Friday for Writers: A Character Description Lesson From Stanley Ellin

If not a household name, Stanley Ellin's still a not-inconsequential figure in the history of mystery and suspense fiction.

A new article about his unique private investigator novels popped up on the excellent Crime Reads website the other day.

That took me back to days when I was a kid and discovered Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine on the drug store magazine rack.

I found after reading numerous issues that Stanley Ellin's stories were among those I usually liked. 

His picture appeared on the cover during a period when the mag did a run of author portraits. Eventually EQMM released an edition of Ellin short fiction, Kindly Dig Your Grave and other Wicked Stories.

The Crime Reads article prompted me to pluck an anthology off my shelf, Ellery Queen's Grand Slam (1970). That included an Ellin story I hadn't read, "Coin of the Realm." It's a great collection that also included Joe Gores' Edgar-winning "Goodbye, Pops."

"Coin" is an interesting "all is not what it seems" piece from Ellin. 

I was struck enough by the way he slipped in the physical description of the POV character that I decided to share the passage with some writing students, and it seems worth a look for all writers making decisions about how to slip physical description in seamlessly. 

"You look like a million," he said, soberly nodding his approval.

Her own expression, as she eyed him from head to foot, was anything but approving."

"I wish I could say the same for you. Is that how you expect to go out? That ridiculous Hawaiian shirt and not even a jacket?"

"It's too hot for a jacket. And we're only going to Flea Market, for Pete's sake, not the opera."

"Even so. And that camera and that great big camera bag slung around your neck. And that awful cigar shoved into your mouth. Do you know what you look like?"

"What?"

"An American tourist, that's what. A real corny American tourist."

Walt glanced at the beefy, red-faced, bald-headed image of himself in the full-length mirror...

The things he's carrying are ultimately significant in the story though it meshes perfectly with his wife's dissatisfaction that fuels the tale's opening exchange.

The guy does eventually look in the mirror--as many fictional characters are wont to--to study his appearance, but I thought the way Ellin built to that made it a natural move, and a great way to provide the reader needed information in an organic way.

If you haven't discovered Ellin as a reader and/or a writer, dig up his work and check him out. 

Ellin, Stanley. "Coin of the Realm." Ellery Queen's Grand Slam. Ed. Ellery Queen. New York: Popular Library, 1970. 29-43. Print.

 

Awake Early

I heard talk of "Awake" a few weeks back. It's an NBC series starring the great Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter etc. Until recently it didn't have a slot on the network's schedule.

That's changed. It's due now March 1, or you can watch the pilot ahead of time on Hulu.

Seems to have a cool if complicated premise. Isaacs is a cop who has the misfortune to crash his car. When he awakens after the wreck, he faces two realities, or perhaps a reality and a dream state that seems real.

In one, his wife is alive, his son a victim of the crash. In the other, his son lives, and his wife is gone.

Amid the confusion, he solves crimes.

Watching the opener, you start to see how it call all work, and how you can follow it. It's not as hard as it sounds.

The realities are just different enough, and there are enough cues to help you keep things straight.

Couple the slightly surreal set up with stunning visuals and Isaacs on the side of the angels, and it makes for interesting viewing.

Will it catch on? I'm afraid odds are against it, but it certainly would be fun to see it get a decent run. 

Claustrophobia and a Little Imagination

Years ago I was in St. Louis to cover a meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention as a reporter. I didn't make it to the arch because I stayed in neighboring Frontenac. It used to be hard to get a room in a town where they had a Southern Baptist Convention. 

Last week I had to go to a conference in St. Louis, and I stayed a short hike from the arch, so I finally got see it. And make the trip to the top. 

The small tram cars sure are tiny. With just a little imagination, it's possible to envision many things that could go wrong. I have more than a little imagination.

What if this gets stuck?

What if there were a nuclear strike while I'm locked in here?  

How long would it take to gnaw through the door and climb down the elaborate network of metal steps, ladders and spiral stair cases?

While I was at the top, something came up I hadn't thought of. "What was that?" a staffer asked when something sounding like a plane flew over.

Then they explained that the arch is a no-fly zone.

That gave me a whole new cause for sweating on the way down, but I'm glad I got to take the trip, plus get the view of the Mississippi and the City of St. Louis from above.

 

A Writing Prompt - The Mardi Gras Mask

(Since festival time is approaching in Louisiana, this seemed like it might be a fun prompt.)

The local museum is offering an exhibit of Mardi Gras art. It's a stunning display of those familiar festival hues -- purples, greens, golds. Posters, feathers, costumes and, of course, beads, are spotlighted in glass cases.

You stroll amid the displays, bolstered by the carnival spirit the artifacts suggest. You can almost hear jazz tunes and the shouts from the crowd.

Then you come upon a showcase with a full-head mask, displayed on a mannequin bust. It's a full face and skull of silver beads so shiny they seem to send back flares from the spotlight.

You're staring into empty spaces where eyes might be, but you're entranced as you gaze into the emptiness. You realize there's something unusual about this mask, or the person who wore it. Your thoughts begin to swirl, and then they seem to fill with images...

(Feel free to use as you choose. If it takes you to somewhere creative, that's wonderful.)

A Writing Prompt - What's in the Bag?

(I've always found writing prompts fun and sometimes inspirational. When I taught a writing class a while back, everyone seemed to enjoy them, so I thought, with the new year, that might be an interesting, occasional thing for the blog.)

The Black Bag

You're awakened from a sound sleep by a shrill but hard-to-identify sound. You move to the window to gaze toward the wooded area behind your home. It's bathed in silver moon glow, and through the planks of the tall wooden fence, shadows suggest movement. Perhaps a couple of rickety figures are there, but you can't tell.

Choosing not to go outside, you return to bed for a fitful sleep, rising again only after dawn.

Then you're tugging on a robe and heading outside. When you reach the fence, you curl your fingers over the planks and hoist yourself up to peer over.

Resting on the ground in the woods is a large black bag. It has no markings, and it's cinched closed with a dirty length of rope.

Before you lower yourself back to your feet, something inside the bag moves, and there's an odd sound.

What's in the bag?

7 Points For Keeping the Backside In the Chair - Thoughts on Keeping Those Writing New Year's Resolutions

With the burgeoning number of self-published success stories, and the discovery of new writers going full force in traditional and indy publishing, it's clear the world is filled with people with the discipline to put in the time at the keyboard required for producing finished work.

Yet "Backside in Chair" is always the challenge for writers. The allure of not writing is fierce.

I do pretty good in getting myself to the keyboard at a fixed time every day, but making things meaningful is still a challenge. I thought some techniques and thoughts  I've picked up from a variety of sources might be useful as everyone is setting goals for 2012.

1. Forgive yourself. 
Victoria Nelson, one of my teachers at Goddard College, has written extensively about writer's block. When she offered a session during one of the residencies I attended at Goddard, I was quick to sit in.

I was surprised how many of my classmates were also on hand. I thought I was the one getting a little slower and less driven, but I discovered all those fresh-faced fellow students who I assumed were chipper and devoted and knocking out 20 pages in the morning before breakfast were also wont to creative struggles. The best advice Victoria gave all of us was to be lenient on ourselves.

We all get tired. We all have conflicts that zap creativity. Don't be so demanding on yourself that a walk outside becomes the trait of a malingerer. Be gentle and kind to your creative self. You're nurturing a gentle spirit. You shouldn't try to motivate it by becoming the sales manager from Glengarry Glen Ross.

2. Relax
Sometimes it's good to go with the flow or let the muse push you rather than resisting. I've had a project on my plate that hasn't ignited for me the way I'd hoped.

I recently decided to stop forcing it for a while and do a couple of projects I wanted to work on. I wrote a couple of short stories, and a 10-minute play, which is an interesting thing to try. Having some parameters within which to focus creativity proved invigorating. It was a blank page with a few lines to color inside. That kind of got me ready to focus again on the other project.

If there's a stone in the stream, the water moves around it. Going with the flow can be a way to stimulate yourself creatively. Look for the wanna.

3. Tomatoes!
When the backside, all right the ass, is in the chair, that doesn't mean the fingers are being effective on the keyboard. I learned about The Pomodoro Technique® in a podcast all writers should listen to, KCRW's Martini Shot. Storytelling techniques may differ, but creative foibles are universal as TV writer Rob Long reveals each week.

He mentioned trying the Pomodoro Technique® (means tomato in Italian) some time back. It involves a cooking timer and concentration goals. A timer on a smart phone will probably serve also.

The goal is to stay focused for a set period. Set the timer and then, coffee is for people who've written for 25 minutes. Don't browse your Netflix queue, set a task for your Sims or check e-mail, just write until the tone sounds.  It's a good way to nudge your consciousness into that creative zone where sparks ignite.

4. Just do it.
You have to nurture the spirit, but don't be the malingerer you accuse yourself of being either. Years and years ago in Writer's Digest, Lawrence Block wrote a "just do it column." That's what it boiled down to anyway. It's probably in one of his books on writing as well. They're worth checking out as is is fiction. See No. 6.

Everybody has bad days. Almost anything can throw a kidney punch to the creative spirit. Take a deep breath. Hold it. Let it out and put something on the page. Wipe the blood off it later. Sometimes in writing you're just getting the shapeless clay on the table so that you can begin sculpting.

Another of my Goddard teachers, Selah Saterstrom, had another great metaphor for polishing a first draft manuscript. She called it wrestling with an angel, working to bring a book or work into its best form.

Whatever the metaphor, get something down so  you can hone it.

5. Don't worry about your neighbor's work
Another great podcast from KCRW is The Business. It's usually a mixture of film industry news and an interview with Matt Damon. But sometimes other snippets are woven in, such as advice to film animators collected by an aspiring animator. In a recent 'cast, one animator noted he was always encountering better animators. That only nudged him to be better.

There are better writers than you. There are gonna be better writers. Worse ones exist, too. So what? This really is all about you. Cheer on your compatriots. Celebrate excellence. Look in awe upon brilliance, and do what you can. Be inspired by the great. Don't let any of it hold you back. As basketball coach John Wooden said: "Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

6. Always be reading.
Goes without saying.  Maybe it's the writer's version of that Glengarry Glen Ross bastard's "Always be closing." E-books have really made this easier. There's good and bad to the electronic universe. One good is that you can have a library in your pocket now, not just one pocket book that doesn't really fit in a pocket. I find it hard to read on a smart phone, so I have some cargo pants. My Kindle will fit into the larger pocket on the thigh.

I try to click through a few percentage points on a book in any down time. I'm not as good at it as my friend Katie, but then she is topped bya friend who puts her Kindle in a zip-lock bag so she can read in the bath.

You learn by reading others. You get inspired by reading others. You figure out what works and what doesn't by reading others. And when you read something bad you think "I could do better" and that gets the backside where it belongs.

7. Always be submitting
Maybe this point is more the Glengarry equivalent. Rejection isn't fun, but it's part of the process. E-mails aren't as much fun as rejection slips used to be. I pinned rejection slips to my bedroom wall back in The Pleistoscene. Michael Avallone once suggested "build bonfires with rejection slips."

Whatever you do with rejections in whatever form, they should serve as a kick in the pants. They're often indicative of one person's taste or a market's particular need.

Or if they suggest something truly wrong with the angel, then it's an opportunity to get back in the ring.

Hope if you found your way here that those are helpful ideas. May 2012 be a wonderful, productive year for all those compelled to create.

Further reading

• Advice on Writing from Modernity's Great Writers

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Holiday Blog Tour: Credible Threat - A Christmas Story

Listen to Blog Tour participants on KPFT radio, Houston, MP3 starting around 31:30

Welcome to my dark little stop on the Holiday Blog Tour.

I love the holiday season and all its trappings, so I was happy to receive the invitation to participate from Icess Fernandez of Writing to Insanity.

As soon as she contacted me, I knew I wanted to offer up a story as a holiday gift.

It's a little grim, though not horror. It's also slightly longer than flash I sometimes post here, so I thought I'd provide it in a format ready for easy digital reading.

Jump to the story on ScribID now.

Or read on to get an idea of what it's about and how it came to be, then jump over to the tale via the button below.

The Back Story

My wife and I vacationed in New York City several weeks back, and the idea for the tale sprang to me as we began our journey home. I sat in the waiting area at my gate, knowing I had a story to write for this blog tour. I began flipping through the battered idea notebook I've carried for many years.

What if it fell into the wrong hands and was read out of context? How would it be interpreted in this paranoid age?

The tale that developed is representative of a kind of dark-humored short fiction I'm writing and beginning to submit in these days of my post-MFA writing life.  It has  reverberations of my early horror writing while going in a slightly new direction.

It's where the muse is pushing me at the moment, and perhaps there'll be a collection of these twisted tales including the one that's in, shameless plug, Soul's Road. A few of the pieces in the collection of my early stories, Scars and Candy, hint at the style, though they're more visceral.

Click below to read "Credible Threat: A Christmas Story," and see if you like it.

And be sure to continue the blog tour tomorrow with a visit to Toni Margarita Plummer, author of The Bolero of Andi Rowe. See all the stops on the tour here.

• E-pub
• Kindle

Credible Threat

Credible Threat by Sidney Williams is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at sidneywilliams.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://sidisalive.com.

The Holiday Blog Tour Has Started

The Holiday Blog Tour mentioned in my previous post has begun. Keep up with all the stops at Writing to Insanity, and be sure to keep up with us all month.

Julia Amante, author of Evenings at the Argentine Club, began technically yesterday.

Be sure to check back here Dec. 10 for my post. It'll be a special holiday gift from me, a twisted holiday short story called "Credible Threat" available for download. I'm working on the cover art now.

Holiday Blog Extravaganza Coming Soon

One of my friends has organized a blog event for the holiday season. It will include quite a mixture of participants.

As my contribution, I'm at work on a short story about the holiday travel season, with a few dark turns of course.  It hovers between flash and short fiction, so I'm thinking of offering the whole piece as a ScribID download or something like that, making it a holiday gift.

I'll post details and blogs that will be involved soon.

The New Cover for Azarius

Azarius, my first book, will be re-issued in an e-book edition from Crossroad Press any minute. David Dodd did the cover for the new edition. 

Now on Amazon!

The Making of a Halloween Story

I may have mentioned here or on Twitter that travel usually produces creative energy for me. As Halloween approaches, I've been reminded of a Halloween horror story I wrote a few eons back. It's called "Like Candy From a Baby," and it's a tale of an evil man who gets his just desserts, quite literally.

It was eventually slated for an anthology Edward Lee was working on, and he noted it almost made him throw up after he read it. That anthology never came about, but "Like Candy From A Baby" is now available in my collection Scars and Candy.

Dark stories inevitably lead to the question: "Where did you get that idea?"

I don't have a specific nucleus for the story, but it came about after a trip to the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle one year. World Fantasy is always held around Halloween, and I drove down from Alexandria, LA, that year to Robert Petitt's house. He lived in Baton Rouge in those days, before a Louisiana version of the Sons of Anarchy led to his relocation.

From there we drove to New Orleans and hopped a flight to the Northwest, and I read Razored Saddles on the plane, especially, at Robert's urging, Chet Williamson's "Yore Skins's Jes's Soft 'n Purdy He Said."

World Fantasy is a great con, and those were great convention years for me. Tons of friends were always on hand, and activities were non stop.

Robert was always a good traveling companion for me, more outgoing than I and thus better at meeting people. That was the year we met Wayne Allen Sallee, Yvonne Navarro, Beth Massie and many others. Dean Andersson and Nina Romberg were in Seattle that year as well, and many, many cool people were on hand.

When it was over, we headed home, and I was buoyed by the energy of being around new and old friends, kicking around ideas and attending readings and the like.

I'm not sure exactly when the tale sprang into my imagination.

Maybe it was while I slept on Petitt's couch and dreamed, but at any rate, as I started home I had a Halloween tale in mind and I picked up a pocket tape recorder I kept with me in those days and dictated the first lines about an awful man named Frank Church who had insidious plans for a Halloween house of horrors.

It's about an hour and a half from Baton Rouge to Alexandria. By the time I'd made the trip, I had a story on my tape recorder. It was a little verbose and badly worded in parts, but I transcribed and polished later.

Maybe creativity is confluence.

Back from the Apple

Christine's wanted to spend a few days in New York City for about an eon, but conflicts kept prohibiting until we said "Dammit, we're wedging it in." 

It was a good decision, since NYC is such a smörgåsbord for eclectics. 

Christine's in a bit of a "Colonial-influenced" place at the moment, so we spent a while at the Museum of the City of New York on a docent-led trip through an exhibit called The American Style: Colonial Revival and the Modern Metropolis. That dovetailed into a visit to the MET and the American exhibits where re-created rooms from many eras almost let you step into the past. A room from a Frank Lloyd Wright mansion was a highlight.

We planed a couple of shows, off Broadway's Relatively Speaking--a series of one acts by Ethan Cohen, Elaine May and Woody Allen--and War Horse at Lincoln Center, thinking those represented a pretty nice spectrum. They did, of course. Tight, funny comedy-dramas peopled with stars-you-know make up Relatively Speaking, while War Horse, is, of course, a spectacle that's emotionally engaging from the start and you really do forget those are puppets and not real horses.

But we also wanted to be flexible and open to opportunities. We watched a good chunk of the Columbus Day Parade, and, on a whim, we managed to catch John Lithgow being interviewed (by Bill Moyers) about his memoir Drama: An Actor's Education at the New York Public Library. That opened with inspiring remarks from NYPL's president about keeping ideas and knowledge accessible to all in the digital era. 

We  spent a morning at James Robinson Inc. as well getting deep insight into the history of silversmithing from one of the proprietors. 

I've been a bit creatively fatigued of late, so it was really a wonderful trip that worked without a hitch or hiccup. It was nice to let everything inside relax a little, let my brain decompress and just absorb for a while. 

I enjoyed getting familiar with the subway again, with hoofing it through neighborhoods and along the edge of Central Park and through shops in Soho. 

I don't have anything eloquent or profound at the moment. It's just good to recharge in a spot where the energy is so high. 

Further reading

More on Relatively Speaking

Sunday Interview - Jeff Rutherford of Delabarre Publishing

Jeff Rutherford and I met at one convention or another more years back than I can count on my fingers. We've been in and out of touch over the years, talking books and writing and the like. We recently crossed paths again via the miracle of social media. Since he has many interesting things going on including the release of a book by the great crime writer Clark Howard, I thought he'd be a great person for a Sunday interview.

A little about Jeff
Jeff worked in traditional publishing for 3-4 years in the 1990s with the Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc. For the past 15 years, he has worked in public relations - managing and developing PR campaigns for digital lifestyle companies at the intersection of technology, media, and publishing. In 2010, he founded Delabarre Publishing, an independent publisher of quality eBooks. In addition, Jeff has recorded 43 episodes of the Reading and Writing podcast - where he interviews writers and authors about their latest books, their writing habits, and what books they love and enjoy. In addition, he is revamping and recording new episodes of the Book Marketing podcast which examines how publishers and authors are using digital strategies to market and sell books.

A father of two, Jeff lives with his family in the hills of Western Massachusetts.

Tell us a little about how Delabarre Publishing and what you’re doing in the realm of e-book publishing.

I had long dreamed of starting a small publishing company over the years. I've observed and participated in the publishing industry intently for the past 20 years. However, the financial costs of traditional publishing (print and production costs, the returns issue) stopped me from jumping in.

I've long been fascinated by eBooks. In 2000, I bought a Gemstar ereading device. It was a clunky, early, early predecessor of the Kindle or iPad. The screen wasn't all that bad, and I read several books with my Gemstar device. I moved from that to downloading books for my PalmPilot and watching the business models and success of companies like Fictionwise. So, when Sony launched their eBook devices and then Amazon made the big splash with the introduction of the Kindle, I knew that eBooks would have a huge impact. I don't think I would have predicted the traction this quickly, but I think Amazon made a very, very smart move by pricing current titles at $9.99. While traditional publishers tried to figure out a strategy and response, Amazon built a sustainable business in 18 months or so.

Then, when these various eBook platforms began introducing self-publishing programs, I knew I wanted to participate as a publisher. I've written fiction, and I've won some prizes and published some of my short stories. However, I just didn't feel that my own fiction efforts were ready for prime time as eBooks.

I started thinking about how and what type of books I could publish electronically. I knew that whatever I published, I wanted to emphasize quality - quality in the writing, quality in the production/formatting, and quality in the cover design. I have a 7-year old son who loves riddles, puns, and wordplay. One day when I was in a bookstore with him, I glanced at a shelf of joke books, and I knew that those could work really well as eBooks. I went home, researched the current market for kids joke eBooks. Then, I contacted a friend who is a freelance writer, and paid him an advance to write 101 Short & Hilarious Jokes For Kids.

After working with a cover designer and an eBook formatter, I published my first eBook in August 2010. Since then, I've published a wide variety of kids joke books, including 102 Hilarious Jokes for Kids, 103 Hilarious Halloween Jokes for Kids, 102 Hilarious Christmas Jokes For Kids, 500 Hilarious Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids, 101 Hilarious Animal Jokes, 102 Hilarious Jewish Jokes For Kids, 101 Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes for Kids.

What are your thoughts on cover art? How do you develop the cover for a title you’re going to release?

I've worked primarily with one cover designer, and we have a great working relationship. She has developed a very consistent style and tone for the joke books. But that's not all I'm publishing. She's also designed covers for novels, travel books, etc.

I'm not a graphic designer. I've never used Photoshop. But over the years, I've looked at literally thousands of traditional book covers, and I think I have a gut feel for what looks good and "pops" as a cover. Thankfully, the designer I work with, can take my ideas and turn them into eye-catching covers. When I email my designer initially, I usually try my best to describe the tone and feel of the cover artwork I have in mind.

I know you have a title from Clark Howard, Hard City. How did that come about? Were you an admirer of his work at the outset?

After the kids joke books began selling well, I knew that I wanted to expand my eBook publishing to include a variety of titles and topics, including fiction. I've read many of Clark Howard's novels, but Hard City was the first novel of his that I read. It was purely by accident. In 1990 or so, I was in the library at the University of Georgia. I spotted the title Hard City on a new release shelf, grabbed the book and read the first page or so.

The book is an amazing coming of age novel - based on the real-life story of Howard's troubled childhood living on the hard streets of Chicago in the late 1940s. Over the years, I bought multiple copies of Hard City, and I re-read the novel four or five times over the years.

I thought about Hard City as a potential ebook, and I confirmed that the book was not available as an eBook. In fact, after its initial hardback publication by Dutton, the book was never even published in paperback. I tracked Howard down through Mystery Writers of America and sent him an email. A few weeks later, in January of this year, I was at home on a Saturday afternoon, and he called me to discuss publishing Hard City as an eBook. That was a very exciting day, and now Hard City is available as an eBook for a new generation of readers to enjoy.

And, now, Howard and I are collaborating on publishing a multi-volume collection of his many, well-regarded and award-winning mystery stories. Stay tuned for the first volume later this year.

Also, I want to add, that thanks to working with Clark Howard to publish Hard City, that opened the door with other, established writers to discuss publishing some of their backlist. I've also had the great privilege to publish two young-adult novels written by Bill Crider, the popular mystery writer. Crider's A Vampire Named Fred is now available, and we'll soon be publishing A Werewolf Named Wayne. A Vampire Named Fred was previously published a small, defunct publisher, but the sequel A Werewolf Named Wayne is previously unpublished.

Any dream authors you’d like to publish or any particular book you want to resurrect in an e-edition?

I'm in discussions with several authors currently. Some I can't discuss publicly at this point. I will add that regardless if I publish them or not, there are plenty of series that I think warrant eBook publication. For example, I know that some of Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective novels are available as eBooks, but not all of them. That's a series that's ripe for eBook publication. Also, I've always been fond of multi-volume definitive collections of short stories. I'm not in discussions with them, but I think all the great science fiction collections that NESFA has published over the years would make wonderful eBooks. The same goes for the current Subterranean Press multi-volume collection of Robert Silverberg's short stories.


Tell us about your joke books and developing those. Are there more on the horizon. I know the supply of humorous public figures is almost infinite.

In addition to the kids joke books, I have published 2 collections of "political" humor - 99 Sarah Palin Jokes and 101 Donald Trump Jokes. Those haven't sold quite as well as the kids joke books, but I do have plans for other adult and political joke books.

What else is on the horizon for Delabarre?

I've got a lot of eBooks in production. I haven't even mentioned The Italy Plane Reader. I partnered with GoNomad, a great online travel site that features travel articles about destinations in the U.S. and around the world. The Italy Plane Reader, as the name suggests, is an eBook featuring numerous articles about Italy - the perfect read on the plane ride to Italy for your travels. In partnership with GoNomad, I'm going to be publishing more "Plane Readers" including eBooks about Central America, Cuba, and a guide to nudist travel and resorts - Travel Naked.

I will also be publishing - very soon - the eBook of a book that I sold to HarperCollins in the 1990s when I worked as a literary agent in NYC - 50 Great College Drinking Games by Ross Bonander. Ross has also written another book that I'll be publishing which I'm very excited about - a quote book similar to a Bartlett's-style collection. But, Ross' new book is collecting strictly quotes from the 2000s. We haven't settled on a title yet, but it's moving close to production.


You’ve worked in traditional publishing and now you’re part of the e-book revolution. What do you see down the road? Any predictions?

Predictions. Hmmm. I'm certainly immersed in book publishing, but I'm never confident about my own crystal ball of predictions. Nonetheless, here are my predictions:

1. I think there will be many more independent publishers similar to Delabarre Publishing. Traditional publishers aren't moving fast enough to publish their backlist. In some cases, they don't have electronic rights to their backlist. And, when they do publish their backlist, they price the books too high, because they're working from a traditional pricing structure.

2. With traditional publishers, I just don't know. I've been struck recently at several industry events that I attended where publishers, authors, and editors spoke, and there was almost no discussion about eBooks and the impact of eBooks. While they may not be discussing eBooks, I'm certain that the accountants at major publishers are discussing them. How do you continue along as if nothing has changed when you're selling fewer hard copies of books, and the pricing pressures keep going lower?

And, I want to point out, very strongly, I have no animosity whatsoever towards traditional publishers. I love publishing. I love books. I have a house filled with books (too many according to my wife). But, it's inarguable that the business model is changing much faster than any publisher ever dreamed it would.

3. Bookstores. Used bookstores will continue to exist. However, the outlook for bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble is grim. Yes, B&N has moved aggressively, much more so than many publishers insiders ever dreamed, with the Nook, but again with pricing structures, they're making less money on lower-priced eBooks. And, they're selling fewer print books. With Barnes & Noble, I think in 5 years, they'll have half the stores they do now - if not less.

4. Writers will continue the rush to publish self-published eBooks. The vast majority will sell only a few copies. Unfortunately, many authors write their books, but then they're willing to settle for sub-standard formatting and cover design. If they settle for poorly designed covers and formatting, their books won't rise above the flood of self-published books. In addition, the ease of self-publishing as an eBook is just too much of a temptation for many aspiring writers. They're going to publish poorly edited drafts hoping to be the next John Locke or Amanda Hocking, and they're only going to sell a few copies.

However, the good news is that there will be A LOT more successful self-published writers. eBooks and self-publishing technology have democratized book publishing. If writers spend the necessary time to write the best book they're capable of, and pay an editor for valid editing, and spend the time to design an eye-catching cover, there's nothing stopping them from succeeding very well.

5. Reading and books overall. I'm excited and ecstatic! To quote that song, "The future's so bright I've got to wear shades." As more and more backlist titles are published, the rich depth of novels and non-fiction will be available to just about anyone with the click of a button, including libraries as Amazon rolls out their library lending plans later this year.

6. While optimistic, let’s not forget the digital divide. If there are fewer bookstores, there will be communities that are underserved by having books readily available, and those same neighborhoods don’t have the affluence for teens and adults to run out and buy a Kindle or an iPad. I don’t like the idea of two Americas – haves and have nots – and I think it’s something we all have to be mindful of as technology races ahead.

On the Soul's Road - Short Story Collection For Kindle

My buddy Cody Luff, who was in my graduating class at Goddard College, recently decided to put together a collection of short stories authored by those in the Goddard ranks.

The result, Soul's Road, went on sale this week exclusively for Kindle. It includes a story by me called "Telephone," and 12 other stories by writers I fully believe you will be hearing more about.

When you crack open Soul's Road you'll find a collection of journeys leading in many interesting directions - sensitive and surprising family dramas, humor, literary science fiction, a slice of life from an office in a slightly different world, a tale of loss set in Poland, a criminal's journey, a tale that will remind you of Marquez and much more.

Sadly you won't find a tale by Cody, who is a truly brilliant and gifted writer. As editor he decided it didn't set quite right, but his words will find other homes and you will read them and be amazed and moved.

Here are the stories and authors included:

Chimera: John Schimmel
Tax Code: Natasha Oliver
Emperical Facts: Isla McKetta
Heap: Karen Hugg
Confluence: Phil Paddock
That Girl: Deb Staley
Singing of the Sun: Ann Keeling
Sanctum: Peter McMinn
Funny Think Happened When My Mom Died: Paula Altschuler
Some Kind of Apocalpse: Joey Pierce
Of Love Death and Marriage: The Rumored Reputation of Don Armando Mejia: Isis Fernandez
Campaign Trail: Nathan Chang


Soul's Road is a collection of truth, and I'm happy to march on the path in their company.

Buy it here

Trailer Tuesday: The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff

Looks interesting, no?

The Dreams I Had - When Writing Midnight Eyes

Doug Dorow's recent post on the research he did for his novel The Ninth District jogged my memory about the original writing of Midnight Eyes.

Although I did an extensive re-write recently, I set down the first draft a few years ago while I was working as a librarian. Handy inter-library loan tools were at my fingertips.

While I'd worked for years before that as a newspaper reporter, often shouldering police beat duties that included late-night visits to crime scenes, I spent a lot of time reading books and references about serial killers and pouring over police training textbooks and FBI journals.

I was striving to construct the psychology behind the book's central killings properly. I've never seen Midnight Eyes as "just" a serial killer novel. A series of brutal murders plague the cops in the story and bring the protagonist, former FBI agent Wayland Hood, home to Louisiana to help his sheriff father, but the identity of the killer is not simple. There are secrets to be unraveled and psychological complexities.

I scanned encyclopedias of serial killers during the research, reading about famous and less famous killers.

Dark dreams
The research produced more than a few nightmares during the writing. I didn't dream so much that serial killers were after me as I did about their deeds and about the crime scenes depicted in the training texts. And about the loss of life.

That channeled into Wayland, a haunted man, damaged by his past and by his work with the FBI in the apprehension of four major serial killers. In dreams, I felt really in tune with Wayland's cold and dark places.

I guess that was an ancillary effect of the research, expanding beyond the acquisition of facts. Since some of the reviews and comments about the book suggest Wayland seems real for readers, I guess those nightmares were a benefit even though they didn't seem so at the time.

Sunday Author Interview: Renée Pawlish - Mystery, Suspense and The Genesis of Evil

Renée Pawlish and I bumped into each other on one message board or another recently, or maybe it was Twitter. At any rate, I wound up discovering the e-book edition of her novel Nephilim: Genesis of Evil. It's a  horror thriller, and I was prompted to write this review:

 Fans of early Bentley Little should enjoy Nephilim: Genesis of Evil, a chilling, horror outing that uses The Apocrypha as source material for its menacing beings. It's a well-crafted tale of the re-emergence of spirits who are the offspring of humans and angels. The spirits begin possessing humans in a small Colorado town in order to obtain corporal form, capturing the attention of paranormal journalist Rory Callahan who's traveled from New York City where he witnessed a strange and malevolent presence. Rory joins forces with Anna Holmes, a local resident with a troubled past. Anna is a counterpoint to the skeptical Rory, allowing a deeper metaphysical exploration as the novel charges forward into a full-fledged confrontation between good and evil. This is a powerful and well-written effort.

Renée agreed to drop by the blog for an interview, so there are a questions and answers below. You should also know that she is a Colorado resident with a love for travel, hiking and playing guitar.


Thanks for dropping by the blog. Your bio states you have degrees in history and
counseling. Tell us a little of the path that led you to writing.

I've always had stories running around in my head, and I even dabbled in writing as a
child. One of the classes I most enjoyed in high school was a creative writing class.
About the time I received my degree in counseling, I had an idea for a story that just sat
with me, just waiting to be told. A friend kept encouraging me to write the book and
I finally did. It's not written very well, but I still think the general story idea is good.
From there, I just kept at it, honing my craft.


I’m intrigued by Nephilim: Genesis Of Evil and its basis in Genesis. Tell us a little about the nucleus of the novel. How much did your seminary background influence the book.

Nephilim came about because of a dream I had. I was rereading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King, and I dreamed about characters trying to escape some malevolent presence they knew was coming, and the action in the dream occurred on the shores of a lake. I woke up and knew I had to write it. Some of the characters from that dream ended up in Nephilim, and I incorporated the lake into the book as well. Of course, studying the Bible helped in my research, but I actually did not have the Nephilim as the "bad guys"
initially. Originally, I wanted the characters to think they were dealing with vampires, and then realize they were mistaken. As I was working through that idea, I was in a Bible study and we were reading Genesis. As we discussed the Nephilim, I knew I had my bad guys.

The synopsis and reviews state that it’s a vampire novel and a detective tale, could you elaborate on that?

It's really a twist on the vampire tale, in that the residents of this small town are dealing
with an evil presence that tries to overtake their bodies. The similarities end there,
but I don't want to give away too much. I've mostly written detective stories, so those
elements exist in Nephilim, where the characters have to piece together clues in order to figure out how to handle this evil presence. Unfortunately, from a marketing standpoint, I didn't help myself because Nephilim doesn't fit into just one genre. People think that Nephilim is horror, and although it certainly has horror components in the story, Nephilim is also a mystery or thriller. The feedback I consistently get is that Nephilim is just a great read and that it's hard to put down. That's the best compliment an author can receive.

The next book
Speaking of mystery and suspense, Renée's new book, a mystery, was just released this week.

Synopsis: Thirty-something Reed Ferguson, a wannabe private eye with a love of film noir and detective fiction, needs a paying client to prove his career choice to himself and his parents. The customer shows up at his downtown Denver office in the form of Amanda Ghering, a rich, attractive, but unhappily married woman. She hires Reed to find her husband, who is presumed dead. The superb cast of characters include a duo of oddball brothers who lack common sense and a genius computer geek. Follow Reed as he solves crimes akin to his cinematic hero, Humphrey Bogart. Get it from Amazon

Visit Renee on the web or follow her on  Twitter.

Further reading

• Get Nephilim from Smashwords.
• Read the prologue

Sunday Author Interview: Aliya Anjum - Travel, History and Information You Might Not Know

Recently I did an interview with Robert Lory that seemed popular, so I thought I would do some more interviews, at least on an occasional basis.

I put the call out  on the Kindle Boards, Twitter and a couple of other places for authors with a couple of books.

One of the first writers to touch base with me was Aliya Anjum, author of several recently-released e-books.

It was a real pleasure to learn of Aliya's work.  I was once a religion reporter, so some of her topics took me back to some of my interviews from those days, meeting and chatting with people of many faiths and creeds.

If you read to the end you'll also discover what she has planned next makes her a particularly appropriate interview for my little web corner here on another literary front.


The synopsis on some of your books, and even some of the subtitles note that you are Pakistani, but tell us a little about yourself and your writing background. You write of history and Hollywood and many diverse topics. What prepared you for that.

First of all, thank you for this interview. Coming to your question, briefly, I am a Pakistani author and free lance journalist as well as part time MBA faculty at a business school. I hold a BBA/MBA from The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and an MS from Philadelphia University, US. I have also worked at a French and a British Bank in Karachi, before going to grad school in US. After my return, I worked for the government of Pakistan and prior to that had a very short stint as a Live TV Show host for a current affairs program.

I have been an avid reader, all my life. After studying in US in the post 9/11 environment, my interest in geo-politics, globalization and history deepened. I started to read up on Islamic history and geo-politics, beginning from Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilisztions". As I read up on history, I got hooked. Even though my studies in US were in Fashion Apparel Management, however, I am not even remotely linked to it.

As for Hollywood, I think most Americans do not realize the global reach of Hollywood. Even prior to cable TV, which is available the world over now, Hollywood movies have been watched on TV and Cinema, everywhere. In many countries including Pakistan, unfortunately, pirated CDs hit the market, simultaneously with its US release. Hollywood is everywhere, in the cinemas, on TV, at CD shops and even on the internet now.

I will also tell you a surprising thing about Hollywood. Contrary to popular belief, Hollywood is US's biggest goodwill ambassador and the US is admired in many ways because of it.

Two weeks of solo travel in Greece: a Pakistani Girl's Diary is called on Amazon a “look at Greece through the eyes of a solo Muslim female traveler.” Tell us a little about the focus of the book.

This book is based on my trip to Greece in October-November 2010. Of late I have been traveling to historically blessed destinations. In 2009, I went to Spain and Turkey to see Muslim history (Spain was under Muslim rule from 751 to 1492. This was Spain's glorious age, in the European dark ages). Coming back to my travels, I visited Greece to see the scientific, philosophical and cultural foundation of the western world. Greece is blessed with natural beauty and a amazing people. My book reflects all of that. It also hints at globalization. The book however, has its feminine moments too, and thus it's a solo female traveler's account.

You have illustrations tied to the book. Tell us a little about some of the images and some of your photography.

I have three slide shows links from the site Tripadvisor wow with about 185 pictures, covering almost everything I mentioned in my book. So if you read my book, and see the pictures, you can visually follow the narrative. The pictures are taken from my Sony Cybershot camera, and I would leave it for my readers to decide upon the quality of the visuals. I am only an amatuer photographer, but I thoroughly enjoyed being click-happy in Greece, which was a sensory overload.

You have looked into Muslim history in a couple of your titles. In Muslim Inventions in the Islamic Golden Age 750-1500 AD you explore some discoveries and scientific information that’s been lost or misinterpreted over the years. Can you give us a little overview of what the book addresses.

This manuscript was awarded a Commendation Certificate by the National Book Foundation, Pakistan.

Islam is unfortunately greatly misunderstood in the US. Political Islam has overtaken and even maligned the scripture and Muslism. Islam is an Abrahamic religion and during the middle ages, the Islamic civilization, was a glorious civilization, which gave impetus to the European Renaissance. Muslims empires ruled over parts of Africa, Asia and even Europe, and the sciences and arts reached new heights in this era.

To elaborate, Bayt-ul-Himkah (House of Wisdom) was a scientific research institution in Baghdad, Iraq where Muslims collected the knowledge of all ancient cultures including Greek works. It was here that Arab Muslims and Jews worked together to greatly build upon existing sciences and created new sciences such as Algebra. Chemistry is also an Arab Muslim invention. Muslim and Jewish Arab surgeons and physicians such as Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) and Moses Maimonides performed even cosmetic surgeries and treated complicated illnesses. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) created the first medical encyclopedia and his book the Canon, was standard medical text in European universities for 500 years. Muslims also mastered urban planning and wrote literary masterpieces such as the One thousand and one Nights, penned circa 800 AD. Islamic knowledge began to spread to Europe during the Crusades (1099-1192). Otherwise, after the ancient Greeks, the last of whom existed circa 150 AD, there was over a mellinium of the European dark ages.


The Islamic civilization is the bridge that connects ancient Greeks to Renaissance Europe. However, much of this has been lost to history due to colonialism. Interestingly, these facts are being re-discovered and brought to light in European universities and institutions. Science is the collective heritage of humanity.



And in Muhammad’s Wives you look at the 11 wives of Muhammad. That’s an area Westerners and possibly many others don’t know much about. Tell us a little about the book and the wives, and what the information reflects about contemporary life.

Muhammad (peace be upon him) in unfortunately also greatly misunderstood on account of Political Islam. He is often portrayed as a militant misogynist. The widespread poverty and economic backwardness of Muslim countries, also strengthens this negative image.

Muhammad's life is a road map for all Muslims and his role as a husband is thus very important. It would be surprising to note that the book would be equally educational for Muslims as it would be for non-Muslims to know many surprising facts about the wives. Take for example that Ayesha (the infamous child bride, which is something open to debate) is the greatest knowledge bearer of Islam. Her youth and intelligence, served Islam for 38 years after Muhammad passed away. This is iconoclastic for an Abrahamic Religion, when a woman was trusted as such. Then there is Hafsa, who was trusted with the safekeeping of the Quranic (scriptural) text. It was her text that was compiled in the current format of the Quran that you see today. Finally Muhammad, never indulged in physical or psychological abuse and he married widows and divorcees.

The book is a condensed 20 page e-book available for 99 cents, and I would urge people to read it.

What are you working on now? What’s next on the horizon.

All three of my e-books were launched in June 2011. I am currently involved in establishing myself as an author by marketing my books. Interviews such as this one, are a great help. I am at present, completely consumed in this effort, which is labyrinthine, due to the breadth and scope of Social Media. It is especially, hard for a foreign, non-fiction, indie author to create readership. Being so far away, I can't manage any coffesshop or bookshop appearances or a speaking session etc. And then my books are not in the hot selling romance genre either. The internet is my sole medium, but it is a powerful medium.

My next project is going to be a collection of horror short stories, which was actually the first book I penned down. It participated in the National Book Foundation's annual competition, where it was featured in the annual new book selection, a booklet aimed at publishers. It would be my fiction debut and I am looking forward to it.

Thank You!

Thanks to Aliya for dropping by. Check out her books by clicking the links above, or learn more here:

Aliya's titles on Smashwords
Aliya's blog

International Thriller Writer's Roundtable - The Elements of Thriller Stories

I'm participating in the Thriller Roundtable at the International Thriller Writer's Big Thrill website this week. Other participants include Thomas Kaufman, Reece Hirsch and CE Lawrence.

The question posed is interesting, dealing with the purest elements of story.

The late John Gardner suggested that all stories boil down to either, someone went on a journey or a stranger comes to town. Do you agree? At their very core, how do you view your thrillers?

So far, Ms. Lawrence and I have weighed in with opening shots. Drop by and see how it goes if you have a second. 

Writing Contemplations: Justifying the Impossible Or the Unlikely In Fiction

Note: When I do book reviews or appreciations, I've started to note points of interest to writers. I thought I'd also do  occasional posts with thoughts about the writing lessons found in books and film. Here's the first. 

In the recent Blue Bloods season finale Jamie Regan (Will Estes), youngest cop in the show's featured family of New York cops, reveals to dad Frank Regan (Tom Selleck) that he's been quietly conducting his own investigation into the death of his brother Joe.

"Why didn't you come to me?" asks Frank, voicing the viewer's question as well. Why would the youngest and greenest member of the family not turn information over to his father, the police commissioner, and older brother, a seasoned investigator?

The question is the kind writers for the screen, tube and page deal with every day. The real answer of course, is that there'd have been no story, or a different story, if he'd made a different decision. 

Often the easy answer is not the one the writer or the story wants, nor is it the one the reader wants. When people turn to fiction, they don't want a newspaper account of  a worried neighbor who phones the authorities. They're looking for an extraordinary story of extraordinary individuals. 

Sure, the amateur sleuth could just phone the police and wait for them to handle the mystery of who poisoned the headmaster's breakfast, but if the story's about the bookish spinster who solves murders that just won't do. 

Jamie explains in Blue Bloods he felt his brother had left him information about a rogue band of cops as a passing of a torch, and in pursuing the truth alone he was honoring his brother. It fits his character, established over a season's worth of episodes. He's a Harvard grad who decided to eschew law practice to enter the family business, law enforcement, that's steeped in tradition and a sense of duty and honor. 

What reason could the bookish spinster have? Well, maybe like with Joe, something personal could drive matters. Maybe the murdered headmaster's the lover who broke her heart when she was a young school teacher. Maybe that's why she's a bookish spinster and maybe there's a strong sense of need to find out the headmaster's secrets. Maybe some of the reasons years ago that spurred him to break her heart without explanation have contributed to the cause of his murder. 

Say, that sounds intriguing. A little finesse and  layering of ideas can justify a lot in a story and make it richer and more interesting in the process. 

Victims of circumstance
Circumstances as well can force characters along the desired course. A few years ago a friend saw the movie Cellular before I did. It's the story of a woman trapped by kidnappers. Her damaged cell phone makes a connection with a young man who has to stay on the line or risk losing her call. Fortunately he's not an AT&T customer.

"How'd they explain him not going to the police?" I asked, because I always think about the writer at the keyboard behind a story.

Police after all, would be able to trace calls and end the story in a hurry.

"He did go to the police," my friend said. "But there was gang riot and..."

And the young man couldn't risk losing the connection, so as distracting hordes of prisoners were hauled into the police station he had to move on and handle things on his own. Is that how things might really unfold? Meh.

That point in the story did introduce William H. Macy as a dedicated desk sergeant, representing authority and  ultimately helping out. But the gang riot kept the story from being hijacked and  becoming  one of the FBI and vast technological resources being called in.

It's a contrivance, but it's a polished one with great presentation. It also serves as one of those rocks writers are supposed to throw at heroes.

Back to the amateur sleuth
So what could plague our bookish spinster? Even with her personal ties to the murder, she'd likely grow discouraged, hit a few speed bumps, discover some clues out of reach.

What might keep her going against those rocks we're tossing her way?

Suppose the police detective assigned to the case doesn't have a gang riot on his hands? Say she's in a small town, a quiet spot where murders might not roll around every day. The detective might not have the experience of a seasoned homicide investigator.

Suppose the bookish spinster's chief suspect is from a rich and influential family? When she turns in what she's found,  the local cop might not be inclined to tackle the firestorm and go the extra mile to build up the evidence.

Even though she'd like to get back to that copy of Infinite Jest, the sleuth's got to see justice done for her former lover, and clues may not be enough. She's got to find a way to...

And with a few layers, she'll be believable.