Where in the World is Dana King?

Okay, so I’m not the first person to use that “Where in the World is…” thing and I’m not as much fun as Carmen Sandiego. On the other hand, I can whip Matt Lauer’s ass and still have enough in the tank to handle Savannah Guthrie and that bald-headed stooge Al Roker, so watch your ass. There’s stuff on the horizon, some of which I can even tell you about.

The Big News™, for me, at least, is the release of Resurrection Mall next Monday, May 1, though reliable sources tell me books have been delivered as early as this past Friday. Res Mall is the third in the Penns River series and introduces a new character I think everyone will like in Sean Sisler, former Marine sniper and new Penns River cop. The story focuses on five shotgun murders that pretty much wipe out the local drug dealers, though no one steps immediately into the vacuum. Why is that? Buy the book and see.

A blog tour is rolling. Some dates are still firming up, but the definites are here:

Today, April 24: S.W. Lauden lowers the value of his fine blog, Bad Citizen Corporation, with an interview.

Friday, April 28: Patti Abbott’s outstanding blog, pattinase also asks what I think about things, always a dangerous proposition.

Monday, May 1 (launch date): An excerpt from Resurrection Mall appears in Omnimystery Magazine.

In Reference to Murder indulges my ideas on research on May 2.

I talk about the appeal of writing series for Elizabeth White on May 4.

Drinks With Reads has a fun feature on what kind of mixed drink characters in Penns River would enjoy. The response might surprise you.

For those who can bear me in person:

Saturday, May 20. Gaithersburg Book Festival, Gaithersburg MD. At 12:15 I’m moderating a panel, “Military Thrillers: Matthew Betley and Rick Campbell discuss using their experience in the military to craft international thrillers.” It’s a chance for me to spread out a little and I’m looking forward to meeting both Matthew and Rick in the flesh.

Also Saturday, May 20. Noir at the Bar DC at the Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon Street NW, Washington DC. I’m in some fast company here at 7:00 as the lovely and talented Ed Aymar hosts Kim Alexander, Jen Conley, Eryk Pruitt, Laura Ellen Scott, Colleen Shogan, John Dunn Smith, David Swinson, Neely Tucker, Steve Weddle , and yours truly as part of a three-day, three-city Noir at the Bar crawl that begins Friday night in Richmond and ends Sunday in Baltimore. If you anywhere in what they now call the DMV, you have no excuse not to catch at least one of these fine events. (I always think of the DMV as the Department of Motor Vehicles and no one wants to go there, but such is life. This is a different DMV. Trust me.)

Friday, June 16. One More Page Books, Arlington VA. 7:00 PM. Ed Aymar moderates a panel on different approaches to crime fiction with Christina Kovac, Nik Korpon, and yours truly. We all have our own distinct perspectives on writing crime fiction, which promises to lead to an entertaining discussion. Of course, if Aymar has new pants, that may be all he wants to talk about.

Friday September 8 through Sunday September 10. Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity Conference. Panels are as yet undetermined; check back for updates. Keynote speakers are Peter Blauner and Jonathan Maberry, with local guest speakers Debbi Mack and David Swinson.

Thursday October 12 through Sunday October 15. Bouchercon, Toronto, ON, Canada. No schedule available at press time. I will be at the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday to get my picture taken with the Stanley Cup.

Breaking News!!

Down & Out Books welcomes crime novelist Dana King to its roster of authors. King's next Penns River mystery, RESURRECTION MALL, will be published in 2017 in addition to reissued editions of the previous books in the series, WORST ENEMIES and GRIND JOINT.

"I have been a fan of Dana's work for a long time," said Eric Campbell, publisher of Down & Out Books. "He creates a gripping sense of time and place in his stories that I know will resonate with our readers."

"I've been impressed with Down & Out Books and their authors ever since I first became aware of them at the Albany Bouchercon," added King. "Working with Eric and his team is a best case scenario for me. They get the kind of stuff I like to do."

About the Penns River crime novels: Penns River never thrived. For years it did provide nice livings for the families of those who worked in its aluminum and steel mills and the businesses that supported them. Then the mills closed and all that's left are small establishments exchanging money to keep each other from going under. As incomes flatten or decrease and conditions erode, crime goes up and law enforcement budgets go down, leaving the local police pressed a little harder and thinner all the time. Enough of a bedroom community to Pittsburgh to cause class friction, a new casino and religious-themed mall promise better days but bring more problems than they solve. Police Chief Stush Napierkowski and his top detective Ben Dougherty find themselves constantly bailing against an ever-increasing tide.

Meet the author: Dana King's novel Grind Joint was named by the LA Review of Books as one of the fifteen best noir reads of 2013. His first PI novel, A Small Sacrifice, received a Shamus Award nomination that same year. A short story, "Green Gables," appeared in the anthology Blood, Guts, and Whiskey, edited by Todd Robinson. Other short fiction has appeared in Spinetingler, New Mystery Reader, A Twist of Noir, Mysterical-E, and Powder Burn Flash. Dana lives in Maryland with The Beloved Spouse. His blog, One Bite at a Time, resides at http://danaking.blogspot.com/.

* * *

I first became aware of Down & Out in Albany, at Bouchercon. I went to an Author’s Spotlight session of theirs and was gobsmacked by the level of talent they’d lined up so quickly. Best of all, they looked like an operation that would be a good match for me, as I’d come to the conclusion my voice kept me under the radar of the big New York houses, but that there was a place for me. I think Down & Out is that place. Thanks to Eric Campbell, Lance Wright, Eric Beetner, and everyone associated with D&OB for taking a chance on me. I’d also like to thank my rabbi, Charlie Stella; Terrence McCauley for talking me into approaching Eric Campbell directly in Raleigh; and Michelle Turlock Isler for taking me by the arm, walking me over, and telling Eric he needed to talk to me. Today was a good day, and I see more of them on the horizon.

Thanks, all.

But What’s It About?

The current work in progress has been, without question, the biggest pain in the ass of any writing project I have ever undertaken. It started in the fall of 2011 as a PI story. By early spring things still weren’t coming together so I re-crafted the plot to become the next installment in my Penns River series and started over from scratch last fall.

I usually knock out a first draft in three, three-and-a-half months; this one took over six. The ending changed three times in the last three weeks. At least half a dozen new chapters will have to be in the second draft—including the final—as the original outline has not held up well to events on the gound.

I read chapters to The Beloved Spouse as they’re ready. She always catches things that need to be fixed, but this go-round has left me with the nagging feeling of having well-written scenes that don’t add up to a book. The end result is—to paraphrase Delroy Lindo in Get Shorty—I can’t wait for this book to be over. I always feel that way, but it’s usually four or five drafts in, and is my indicator things are about as good as they’re going to get. I know that’s not true here.

Enough bitching. All of the above are good things, because I’ve learned a valuable lesson. I gave up on the PI version when I realized the core element of the story—a religious-themed shopping center named Resurrection Mall—didn’t fit well with my PI character. It was better suited to be something built in Penns River, as a counterbalance to the casino introduced in Grind Joint. (Available Spring of 2014 from Stark House. I’ll probably mention that once or twice again.) Writing from that perspective has been easier, but there were still issues. I’ve finally figured out what they are.

The nagging concern that I had a series of good chapters in search of a book got me to thinking a key question for any book: what’s it about? I’d been writing with the idea the book was about Resurrection Mall, and Ben Dougherty was the main character. Uh-uh. It’s about life in a perpetually economically depressed community; the main character is the town. Making sure the narrative thread is continuous should not be my primary concern. The story can be told as a series of small town vignettes, each relevant to the core, but relevant in different ways, and the relevance may not be immediately obvious. It’s still going to be a lot of work, but I know where I’m going now, and it will be fine.

Stephen King says in On Writing that the trick for him is to find out what a book is about. On Page 201 he writes:

Not every book has to be loaded with symbolism, irony, or musical language (they call it prose for a reason, y’know), but it seems to me that every book—at least every one worth reading—is about something. Your job during or just after the first draft is to decide what something or somehtings yours is about. Your job in the second draft—one of them, anyway—is to make that something even more clear. This may necessitate some big changes and revisions.

I usually plunge more or less straight into second drafts.For me, half the reward of finishing the first draft is having an opportunity to fix it. This time, the process is different. I’m taking a week to read the entire first draft with the purpose of re-writing the outline to reflect what’s there, not what was intended. Take some notes and take a look at the forest for a change. Sub-plots will be altered or removed. Some chapters will be added, some cut, and others will be dramatically shifted in focus. It’s going to be as big a pain in the ass as any project I’ve ever tried. It’s also going to make for a better book.

This will end up a my most ambitious project, though it did not start out that way. It might work, or it might not. I’ll stay with it until it’s as good as I can make it, then you can decide whether all the effort was worth it.

Just like always.

Resurrection Mall

It’s been over a week since I posted. (Amid great rejoicing.) I’m stuck for a post, mainly because the new book is starting to flow and any stray synapses have been occupied with what comes next. So, with the new book on my mind—working title Resurrection Mall—here’s…

Chapter One.

A lot colder at midnight than when Greg Twardzik pulled into the lot at Allegheny Casino at quarter to eight. Greg shoved his hands into his coat pockets and hoped his gloves were in the car. The breeze drilled a small hole dead center of his forehead and the hair in his nose was freezing together. It smelled cold, like when he worked summers at A&P and had to re-stock the ice cream freezer. All the bullshit going around about global warming, and he had to put up with this? It was cold enough to freeze a fart.

Tonight was Greg’s monthly run to the Allegheny. A true grind joint—slots and a bar, shitty restaurant, they didn’t want you sticking around if you weren’t gambling—no real competition for The Rivers down by The Point in Pittsburgh or the Meadows in Washington County. Greg saved his spare change each month like a geezer saving stale bread, except Greg fed the slots instead of the birds. “Spare change” was charitably defined in Greg’s mind. Stop at Sooki’s for a beer, beer cost two and a quarter, pay with a five. Tip Frankie a quarter, the other two-fifty becomes spare change. Next beer, another five. Take the kids to McDonald’s on his weekend with them, use a twenty to pay for twelve bucks worth of food, eight bucks spare change. Saved up ninety-two seventy-five that way in January, rounded it up to a hundred.

He came out the wrong door. Again. All the entrances looked the same once he was inside. He’d get turned around looking for a likely slot, lose track of where he came in by about the second scotch, walk out the wrong door. He at least remembered his Pontiac was in the Horseshoe lot, looking directly across Leechburg Road at Wendy’s. He came out on the Rabbit’s Foot side, by the big fences with ivy or kudzu or whatever growing on them, a barrier between the casino and the residential neighborhood that butted up against it.

The night started well. Hit for about fifty bucks half an hour in. He should have put the fifty in his pocket—that was the plan—play until the hundred was gone and leave with the winnings. That was a loser’s mentality so early in the night. Hit that fast, he knew there’d another one. There were two. Eight bucks within half an hour—big night brewing—then sixteen at eleven o’clock, about the time he started to wonder how much he had left. He’d hit the cash machine on his way to get the third drink and took out fifty—no, it was a hundred. He had twenty left. So he came with one hundred dollars, won seventy-four that was supposed to go in his pocket soon as he won it, and walked out down one-eighty, not counting the seventy-four of house money he’d blown. At least he had a good time.

He walked up the aisle facing Wendy’s, his car should be on the right, about three-quarters of the way back. He didn’t see it yet. Probably blocked by the Ford Expedition he remembered squeezing into the space next to him, left wheels dead on the line. But it wasn’t.

Must be the wrong row, but how many of those big goddamn Expeditions could there be in this part of the lot? Greg turned his back on the Ford to face ninety degrees from the casino and Wendy’s, capture his bearings. Pointed at Wendy’s and blinked his eyes. Coffee might not be a bad idea. He only nibbled the fourth drink, but he’d heard rumors there had been some drunk driving damage and the local cops might be cracking down. He’d get the car, then get some coffee. He turned slowly and pointed at the Horseshoe entrance. This was the right row. Had to be. So where the hell was his car?

It occurred to him this might not be the same Expedition he’d parked next to. That one could have left, another pulled in one row off in either direction. True, he’d lined himself up on Wendy’s and the casino entrance, but four hours and five drinks later he believed he could be off a row, either way.

First he tried a row to his left, then a row to his right. All the while thinking about what else he’d heard standing at the bar waiting for that sixth drink—the one for the road—the barmaid telling him to be careful, the locals might be cracking down on DUIs, a guy to his right bitching about something. Security. About cars being stolen right out of the casino lot and how the local cops didn’t do a goddamn thing. Greg almost asked about it, didn’t. Why would the guy still come here, he was so sure cars were being stolen?

It was on his mind now, walking a little farther up the aisle each time. Trying the aisle he thought it was, then an aisle on either side, then two aisles on either side until he realized the guy at the bar wasn’t just some jagov blowing smoke. Care were being stolen out of the Allegheny casino’s lot, and his was one of them.

Son of a bitch.

The Next Thing I Hope Doesn’t Suck

Friend of the blog (and a pretty dandy PI writer his own self) Jochem vanderSteen tagged me to participate in the current writers’—meme? Chain letter? I’m a little reluctant to use the official title (“The Next Great Thing”), but I am grateful to Jochem for thinking of me.

So, here you go:

What is the working title of your next book?

Resurrection Mall.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This is the first thing I’ve ever tried to write based on no more than a title. I was looking for story ideas to re-start a PI series I had set in Chicago. When I heard Dixie Square Mall—where the famous chase scene in The Blues Brothers was filmed—was finally to be demolished, I had the idea of a preacher buying the shell and rebuilding it as a religious-themed mall. Hence the name.

What genre does your book fall under?

Crime fiction, primarily a police procedural.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Timothy Olyphant would do well as Ben Dougherty, the lead cop. Easy-going on the surface, dry sense of humor, not as country as Raylan Givens.

I have to credit The Beloved Spouse for the others. George Dzundza (Law and Order, The Deer Hunter, Crimson Tide) would be great as either police chief Stush Napierkowski or Detective Willie Grabek.

Kevin Spacey would be great as retired spook / former PI / casino head of security Daniel Rollison. Of course, Kevin Spacey is always great

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A televangelist opens a religious-themed mall as a counterweight to a small town’s casino and finds small towns are more dangerous and complicated than he thinks.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

There is no contract at this time. If I don’t get one, I’ll self-publish.

How long did it take you to write a first draft of the manuscript?

I’m about halfway through, so I estimate three to four months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I consciously try to avoid such comparisons, even with myself. I steal borrow from a lot of people.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

It was originally intended to be a character study for a PI series I was working on. I got halfway through that first draft and realized the story was better suited for a fictional small town I also have involved in a series.

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Small-town crime is, I believe, an underappreciated venue, except in cozies. This book is definitely not a cozy. There are layers of things going on, and life around the citizens—especially the cops—is changing faster than anyone is comfortable with.

Back in the Saddle Again

Work on the next book finally began in earnest over the weekend. The working title is Resurrection Mall. It’s the third in the series that began last spring with Worst Enemies (available for Kindle and Nook), and will continue with Grind Joint (available from Stark House in the spring of 2014).

I drafted the first page Thursday, slept on it, then threw it all away and re-wrote it from scratch on Friday. The voice was wrong, but nothing a quick reading of the first four chapters of Grind Joint couldn’t fix. Two pages each day over the weekend got me back on my normal drafting schedule. (One page on work days, two pages on non-work days, Thanksgiving and Christmas off.)

Resurrection Mall picks up shortly after Grind Joint leaves off. A rising televangelist takes over an abandoned strip mall in the worst part of Penns River to convert it into his new tabernacle and studio, with small, religiously-themed business filling the rest of the space. “Not Razed, But Raised” is his catchphrase. Of course, things go terribly wrong. (Wouldn’t be much of a book if they didn’t, would it?)