Well, I’ll Be Go to Hell

After—let’s see, borrow from the one—eighteen years of writing, about fifteen years of looking to get published, and countless hours and blog posts whining about the current state of publishing, today I signed an honest-to-Chandler book contract with Stark House to publish the second of my Penns River novels, Grind Joint.

The successor to Worst Enemies (currently available for Kindle and Nook for a measly $2.99), Grind Joint is the story of what happens when the 21st-Century panacea for all urban financial woes rolls into a small town: a casino. It features many of the characters and occasionally looks back into an only partially resolved issue from Worst Enemies (yet another reason to get your copy, so you’ll be ahead of the curve).

The release date is tentatively set for early 2014, so there will be plenty of time to torment all of you with my idea of promotion. Suffice for now to say thank you to Greg Shepard and  Rick Ollerman at Stark House for taking a chance on me.

Plenty of future electrons will be devoted to thanking those who helped to get me this far, but three require mention immediately:

John McNally, for treating the lone genre writer in his workshop exactly the same as the more literary types, both in expectations and respect.

Declan Burke, who rounded up a posse of friends to comment here when I thought of hanging up my keyboard a couple of years ago and convinced me to keep plugging along.

And the inimitable Charlie Stella, who pretty much brokered the deal. Charlie is Stark House’s other writer of original novels (they focus on reprints of authors including Margaret Millar, Bill Pronzini, and Bob Randisi), and adopted me a couple of years ago. His counsel and encouragement have been formidable and much appreciated. Yes, Charlie, I did the writing, but I can safely say this book would never have seen print had it not been for you.

That’s enough shameless self-promotery for now. I need to save some for Worst Enemies, available now for Kindle and Nook.