tried to hold his breath for nine minutes, and...Well, who cares? Is David Blaine what happens if the guys from Jackass learn to be patient?

And shouldn't someone stop Blaine from hurting himself? People hurt themselves all the time for our viewing pleasure - football, boxing, etc - but at least in sports, the pain is more incidental. Here it just seems to be the whole point of the exercise. Blaine is saying "Look at me, everybody! I'm hurting myself! Again!"

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Okay, some may remember that I couldn't finish Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game. Well, here's another book I couldn't finish. First, why I bought it...
I had heard that Eragon was written by a boy genius a few years ago, but that's normally a warning sign when it comes to writing (unlike music where Mozart and Mendelsohn were both awesome at a very early age). I resisted buying it because I'm not much into reading sci-fi and fantasy novels though I will read short stories and definitely go to see the movies. There's the rub...

I was in the store and the cover of the book showed me that Eragon IS a Major Motion Picture, with Jeremy Irons who I really like as an actor. (He was Scar in the Lion King - he and Robert Guillame made that movie for me.) Anyway, I figured that if Irons was in the movie it would be a good one (a cause and effect problem). Long story short (unless it's too late for that) I paid the money without reading any of it at the store.

At home, I started reading...and groaning. First, there were Orcs and Elves in it - I saw that movie already. More importantly, however, the writing was...rubbish. If I recall correctly, the hero's "dark eyebrows sat over his eyes." Where the hell else should they be? As a general rule, only describe the position of body parts when they're NOT in the usual place, right? "One ear was higher than the other" or "His teeth were on the floor" or "after the surgery, the doctors let Bobby carry his gonads home in a jar". Then, I'm not sure you can say "eyebrows sat" unless you can also say "his eyes sat in their sockets". I'm not sure on this one, though and I'll willingly defer to others.

Of course, any writer can slip up - I certainly have - but every page was littered with this type of prose (for those keeping score at home the precise type is referred to as "inept"). It's almost like he went out of his way to do this to his readers. Is that spite?

Frankly, I'm most upset by the fact that he must have had an editor - a responsible adult, no? Presumably this editor had access to things like blue pencils and erasers and bottles of white out. So what's the excuse?

Anyway, I don't normally knock other writers - writing is hard work - but the book caught me off guard and nearly killed me with gut clenching spasms as each offense to good writing stabbed me in the eyes...I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else*.



* Please, if you're a fan of Paolini (or Paolini yourself) don't try to prove me wrong: A) It won't work and B) I'm really seeking closure on this issue.

What Hatadi Said...

Well, my many trips to the post office have finally stared to pay off. Daniel Hatadi has read my book for next year called The Concrete Maze, he liked it, and he blogged about it.

Among the many things he had to say is this: "Without spoiling it for you, a particular scene about half way through had me physically choking up with emotion. I can't think of a novel that's made me feel this strongly in a long time."

Just think. I choked someone up with emotion. And he's never even met me in person...Wait till that happens.

Go read the posting...It's good for you.

The Blurb Contest, redux

Here's a mix and match to play with my blurbs for The Concrete Maze (I've got to do something with them...):

Who said What?

1. Ken Bruen
2. James Sallis
3. Megan Abbott
4. Reed Farrel Coleman

Said:

A. "The character of Jasmine aroused such feelings of heart wrenching pain that if I wasn't so hard-boiled I'd have damn near wept."
B. "The Concrete Maze is, by turns, harrowing and heartbreaking."
C. "The Concrete Maze is a harrowing, gut-wrenching journey of the soul and of the city streets."

You'll notice there are only three quotes and four authors. That's a school teacher trick. You may also notice that "harrowing" and "wrenching" both appear in two quotes. This might seem like collusion on the part of the blurbers, but I've been assured it's not.

One try per contestant. First one to get it right wins an ARC of what is bound to be the best book under $7 you'll get next year*.


* Written by a Puerto Rican about crime in NYC...Unless Ed Vega puts out a book...

Blurbs

For the first time, I have gone after blurbs with a vengence. This is for my book next year - The Concrete Maze. This is a book so good, Russel McLean gave it several thumbs up. It is not a Precint Puerto Rico novel. Instead it is the novel I'd been asked to write for years. It is the hardboiled, noir novel about the place I grew up in - Da Bronx.

Anyway, so far, I've got a dozen blurbs. I think this is enough. I think that the praise is warrented (okay maybe not everything Ken Bruen said, but he's Irish so there's got to be some sort of way to discount some of it).

Interestingly, though the book is a paperback original and I don't know half the people I asked, no one turned me down. And, maybe more importantly, no one wrote to tell me that they couldn't in good conscience give me a blurb AFTER they'd read the book. Because I tried to explain to people that if they didn't like the book, they could still say something which I would creatively edit...

Here's a list of people who have responded so far. I'll be sharing bits of what they had to say as the month progresses.

Russel McLean
Ken Bruen
Wallace Stroby
Reed Farrel Coleman
Megan Abbott
Jennifer Jordan
Sara Gran
James Sallis
Sean Doolittle
Jason Starr
Manuel Ramos
and
Richard Aleas who ironically doesn't have a website unless I just link to Hard Case Crime.

Now guess which of these fine people used the phrase "f***ing Hell" in discussing a scene late in the novel. Only one guess per customer. First to get it right, gets a copy of the ARC for the book when they're ready (which should be about another week). Of course, if you're on this list, then you can't play.