Queer Crime Writers

 Just because my books are straight white male oriented doesn’t mean I’m not sensitive to those who aren’t straight white males. I’m a straight white male, so those are the characters I’m most comfortable writing. I’ve tried to make my books more diverse over the years, but it can be awkward for someone of my background.

 

This past spring’s Malice Domestic conference brought Queer Crime Writers to my attention. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a member and he suggested I get in touch with John Copenhaver, who I knew casually.

 

Today John answers my questions about QCW, as well as talking about some of the hurdles queer writers and characters have to clear, and what straight cisgendered writers can do to help. I learned a lot, and my future books will be better for it.

 

One Bite at a Time: Thanks for coming on the blog, John. It’s great to have you.

 

Queer Crime Writers is a relatively new organization, founded in 2019. What was the motivation to begin the group?

 

John Copenhaver: From the beginning, QCW was Kristen Lepionka’s brainchild. She identified the need early on. There was no centralized community or support network for queer crime writers aside from a few Facebook groups. Kristen reached out to Jeff Marks and me, and we began brainstorming. We’d seen the great things that Crime Writers of Color had accomplished, and we wanted to create a similar organization to support aspiring and published LGBTQ+ writers. Then, COVID hit, and life became much more complex. Eventually, we began meeting and established a groups.io chat and a website. We also added more organizers, including Stephanie Gayle and Marco Carocari.

 

OBAAT: The QCW mission statement reads, in part, “to promote community and collaboration among authors of crime fiction who identify as LGBTQIA+.” How do you do that?

 

JC: We began with a groups.io chat that established a closed, queer crime writers-only space to come together, share ideas, network, and celebrate each other’s work. This in-facing community-building aspect is central, but we also want ourselves to be a resource for readers and the broader crime writing community, so we developed a website that features our authors, their books (as well as books of notable LGBTQ crime writer luminaries), and an events calendar. We also established a relationship with CrimeReads to publish a quarterly round-up of queer crime books coming out seasonally. We produce a quarterly newsletter and invite liaisons with established crime writing organizations like Mystery Writers of America, Bouchercon, International Thriller Writers, Left Coast Crime, etc. We also hope to continue to be a presence at conferences by hosting a table and Queer Crime Writer meet-up whenever possible.

 

OBAAT: I used to work for a company that sent its pre-sales technical staff (such as myself) to customer sites to conduct what they called FIND interviews. “FIND” stood for Facts, Issues, Needs, and Dreams. How would you answer those from a QCW perspective?

 

·       What are the facts of the situation as they exist today?

 

JC: Queer-identifying crime writers are still underrepresented in publishing and in the broader crime reading and writing community. For instance, in 2023 crime fiction anthologies featured a total of 517 stories across 30 titles. Five out of 517 stories were written by LGBTQ+ writers. That’s less than 1 percent. That’s not acceptable. Of course, we understand we are a majority, but the stats don’t fit the size of the population of queer crime writers.

 

·       What issues do you face?

 

JC: Homophobia and transphobia in the publishing, writing, and reading community. While I’m sure some folks are openly biased, I believe most of it is an unconscious bias that emerges in the mind of the biased publisher, editor, agent, writer, reader, or event organizer as a preference or aesthetic sensibility. They can’t imagine a tough guy detective who likes men or a trans lawyer who is a bad-ass lawyer. They say to themselves that the book’s not for them or that the book won’t sell, but that’s just unconscious bias playing out, and it’s a failure of imagination. If we can move beyond that unconscious bias, we can make real strides. To do so means getting the community to discover the imaginative joy of reading and writing a counternarrative, the thrill of telling a story about a queer character that’s surprising because it breaks down old stereotypes.

 

·       What do you need to happen?

 

JC: We need allies to reach out, offer support, and read our books. If you read a wonderful queer mystery or thriller, tell folks about it, share it on social media. If you are building a panel or event, reach out to us or our members. While it’s wonderful to have a strong and supportive in-facing community, it’s getting the greater crime reading and writing community involved that’s necessary for lasting change.

 

·       In this context, what would a perfect world look like?

 

JC: In a perfect world, we’d have no need for this organization because our stories would whole equal status in the minds of mainstream publishing and have a broad readership.

 

OBAAT: Full disclosure: I am an aging (68 years old), straight, cisgendered, white male. What should I be aware of to most accurately and fairly depict LGBTQIA+ characters?

 

JC: So, I’ve been on many LGBTQ+ writers' panels, and we’re often asked a question similar to yours. Usually, a panelist will say: “do your research,” or “do your homework,” or mention some tropes to avoid, like “the gay best friend” (i.e., queer characters shouldn’t be the support staff for your straight journey to self-understanding) or “bury your gays” (i.e., tragic queer characters shouldn’t be written as fodder for straight catharsis. Don’t kill us so that you can come to terms with your homophobia.). Most problematic LGBTQ+ tropes result from centering straight lives in queer stories. While I’m not sure all my fellow queer crime writers would agree, I support cis-hetero authors writing queer characters and even making them point-of-view characters, but you should investigate your reasons for doing so. Do you have a compelling, humanistic reason for including character?  Are you willing to do the research? Are you willing to address your biases, especially those sneaky unconscious biases? Or are you just trying to chase a trend? If you’re chasing a trend, you’ll almost always fail to write a compelling LGBTQ+ character. Also, if you plan to include queer characters, be an advocate for queer writers.

.

OBAAT: When I was growing up and first became aware of such things, “queer” was an insult. Now it’s a term that is self-applied. Is the use context-dependent, or is it only appropriate for use by members who identify as such?

 

JC: “Queer” as a term emerged during the 1980 in academia and, now, has broadly been accepted as a catch-all term synonymous with LGBTQIA+. It’s a lot easier to say than the acronym, and it’s okay for non-queer people to use it as long as it’s spoken in a supportive and affirming way. It’s an adjective, so it’s okay to say “Queer people” or “Queer Crime Writers,” but avoid the noun “the queers” or “Are you a queer?” That’s offensive. The noun version is reductive; the adjective is descriptive. My sexuality is part of me (adjective), but not all of me (noun).

 

I know and appreciate that some older gay men don’t like the term, but it’s fallen into common usage and is here to stay, I think.

 

OBAAT: Which straight crime writers get LGBTQIA+ characters best? Not necessarily the most flattering, but most accurately and fairly?

 

JC: Laurie King did a fantastic job with her Kate Martinelli series and has a substantial gay and lesbian following because of it. Her new character, Raquel Laing, in Back in the Garden is also written in a balanced and compelling fashion. When I heard about the concept of Shawn Cosby’s Razorblade Tears, I raised my eyebrows—two men revenging the murderers of their gay sons—but Shawn, sensitive to the issues surrounding the portrayal of queer characters, balances the narrative beautifully. It’s a great example of how to write a straight redemption story without reducing the queer characters to pawns. It’s not an easy feat, but he did it effectively.

 

Thanks to John Copenhaver for taking the time to supply such thoughtful and thought-provoking answers. If you’d like to learn more about Queer Crime Writers, you can visit their website.

 

 

An Interview With Chris Quarembo, Author of Killer Deals

 Chris Quarembo is an award-winning former news reporter who also worked as a speechwriter and ghostwriter for corporate executives. A member of Sisters in Crime, Killer Deals is her debut novel, accompanying multiple short stories..

 

When not reading or writing, Chris loves live theater, art museums, and travel, especially in France and Italy. She is a volunteer docent at the Barnes Foundation, an early modern art collection in Philadelphia.

 

For more information about Chris and her books, check out her website.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome to the blog, Chris. We met at the Malice Domestic conference last April; your novel, Killer Deals, came out in May of 2023. Has your impression of conferences changed since you became published?

 

Chris Quarembo: I found the many conferences I’ve attended fun and valuable learning experience both as a published author and an aspiring author. I’ve learned more about the craft of writing and the publishing industry than I would have any other way. And I’ve found the writing community welcoming and generous in sharing their knowledge. This community is so important because writing is a solitary craft and writers need support to keep going.

 

OBAAT: Your background is as a newspaper reporter, which is fertile ground for crime writers, most famously Micheal Connelly and David Simon. Did you cover the crime beat or did your interest and knowledge come from elsewhere?

 

CQ: I covered criminal courts, which allowed me to observe trials, guilty pleas, and hearings on legal motions. As a result, I learned a great deal about Pennsylvania criminal law and legal proceedings. In addition, I was able to interview detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. However, I decided to write Killer Deals from the perspective of a private investigator, who enjoys more flexibility and independence than anyone in law enforcement.

 

OBAAT: You were a reporter, so this is a good question for you I can pass along to struggling writers: What do think of writer’s block? Does it even exist? If so, how do you overcome it?

 

CQ: I’m sure writer’s block does exist. However, when you’re a reporter with a daily deadline you learn to write your stories no matter what. The clock is ticking and it helps concentrate the mind. I still write every day and miss it if I don’t. My best advice is to sit at your desk or computer and write, don’t edit. Simply get words on the page and edit later. Steve Martin, a great writer as well as comedian, said that he thought he had done pretty well considering he started out with a bunch of blank paper.

 

OBAAT: Your protagonist, Andrea Fabiano, is an Italian girl from South Philly. Coincidentally, you are an Italian girl from South Philly. How much of you is in Andrea? Did you make conscious decisions which elements of yourself to include and which to change?

 

CQ: I am Italian American. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents were born in Italy and lived in South Philly. I visited them often along with my aunts, uncles and cousins. However, I didn’t live in South Philly. For the bulk of my career, I lived in Boston and New York. Beyond the ethnic and gender similarities Andrea bears little resemblance to me. I wanted to create a strong female protagonist, who has to deal with what life has thrown at her but is undeterred from living her life as she chooses.

 

OBAAT: A look through your reviews shows consistent praise for your pacing. How do you keep things moving without letting them become frantic?

 

CQ: I like to keep things moving through dialogue. One of my favorite crime novels is The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which is told entirely through dialogue. Dialogue not only keeps the story moving but also serves character development, both essential in crime fiction. In Killer Deals, the fast pace of the dialogue is balanced by Andrea’s reflections on what she’s uncovered, and her interactions with the people close to her, who are not involved in the main plot.

 

OBAAT: Is Andrea about to become the lead in a series? Either way, what’s next for you as a novelist?

 

CQ: I’m working on a new Andrea Fabiano novel. There is no firm date right now for publication but later next year is the target.

 

 

Why I am Self-Publishing Again

To paraphrase Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon, my experiences with the publishing industry have not been such that I am eager to repeat them.

In no particular order:

·       After negotiating a release date for an e-book version of a novel (like it wasn’t already bad enough they weren’t released together), the e-book did not come out on the agreed upon date. When I asked why not the publisher said, “I changed my mind.”

I would have liked to have been told. As a courtesy, if nothing else.

·       A magazine accepted a story of mine but never told me when it would run. I assumed it hadn’t until I tripped over it months later.  When asked why they snuck it in without telling me, I was told they consider it the author’s responsibility to keep up with things like that.

·       Receiving quarterly statements annually.

·       I gave a publisher an exclusive, during which time they dithered for well over a year, made several suggestions – which I adopted – then, when my agent and I pressed for a decision, blew me off with a two-sentence e-mail that contained misspelled words and grammatical errors.

·       I spent hundreds of dollars on a promotional campaign and would have spent more but could not receive any sales figures when I requested them so I had no idea how effective the campaign was.

·       Probably not very, as I was informed later the new hire/intern (I forget which) assigned for the social media campaign forgot and the entire venture was uncoordinated

·       A Hollywood producer who expressed enough interest in the Penns River series that I

o   Wrote a pitch.

o   Wrote a draft screenplay.

o   Traveled to Western Pennsylvania to look at locations

before he apparently lost interest. Last report I had was that Netflix did not pass, but said we needed an experienced showrunner. He either couldn’t find one, or didn’t want to. Either way, after saying things might be sidetracked because he had a possible new gig lined up. I never heard from him again, not even to say he accepted the new job.My track record has shown I am more than capable of fucking things up all by myself. I was kind of hoping these guys might be more helpful.

I now own all the rights to all my books and will re-release the Penns River novels with new covers between now and the end of the year. There won’t be a big campaign, as nothing will be new except the covers and I don’t want to confuse people.

Here are the benefits I see in returning to self-publishing:

·       I write what I want, when I want to. In fairness, my previous publisher did not restrict me in this regard.

·       The books come out on my schedule. If I want it in print six weeks after I finish it – two weeks after I finish it, the day I finish it – it will happen.

·       I can set my own pricing, within certain guidelines. There is no way I can win if a reader has to choose between a Michael Connelly book and mine if mine is more expensive.

·       I can get sales and revenue figures any time I want. Literally 24 hours a day 365 days a year. (366 days on leap years.)

I also won’t have anyone else to worry about. I know I shouldn’t, but I always felt bad a little when my books didn’t sell any better than they did. I knew the publisher had invested time and effort in me that some other writer could have used and would have appreciated. I felt a sense of obligation. Now the only person I have to worry about pleasing is me, and my loyal cadre of readers.

What do I lose?

·       Free editing. (I know an excellent editor if I need one. I’ll just have to pay for it myself.)

·       Free covers. (The Beloved Spouse™ and I have come up with ongoing cover schemes we like that are unique and will unify the books in each series.)

Bookstores never stocked my books when I was commercially published, so no loss there.

Last but not least, I can’t possibly make less money. Having to pay for editing is an added expense, but whatever I do with that, my sales numbers will not suffer. They can’t, and I mean that literally.

Could I find another publisher? Probably. While my sales suck, I’m respected enough that another small press would likely pick me up. Do I care? Not really. I don’t want to cast aspersions on all publishers; there are a couple I think I’d be quite satisfied with. If I were twenty years younger I’d be all over them.

Here’s the thing: I’m not twenty years younger. I’m 68 years old and have enough books I want to write I doubt I could have them all written by the time I’m 75 even if I never have another idea, and the ideas seem to come quicker all the time. If I went with a publisher those books might take ten to twelve years to see the light of day, if they’re published at all.

The Western drop in the fall; the next Nick Forte no later than spring of 2025. I expect to put out at least three books every two years after that as the Forte series continues, the Penns River series concludes, and a handful of standalone ideas come to fruition. The books will still be as good as I can write them, even without adult supervision. When I don’t think I can invest the same effort as I always have, I’ll stop writing them.

So the short answer to “Why am I self-publishing again?” is, “It’s time.”

Why Do I Write?

 Two things seen on Facebook:

 

At a recent conference I was asked “Why do you write?”

 

I answered: “I do horrible things to my characters, so I don’t do them to people in real life.”

 

They gave me the strangest look.

 

#

 

The art of writing fiction is to sail as dangerously close to the truth as possible without sinking the ship.

--Kinky Friedman

 

#

 

Life is full of frustrations and irritants. Not just political. Exhibition driving has become a problem in my area, as has porch pirating. There isn’t much an individual can do about either. Putting up with them as unavoidable isn’t a solution, just an accommodation that was imposed rather than reached.

 

So what to do?

 

A future Nick Forte book – whether it’s the one after the work in progress or one more down the road has yet to be decided – will allow Forte to deal with both exhibition drivers and porch pirates. Forte is my alter ego – the man I’m afraid I would be under different circumstances -  and, as author, I can ensure the consequences he faces are not too draconian. It will be a while before I write that book, but the ideas come unbidden to my thoughts from time to time and refining Forte’s “solution” to each is a great comfort to me, even though I’m 99% sure I would never do such things myself. (Note: If I ever happen onto a porch pirate and have a softball bat to hand, he’d better be a lot faster than I am.)

 

As for Kinky’s comment, I find myself moving more in that direction all the time.

 

In Bad Samaritan, Forte engages with malignant men’s rights activists.

In White Out, Penns River combats an attempt to be overrun by white supremacists.

In Off the Books, Forte goes up against human traffickers.

 

I’ve also begun to choose villains’ names from real life. The most violent whitey in White Out is named Wallace Thurmond as a “tribute” to two prominent racists of my youth, George Wallace and Strom Thurmond.

 

A corrupt police officer in Off the Books is named for a particularly distasteful member of the Trump administration. The main baddie’s name is a play on the word “trump.”

 

The clueless, selfish, piece of shit responsible for the problems in the WIP had his name chosen by combining the middle name and a corruption of the last name of a sports team owner with a particularly unsavory reputation.

 

I already have a few more picked out along these lines for future projects.

 

The rich do not fare well in my books. Never have, even less so more recently as I become aware of the lengths the superrich are willing to go to lower the quality of life for everyone else. My go-to attitude embodies what Dennis Lehane once said when asked why he doesn’t write about rich people: I don’t give a fuck about them.

 

All of the above are fringe benefits of writing, though they can also act as prods. After more than twenty years of writing for publication with limited success, I have come to realize the real reason I write runs parallel to an answer I give The Beloved Spouse™ from time to time.

 

TBS: Why don’t you like broccoli? (Brussels sprouts, spinach, lima beans, etc.)

Me: Because it tastes like ass.

 

Which leads to why I like the foods I do like: because I like them. I don’t need a reason.

 

And that’s why I write. I enjoy the hell out of it. Sure, it can be frustrating, but I am rarely more content than when working out how to keep a conversation moving, describing a location or action, or refining what I’ve already written into something people might want to read.

 

And that’s all the reason I need.

 

 

An Interview with Reed Farrel Coleman, Author of Blind to Midnight

 Reed Farrel Coleman is a four-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories: Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, and Best Short Story. He is a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. As if his mantel wasn’t full enough, he has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. Best known for his Moe Prager and Gus Murphy private investigator novels, Reed also continued Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone novels for the Parker estate after Parker’s death in 2010.

 

Reed’s current endeavor is the Nick Ryan series, of which book two, Blind to Midnight, drops on August 13. Reed was good enough to take time from a busy pre-launch schedule to answer some questions for the blog.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome back to the blog, Reed. I’m happy to see Nick Ryan is back in Blind To Midnight. When you were here last year to talk about Sleepless City, you mentioned it was more of “a Jack Reacher-ish novel” than your previous books, and it served well as an explosive opening to the new series. Blind to Midnight does not lack for action, but it’s a little more personal to Nick. What was your intent there?

 

Reed Farrel Coleman: Second books or episodes or seasons are problematic. They are especially troublesome if the first go around is operatic or “Big” with lots of action and hyper-intensive emotion. Sleepless City was an origin story that was necessarily full of big themes, lots of action, complex emotion … I have always thought it a mistake to try to outdo oneself by going bigger, more operatic, more intense. If you do that in book two or season two, where do you go in book three or season three? I have always maintained that instead of trying to go ballistic, one should go quieter. Instead of broader, go more personal. As you say, Blind to Midnight certainly doesn’t lack for action, but the root of the action is more personal than global, it hits closer to home. This isn’t a small book by any means. It has all the elements Sleepless City contained, but the focus is closer to Nick’s heart. Do you remember the TV show Picket Fences? Season one was great. Full of quirky character and unusual situations, but it was so weird and quirky that by the second season there were plots involving aliens. I loved season one and hated season two. That taught me a lesson. 

 

OBAAT: Blind to Midnight has Nick Ryan working a unique cold case. In the book, as in real life, apart from the three thousand who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was only one homicide in New York City, an eastern European immigrant. Where did you learn this, and what about it generated the germ of the story for you?  

 

RFC: On 9/11 a Polish immigrant named Henryk Siwiak was murdered in Brooklyn. He got lost on his way to work. His was the only homicide in New York City that day not directly connected to the terrorist attacks. The case remains unsolved. Every year, stories appear in the papers and on TV about the case. The theory goes that since Siwiak spoke English with a heavy accent, was dressed in camouflage like clothing, and was bearded that he might have been the mistaken target of someone’s anger over the earlier terrorist attacks, but that’s speculation. I’ve always been fascinated by this case and as real events often are, Siwiak’s murder became the jumping off point for Blind to Midnight. The interesting part as a crime fiction writer was crafting a plot the grew organically from the murder. And I suppose somewhere I hope that the book reignites interest in the actual case and that the murder of this man finally gets solved.

 

OBAAT: You have a gift for writing stories that are influenced by world-changing events without being about them. Sleepless City was written during the pandemic and the aftermath of the George Floyd killing and, though it does not deal with them directly, there’s an influence there. Blind to Midnight relates to 9/11 without being about it. One year at Bouchercon – I forget which – you were discussing the Moe Prager novel Onion Street, which takes place in the 60s. What stuck with me was a comment you made about how people forget, no matter how tumultuous the time, ninety-five percent of everyone still gets up and goes to work in the morning. How does this sensibility affect your stories that take place tangentially to history altering events?

 

RFC: Thank you, Dana. It’s always great when something one says has an impact on a colleague. Okay, please excuse my tooting my own horn here, but it relates. A few years back, a renowned TV actor and director was interested in my novel Where It Hurts. He was so interested that he met me for breakfast and had me drive him around to specific locations I mentioned in the novel. Finally, I got the nerve to ask him what it was about the book that captured his interest. He said that he had never read a crime novel in which there was as realistic a balance between the protagonist’s real life and his job, between his deep emotions and the emotions he displays doing his work. In the end we couldn’t agree upon a deal, but I felt he understood exactly what I go for in my work. That people are never simply what they do. What they do is part of them, not all of them. I build characters from the inside out, not the other way around. I’m an author, but I’m also a dad, a brother, a husband, a grandfather, a friend … I am not just one thing, and I don’t feel just one way. My characters live full lives no matter how secondary they seem to the plot. People are complex, so my characters are complex.     

 

OBAAT: Your main characters are never static from book to book. How does Nick Ryan evolve in Blind to Midnight? What is he learning?

 

RFC: One of the conceits of our genre that has always chaffed is the static protagonist. The one that never ages or grows or changes. So, I have always made it a point, even when I was writing the Jesse Stone novels for the Robert B. Parker estate, to have my protagonists evolve. In book one, Nick is new to his job as the city’s fixer, its shadow warrior. In book one he’s learning on the job. He discovers a child he didn’t know about. He discovers the woman he left behind has never left him behind. In Blind to Midnight, Nick now understands the true nature of his job, is more suspect of his own lofty goal of looking out for the little guy. He understands there are hidden motivations on the part of the powerful people for whom he works. As with any person, the knowledge that one is a parent changes you. And now that he knows there’s a woman who loves him and a child of his in the world, it hampers his judgement. Oh, legion are the ways Nick changes from book one to two.   

 

OBAAT: Nick has close to carte blanche in how he handles his cases. If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, what is the effect on Nick? Does he fight against this tendency, does he embrace it, or is he more pragmatic and takes things as they come?

 

RFC: Bingo! In your previous question, you almost answer this question for me. Nick understands that some of what he is doing is a way for powerful people to gain leverage and more power. Nick is no fool and understands that he needs to gain power and leverage of his own to protect himself and the people he loves. But will this have a corrosive effect on Nick? Stay tuned.

 

OBAAT: You spoke last year about how your college poetry professor, David Lehman, had you “take an oath that from that day forward, regardless of what we did to earn a living, we would always think of ourselves as writers.” I had a professor in grad school do much the same with us. He said that, having dedicated our lives to becoming musicians, we could never listen to music for entertainment alone; we always had to look deeper. Do you find that thinking of yourself as a writer changed how you read?

 

RFC: How could I not and I have paid a price for it. Some of my joy of reading has disappeared. It’s an occupational hazard, I suppose. I know the shorthand. I can see how an author is plying their trade. I know the tricks and I know their tricks. I’ve been at this so long that I have not only seen the man behind the curtain, I’ve become the man behind the curtain.  

 

OBAAT: Last year you mentioned Gus Murphy 3, as well as a couple of standalones, were complete and looking for homes. Any luck on any of those fronts?

 

RFC: One aspect of the pandemic that turned out to be beneficial was added writing time. During the pandemic, I wrote not only Blind to Midnight, but three other novels as well. One of those novels is Gus Murphy #3, All Buried Things. I don’t know when, but it will someday see the light of day even if I have to publish it myself.

 

OBAAT: Will Nick Ryan be back for a third book? Either way, what else is on your plate going forward?

 

RFC: Right now, there’s no contract for Nick #3, but that could change any day. I hope it does. Currently, I’m writing a novel based on a traumatic experience from my teenage years. When I was fifteen, I watched a man die of a gunshot wound. He died not more than ten feet away from me. It’s a fictionalized version of a writer like me who, decades later, goes back to research that murder.  

 

 

Disappointment

 Have you ever tried an author your friends have told you about for too long and really liked what you read? Sure you have. Then you go back a while later, read something else by the same author, maybe in a genre he’s better known for?

 

And were bitterly disappointed?

 

I have. I’ve been on a roll the past few years. Finally got around to writers like Joe Lansdale, Lawrence Block, and Don Winslow. Loved them all so much I immediately bumped them to my “Be sure to read at least once a year” list.

 

I had every reason to believe this year’s personal breakout author would be __________. Last month I read the first book in the series for which he is best known and cannot remember being more disappointed. Frankly, the only benefit I saw was to be reminded how much we can learn from such books about what not to do.

 

(I’m not going to identify the author. He is far more accomplished than I, and I do not wish this post to sound like sour grapes. This is just, like, my opinion, man; maybe I just don’t get his writing. That doesn’t make me wrong, either. We all like what we like.)

 

What didn’t I like?

 

·       Too much description. The similes are good and elegant, but we don’t need multiples of them and at least a page to describe a character or location we’re never going to see again. I get that this is a PI novel and we’re being told what the first-person narrator notices, but by the time he finished describing a character the guy could have left the building.

·       While the dialog in general is good, sometimes excellent, characters are prone to giving speeches, sometimes at length.

·       No research is wasted. I do not mean that as a compliment. Obscure facts that don’t convey anything useful to readers are recited in detail. Example: A series of streets are named for key figures in the city’s history, alphabetically. It would be one thing to tell us about the figure the street the hero is looking for is named after. Maybe one more. What we get goes on for a couple of pages, noting not only names of streets we don’t care about, but the narrator’s opinion as to whether that person was more deserving of the honor than someone else whose name started with the same letter. I know the rap on Don Winslow is that he goes on for pages giving the readers background in books such as The Dawn Patrol and California Fire and Life, but Winslow makes those entertaining, even engrossing. In this example they’re tedious.

·       Talking about how things don’t work a certain way in real life, then doing them. Example: the hero takes a serious ass kicking that results in multiple injuries. The author notes this isn’t like a TV show, where a full recovery can occur during a commercial break. In this case, the hero gets laid less than an hour after he regains consciousness; the next day he’s kicking ass himself.

·       Way too many coincidences. The girl he’s looking for just happens to be involved with an unsolved murder from months ago; meanwhile, the detective, working an unrelated insurance fraud case, sees someone he recognizes being kidnapped off the street by people who are behind the unsolved murder.

It occurs to me now that maybe the book was written as a satire and I just didn’t get it; it wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe the humor was too subtle for me. I’ll give the author another chance, but not right away. If I don’t like the next book a lot better, I’ll check out his other genre from time to time, as his work there was exceptional. Until then, I appreciate the reminder of why I don’t do some of the things I don’t do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never Pay to Write

 Gabino Iglesias is becoming my spirit animal. His substack posts consistently teach me something, or confirm something I already knew. Gabino has worked his way up from self-publishing to bestseller status and is a regular reviewer for the New York Times and NPR, so his cred is solid. He’s been on a roll of late with advice to fledgling writers.IO already knew most of what he wrote, but Gabino’s unique perspective makes it that much more effective. ‘

 

Among his recent pieces was one titled, “Don’t Pay to Write.” I’m going to quote from it here, adding my own perspective to what he says, but it’s relatively short and always on point, so I strongly encourage you to read the original. You won’t be sorry.

 

The theme of the article is that writing is work, and people get paid for their work. (“When you get your car fixed, the mechanic doesn’t pay you. You know why? Because they are the ones with the knowledge and the ones putting in the time and work to fix your car.”) I have long believed writers are their – our – own worst enemies, feeding a race to the bottom through a willingness to do anything to get their words on a page or a web site. As a general rule, don’t let anyone publish your stuff unless you get paid. Quoting Gabino: “Exposure isn’t that great, it’s something you die from.”

 

Here's Gabino’s checklist to make sure you don’t get taken, with my comments. (I only lifted the first sentence or two from his post. Again, you should read the whole thing. If you don’t think it was worth your time, I’ll send you a full refund, no questions asked.)

 

1.    Always read submission guidelines carefully.* I see this one as doubly important:

a.    To make sure you don’t overlook some dumb thing that gives them an excuse to reject you. Editors are looking for new voices, but they may get 500 submissions for ten slots, and at least fifty will be good enough to include. They’re looking for ways to cull the herd whether they’ll admit it or not.

b.    To make sure they’re worth messing with. If their guidelines, which they expect you to follow to the letter, are vague, poorly worded, or have multiple typos, they don’t really know what they’re doing.

2.    Do your research. As Butch Cassidy famously said, “Who are those guys?” Check them out on the web. Do you know anyone who has worked with them? When in doubt, check Victoria Strauss’s “Writer Beware” resources, or Preditors and Editors. (New P&E website under construction.)

3.    NEVER pay to get published. Ever. Under any circumstances. Two things come to mind:

a.    What does it say about the value you place on the result of your labor and talent that you don’t even think you can give it away? Which you also should never do. (More on that later.)

b.    What impression does that create? How much can they value your work if they weren’t willing to pay you for it?

4.    Vanity presses are predators. Full stop. It doesn’t matter what they promise you or what kind of contract they offer. They are preying on the members of the herd who don’t know any better.

 

You might be willing to write something for free. You have to be the judge of which of these exceptions apply to you, but I have done two of the following for free:

1.    Charity. I wrote a story to Unloaded 2, an anthology that sent all its profits to a gun control organization. I also contributed a story for Down to the River, which sent its proceed to American Rivers, an organization that works to protect our rivers. I was flattered to have been asked to take part in each of these endeavors and proud to have played some small part in noble causes.

2.    Loyalty. I wrote a story for The Shamus Sampler Part 2 because the editor had extended himself on my behalf in the past.

3.    Making a statement. I haven’t done this one yet, in part because I tend to put my statements here, so I have an outlet. If opportunity presents and I have something I feel strongly about, I’ll line up.

 

Writing is an occupation. It may not be your full-time job – if all you write is fiction it almost certainly is not – but it’s a job. Treat it with the respect you show your day job. If you don’t respect your work enough to demand consideration for it, why should anyone else?

 

(* - This applies to contracts, too. Read every word. I sold what I think is the best story I ever wrote without realizing I was selling the rights essentially in perpetuity. I’ve found ways around this for promotional purposes, but I would have loved to find a good outlet for reprints.)

 

Why I Write PI Fiction

 I did a blog tour a few months ago under the auspices of Goddess Fish Promotions that went quite well. I’ve yet to have time to break down the sales figures, but my Amazon royalties for May set a personal record for a single month.

 

Anyway, today’s post was going to discuss a piece I read on the web before vacation, but the piece appears to have been taken down; so much for that idea. I decided to repurpose one of the posts I did for the blog tour, as it seemed appropriate to wonder why I write PI fiction, seeing how I’m halfway into the next Nick Forte book, with the outlines for two more already taking shape.

 

(This post originally appeared in the Momma Says to Read blog on March 25.

 

 

I am sometimes asked why I write private eye fiction, as it is not the dominant sub-genre it used to be. There are several reasons.

 

First and probably most important, PI fiction is what I cut my reading teeth on. Encyclopedia Brown, The Thinking Machine, then, of course, Sherlock Holmes. As I grew up I discovered Mickey Spillane and Robert B. Parker. Even now four of the twelve authors on the list of those I try never to let more than  a year go past without reading are PI writers: Lawrence Block, Ken Bruen, Loren Estleman, and James D.F. Hannah. Of the twenty-four writers I try never to let more than two years go without reading, seven write PIs: Raymond Chandler, Robert Crais, James Crumley, James Ellroy (the early works), Dashiell Hammett (currently working my way through all the Continental Op stories), Dennis Lehane, and Walter Mosley. I’m a PI guy from way back.

 

As a writer, while I love multiple points of view where the reader knows more than any single character, it’s rewarding to spend the entire book in one person’s head. There are things I can do with first-person point of view that can’t be done as well any other way. There are limitations, as well; the reader can’t know anything the protagonist doesn’t. That can be fun to work around, too.

 

What might be the biggest reason I keep coming back to private eyes is I feel, when done right, it is the most elevated form of crime fiction. The history of the genre traces its roots back to Edgar Allan Poe, and the stories that put crime fiction on the map in this country are dominated by private eyes.

 

Bouchercon 2008 was held in Baltimore; I had not yet been published. The brilliant Irish author Declan Hughes moderated a panel where he gave an impassioned tribute to the glories of private investigator stories as the highest level of crime fiction. By the time he finished I was not just committed to the form, I was proud to be a practitioner. I wish I had a transcript of his comments.

 

I also write police procedurals; the PI stories fill a different niche. Cops have to take whatever cases present themselves; PIs can cherry pick a little. (At least fictional ones can.) Because the cases come in faster than cops can handle them, police detectives focus on closing files while private investigators can look for closure.

 

Another thing that draws me back is my membership in the Private Eye Writers of America. PWA is a group of true believers where I always feel comfortable, whether I am working on a private eye novel at the time or not. The organization is tireless in representing the interests of the genre and its practitioners, but in a low-key way I never find off-putting. Having earned two Shamus Award nominations didn’t hurt my dedication to the genre, either. I have mixed emotions about awards, but it’s always nice to be validated by one’s peers.

 

Off the Books is my sixth Nick Forte novel. The outline for the seventh is almost complete; extensive sketches exist for Book Eight. I’ll write him as long as the ideas keep coming. They do not seem to be ready to stop.

"No One Buys Books"

 (Sincere thanks to Gabino Iglesias for bringing this to my attention. The summer will include several posts similar to this, all thanks to his insights and willingness to share them. If you’re not following his Substack, you really ought to.)

 

It has become almost a mantra for me on Facebook. A friend posts an item about a publisher and I reply, “Every time I hear something else about the publishing industry, the less I want to be a part of it.” Sometimes I go on at greater length, depending on the initial post.

 

I have reasons for this distaste, but the core has been eloquently summarized  by Elle Griffin in her article for The Elysian, “No one buys books.” It’s long but well worth your time if you’re a writer or aspiring write, as all professions should be viewed in the hard, cold light of day.

 

The purpose of Ms. Griffin’s article is to describe what was made public by industry insiders at the anti-trust trial resulting from Penguin Random House’s attempt to purchase Simom and Schuster for $2.2 billion. Keep that figure in mind, as much of the testimony revolves around the idea there’s no money to be made in publishing.

 

I should probably leave well enough alone, as I cannot do justice to Ms. Griffin’s piece in the space I have here, nor can I match her ability to distill the evidence from a long trial into an article. She took a year to read the book that broke down the trial; I’m not going to do that. (You can read the book if you want the gruesome details.)

 

What I’ll do here is describe the sense of what a writer with a borderline career thinks about all of this. Consider or ignore my comments as you see fit. As always, please feel free to comment either here or on social media.

 

I’ll list the headings from Ms. Griffin’s piece, with my thoughts inserted, along with a few salient quotes.

 

Bestsellers are rare.

Q. Do you know approximately how many authors there are across the industry with 500,000 units or more during this four-year period?

A. My understanding is that it was about 50.

Q. 50 authors across the publishing industry who during this four-year period sold more than 500,000 units in a single year?

A. Yes.

— Madeline Mcintosh, CEO, Penguin Random House US

 

I think we all figured something like this, but god damn. Fifty over four years?

 

Big advances go to celebrities.

Top-selling authors were defined as those receiving advances (i.e., guaranteed money) in excess of $250,000. Far fewer than 1 percent of authors receive advances over that mark; Publishers Marketplace, which tracks these things, recorded 233 such deals in all of 2022.

— ken whyte, Publisher at Sutherland House

 

This was a safe bet, too. More on this later.

 

Franchise authors are the other big category.

Q. Putnam typically publishes about 60 books a year. Correct?

A. 60, 65, sort of on average… I will say of those 65, though, a good portion of those are repeat authors… franchise authors that we regularly publish every year, sometimes twice a year.

— Sally Kim, SVP and Publisher, Putnam

 

Can you say “James Patterson” or “John Grisham?” Not only are they getting all the money, they’re squeezing the rest of us out of the available publishing slots. I don’t hold this against either author – I’m in favor of anything that gets an author paid, keeps people reading, and doesn’t involve AI-generated content – but how can publishers be that lazy or timid not to want to keep trying to develop more writers for their stables?

 

Publishing houses want a built-in audience.

In some of the cases, the reason they are paying big money is because the person has a big platform. And if that platform is there for the advertising, then the spend might be lower.

 

— Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, former Agent

 

I can’t blame them for this, but I’m also aware most corporations take it as the cost of doing business to build audiences for their products, whether we’re talking about cars  or dish soap.

 

A big audience means publishing houses don’t have to spend money on marketing.

Well, duh. Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t spend a bunch to paper buses, subway stations, and other easily visible locations with ads when one of the big boys drops a new one, when all they’d have to do is let the word out through social media and the fans will line up to buy the book..

 

Publishing houses pay for Amazon placement.

Q.  Penguin Random House has hired data scientists to try and figure out these [Amazon] algorithms so that its books get better presented on Amazon than its competitors’ books?

A. One of the many efforts that we pursue, correct.

Q. And Penguin Random House pays Amazon to improve its search results?

A. There is something that is available to our publishers, it’s called Amazon Marketing Services, AMS, and all publishers can spend money and give it to Amazon to have hopefully better search results.

 

— Markus Dohle, CEO, Penguin Random House

 

We all know publishers pay independent bookstores for placement. (Cover out, front table, special displays, etc.) It’s also not improper for Amazon to feature the books it thinks people are most likely to buy. That’s what they do, sell books. Paying to juke the stats that feed the algorithms cuts the legs out from the smaller publishers and independents without Amazon acknowledging the search results that are ostensibly tailored for each reader are artificially skewed. Every day I’m one baby step closer to sending my books out free as PDFs to anyone who sends a request via social media or e-mail.

 

But even celebrity books don’t sell…

Just because the publisher pays $250,000 or $500,000 or $1 million for a book does not guarantee that a single person is going to buy it. A lot of what we do is unknowable and based on inspiration and optimism.”

— Michael Pietsch, CEO, Hachette

 

I told you we’d come back to the massive celebrity advances. There are a lot more quotes in Ms. Griffin’s article, but the gist of it is the publishers have no idea what’s going to sell. Frankly, they seem to have little idea what they’re doing. As I have said for years, publishers will freely admit they don’t know what will sell, only what won’t. And your book won’t.

 

Books don’t make money.

About half of the books we publish make money, and a much lower percentage of them earn back the advance we pay.

 

— Jonathan Karp, CEO, Simon & Schuster

 

Yet PRH was willing to pay $2.2 billion for S&S. If that’s not a prima facie case for people who

a.    Don’t know what they’re doing;

b.    Are at best disseminating about the money to be made;

I don’t know what is.

 

Oh, wait a minute.

 

It’s all about the backlist.

I would actually expect a book that is selling 300,000 units in a year is probably going to sell at least 400,000 or 500,000 over its life once you get backlist in there too.

 

Our backlist brings in about a third of our annual revenues, so $300 million a year roughly, a little less.

 

— Michael Pietsch, CEO, Hachette

 

Also known as the “long tail.” It doesn’t take Paul Krugman to figure out this is a good sales vehicle, given the primary decision factor when buying a book is author name recognition. The long tail would also benefit what used to be called the mid-list if publishers could be bothered to deal with the mid-list again, but they’d rather go the same route that has so badly damaged the film industry and bet the bank on bestsellers they already know are at best fifty-fifty to recover their money.

 

Amazon is the biggest threat to the industry.

Q. Are you concerned that Amazon will favor Penguin Random House Simon & Schuster in terms of promotion and distribution and discoverability?

A. Yes.

 

— Donald Weisberg, CEO, Macmillan Publishers

 

Because they’ll pay more to juke the algorithms. Just as Macmillan could do, and almost certainly does at the expense of smaller publishers.

 

A “Netflix of Books” would put publishing houses out of business.

We all know about Netflix, we all know about Spotify and other media categories, and we also know what it has done to some industries… The music industry has lost, in the digital transformation, approximately 50 percent of its overall revenue pool.

 

— Markus Dohle, CEO, Penguin Publishing House

 

Yet movies still get made and music produced. Maybe the publishers might want to look into a business model that provides for this. It’s harsh – and likely a death knell for small, independent booksellers – but any entity with $2.2 billion to buy a competitor has the wherewithal to adapt to the times.

 

Authors are getting more independent.

I think really from the advent of online—really, once the internet became popular, you know, we heard the phrase disintermediation. And I don’t understand why that wouldn’t be a possible prospect for any best selling author, to just disintermediate, to go straight to the internet and sell directly if you have a following… Colleen Hoover has published with both Amazon and Simon & Schuster. And her Amazon book was on the independent book sellers’ best seller list. So what that says to me is that a Rubicon has been crossed.

 

— Jonathan Karp, CEO, Simon & Schuster

 

Gee, I wonder why. How many of us have gone to conferences and heard how even the top sellers are regularly badgered by their publishers to write more books quicker, do more promotions, and fudge what they write to suit the publisher’s perceived audience? Who needs that bullshit?

 

Another publishing house bites the dust.

After the Judge denied the merger, Penguin went through a massive round of layoffs and Simon & Schuster was sold to a private equity company instead.

 

Private equity tends to have one game plan: buy a company, load it with debt, wring out costs to improve its financials, sell at a profit. Dealing Simon & Schuster to private equity, The New Republic warned at the time with some slight hyperbole of its own, would mean “absolute devastation and wholesale job loss.”

 

— ken whyte

 

Private equity firms are evil incarnate, cannibalizing companies and destroying jobs for the short-term profit of a few investors with no regard for an industry, or the economy. This is not unique to publishing. If these vultures didn’t see a way forward to make money from publishing, they wouldn’t buy the companies. There’s a cognitive dissonance here someone should be able to exploit at some level.

 

#  #  #

It’s a shitty situation, but it doesn’t have to be the nuclear winter of publishing. Baseball analyst Bill James once wrote that if Major League Baseball as we know it were to fold overnight, professional baseball would be resurrected inside of a year. Different teams in different cities, but there are too many people willing to pay to watch young men play baseball for the enterprise to disappear.

 

There are also too many readers willing to pay money to read for books to go away. The business model may change – it almost has to – but books will always be around in some form because there will always be people willing to pay to read them. To those who say the reading public is aging out, I say there are more old people on the way, and old people read more as other, more physical activities are denied them.

 

We’re living through an historical sea change, and history is never as clean, or inevitable, as books make it sound fifty or a hundred years later. It’s messy, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s a little like wrestling with a pig: you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.

 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t come out ahead if you stick with it.

 

 

 

An Interview with Charlie Stella, Author of Joey Piss Pot

 Charlie Stella is a force of nature. No one – no one – has done more to advance my career, or been more supportive to me, both as a writer and as a friend. I was delighted to hear Charlie was back in the crime fiction pool and couldn’t wait to get ahold of his newest, Joey Piss Pot (available today, July 5!) so I could grill him about it.

 

One Bite at a Time: Not that I haven’t enjoyed your recent books, but I was delighted to see you get back into mob fiction, as no one writes it quite the way you do. You’ve carved out a niche for showing the underside of mob activity, but in Joey Piss Pot you describe a lifestyle on its last legs. Tony Soprano once said he had the feeling he was coming in at the end of something. The characters in Joey Piss Pot are way past that, hanging on by their fingernails, but lack Tony’s gift for introspection, so they don’t always realize how close to the cliff they are. That’s a long set-up to ask what it was about this idea that took root in your imagination?

 

Charlie Stella: I tried writing non-crime for a couple of years and then had a burst of energy. I wrote three novels, two sold, the other not submitted yet (don’t like the ending enough). I needed to put a couple of runs on the scoreboard and wanted it to be familiar. I wrote Joey Piss Pot to get back into it, if that makes sense. Then we went to Yellowstone Park last summer and a sequel came into play from my fear of bears and the shit our government does. Just submitted the sequel, Rapino-Amato. We shall see, but I have a non-crime coming next April (I think), Raskin’s World. That one is about lawyers and affairs a tragic incident.

 

OBAAT: You’ve done this before, but I was struck here about how the story plays on the conflict between the mob and straight life, with the feds thrown into create layers of story. Did you lay this out ahead of time, just know what you wanted to do, or did you start writing and waited to see where it took you? (Notice how I found a way around asking if you outline?)

 

CS: Smiley face. I always build a table of chapters as I write (automatically in Word) and that serves as an ad hoc outline, I guess. I wind up moving scenes by the end and/or adding or deleting some. I have a basic idea and then let the characters/dialogue do their/its thing.

 

OBAAT: Joseph Gallo is the title character and very much the focal point of the story, yet he doesn’t appear in it as much as several others. He’s kind of the conscience of the book, and this causes him to create more than his share of trouble. Did you set out to show that a conscience can cause more problems than it solves in a situation such as this?

 

CS: That’s too deep for a Stella novel. (Another smiley face). I wanted the back and forth between Jewish and Italian old timers. Originally, the Jewish friend (don’t ask me for names now), wasn’t a former cop, but that helped move the thing making him a cop. Joey is the conscience, more or less, but it’s also a rip-off of a novel I wrote a few years ago but never felt good enough about it to submit. I like the idea of a guy on his way out losing fears of boogie men. Him shooting someone, for instance, is kind of a fantasy I’ve played with for several characters. It’s kind of like he’s playing with house money, so …

 

OBAAT: Interesting. The Beloved Spouse™ often mentions that the htreat of life in prison becomes less of a deterrent as we age.

 

I was struck by the name “Joseph Gallo.” Did you have any idea of playing off of the infamous Crazy Joe Gallo of the 70s?

 

CS: Good catch, but Crazy Joe wasn’t in my mind at all. The actual Crazy Joe was a big time rogue with a similar lack of fear he probably shouldn’t have ignored. I literally go to Google and search for whatever nationality I’m using and pick one. Gallo was easy to type. I’m thinking some of your characters names must be in a macro. 😊

 

OBAAT: As a matter of fact, several of the more common names in my books have “macros,” AutoCorrect entries that allow me to type in only the first few letters. 😊

 

The Mafia – excuse me, Italian Organized Crime – has nothing like the power it used to, but they can still kill you just as dead. How do you see things playing out over the next ten or twenty years?

 

CS: That’s the thing. Anybody can kill you just as dead. I suspect there will always be guys who are romanticized by the old Godfather movies and/or the idea of getting respect by being associated with the mob. The reality is no matter what happens there will always be a deal at the end of the day that precludes most tough guys from giving up 10-20 years of their lives (and that number may come down to 5-10). The so-called “come to Jesus moment” when a guy realizes how fucked he is.

 

OBAAT: The eternal final question: What’s next?

 

CS: Well, there is Raskin’s World next year, then probably (if accepted) the sequel to JPP, Rapino-Amato that takes place in Montana (for the most part). I wrote a book called The Winks (the one I’m unhappy with the ending), and I’ve started one called Blue Collar (mostly non-crime at this stage). The thing is, since I have this coughing condition, I have nothing else to do. I’m up 19-20 hours a day, working remotely and sometimes bored to tears. Now that the hockey season is over and I await another year of frustration with my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills … what the hell else am I gonna do? 😊

 

 

Spring's Favorite Reads

 As you’ll soon see, the spring that just ended was a good season for reading, at least for me. Two vacations, one of them extended, gave me more time than usual for reading. I did not waste it.

 

The Monkey’s Raincoat. Robert Crais. A lot of writers tone down the things that made them popular once they become bestsellers; I guess it’s the way of the world. Once you’re on top, the publisher wants to keep you there, which inevitably leads to writing books they hope will attract a wider audience than the core group that launched you; the core will stay, whatever you do. This is not to imply Crais has watered down his writing in recent years, but I decided to go back and read the early Elvis Cole books in order, so I got myself a copy of The Monkey’s Raincoat and had at it. It was a pleasure to be reminded of what attracted me to his writing in the first place; this is as good a first PI novel as has been written since The Big Sleep. No question I’ll stick with the plan and work through these in order now.

 

All Them Wrong Things, James D.F. Hannah. I began to include as yet unreleased ARCs in these reviews about a year ago, but this is the first time I’ve included a book that is not yet under contract. Hannah is hot right now, with awards and nominations and inclusions in annual anthologies. Best known for his Henry Malone PI stories, All Them Wrong Things  is a departure for Hannah, the story of a decent man caught up in small town corruption and a brother who is an asshole for the ages. All the action and great dialog you’d expect from a Malone book is here, with a story sensibility more in the direction of Elmore Leonard or S.A. Cosby. Let’s hope this one finds a home quickly.

 

Joey Piss Pot, Charlie Stella. (I read an ARC; the book drops in July.) No one since George V. Higgins has captured the sense and attitudes of organized crime better than Stella, and even though it’s been a while since he wrote in this genre, Joey Piss Pot shows the author hasn’t lost an inch off his fastball. The book abounds with intersecting plot lines, characters who aren’t as smart as they think they are – or need to be – and dialog that reads like you’re at the next table in the bar eavesdropping. Stella’s fans will be delighted, and Joey Piss Pot should also bring him some new ones.

 

The Outfit, Richard Stark. The fourth Stark/Parker book I’ve read and, for my money, the best of the four. Stark spends more time in other people’s heads than usual here, and the effect is engrossing, as he takes events tangential to the main plot and spends entire chapters on them without making you wonder when he’s going to get back to what the book is ostensibly about; that’s a gift. Stark is on my list of writers I’ll make a point to read at least once a year and I see no reason why he shouldn’t stay there.

 

The Hot Kid, Elmore Leonard. This is a book that holds special significance for me. It came out in 2005, when I was not only not published, I wasn’t even what could be called a member of the writing community, more like a reader with delusions of writing adequacy. I won a contest with HarperCollins for an ARC of The Hot Kid so long as I wrote a review they could use. I used what I wrote for them as my audition to be a reviewer for the New Mystery Reader website. NMR editor Stephanie Padilla liked it, started assigning books to me, and gave me my first look inside. This exposed me to a lot of books and authors I would not otherwise have discovered, and interviews with several of them – notably Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and the aforementioned Charlie Stella – brought me inside the community; the interview with Stella led almost directly to my first contract. It’s been almost twenty years since I read Carlos Webster’s exploits, so I decided to see how well the book held up. The answer is, very. It rambles a little, but the action and dialog are all top-notch Leonard and the book is as much fun to read as anything he wrote, right up there with Get Shorty.

 

Killer’s Choice, Ed McBain. There isn’t much to recommend this 87^th Precinct novel over any of the others. There’s also nothing that makes it not at least as good as most. In short, it’s a solid McBain Eight-Seven story, which means it’s outstanding.

 

Resurrection Walk, Michael Connelly. I was off Connelly for several years, mostly because his writing doesn’t have the kind of voice and style I like as much as do some others. I picked this up on an impulse because it had both Mickey Haller and harry Bosch, and now I’m back on board. For whatever reason, I picked up on Connelly’s journalistic voice better here than before. Couple that with an exceptional and well-crafted story and he’s now on my list of authors to read at least once a year. I’ll not say more about Resurrection Walk lest I spoil something. Just go and read it.

 

The Last Few Miles of Road, Eric Beetner. Beetner is an underappreciated gem. Not by other writers, where his reputation was solidified years ago; the general public should be more aware of him, and would be if the big houses weren’t so timid. There are more plot twists here than in any few miles of road. They’re all surprises, and all are prepared so your typical reaction will be “Is should have seen this coming,” even though you didn’t. Much as I like to read for style, Beetner gift for keeping out of the way of the story and characters is so well developed, and works so well, it’s something young writers – and writing teachers – would do well to at least be aware of.