HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS STORY; Dan B. O'Shea

How I baked up THIN MINTS

At the beginning of 2010, we entered a strange period in the history of the O’Shea household where my wife took a job in the wilds of southwestern Wisconsin (in beautiful Lancaster, the ancestral home of Daniel Ames) and lived there during the week whilst I remained home here in the Chicago burbs. One of us would head one way or the other on weekends for conjugal visits. Scenic area, but it was very much small town America, veneer of friendliness with that creepy, incestuous, everybody-stop-and-stare-at-the-outlanders-when-they-walk-into-the-diner type of air to it. So I was looking to write something set there anyway.

Then I read about the Girl Scout Cookies. Seems the record for Girl Scout Cookie sales is 17,000 boxes and change. At four bucks a box, that’s almost seventy grand worth of cookies. And the way they go about it nowadays, setting up card tables laden with Thin Mints and such outside the local grocer and selling them more or less retail, it’s a cash business.

So I got to thinking about creepy small town America, and about desperate meth fiends and about what they might get to thinking if they got it in their heads that some cute little Girl Scout was sitting on a big-ass pile of cash and, well . . .

Anyway, you can read Thin Mints over at Crimefactory – issue three, if I remember correctly. Or pop on down to St. Louis, where it will soon be available in the Noir at the Bar anthology that Jed Ayers and Scott Phillips ginned up for Subterranean Books.

Dan O'Shea

You can find Dan right here.

Friday's Forgotten Books, June 17, 2010

The work of my great, great grandfather, John Neis, a potter during the Revolutionary War. (Philadelphia Museum of Art). As I think I have mentioned the name NASE was spelled at least six or eight ways.

My brother said I went overboard with the greats.



Taking a week off, but Todd Mason is collecting book reviews right here.

Thanks for the kind words. In Columbus OH it routinely rains with the sun out but no rainbows although the WIZARD OF OZ is playing here.

MY LIFE AT THE THEATER, CHARLEY'S AUNT

Couldn't find a decent clip of any version of this one. It's a farce as you might guess.

I can date this play precisely. We saw it on Christmas Eve, 1994 at the Royal Exchange Theater in Manchester, England. Our kids were there to celebrate Christmas with us. After the play, our car wouldn't start but the UK version of AAA was out in no time to help us.

The absolute standout performance was from Michael Sheen (now playing major parts in movies) as Charley's Aunt (or Lord Fancourt Babberley).

Regional theater in England was terrific and we also saw Sheen in LOOK BACK IN ANGER that year. Can't imagine two more different parts.

How I Came to Write This Book: Ed Lynskey

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS BOOK:

LAKE CHARLES, Ed Lynskey

First, I want to extend a big thanks to the tireless Patti for inviting me to be a part of her weblog.

Reaching back to give the genesis of Lake Charles is a long stretch for me to make because it was begun some eight years ago. I’d written at least three books in my Private Investigator Frank Johnson hard-boiled series (still going, by the way: The Zinc Zoo will be out in late 2011), and I wanted a break away from the character Frank and his troubles. Lake Charles then served as my diversion. I’ll talk a little about each aspect of it.

Date. I’d grown weary—oh so weary—of the ubiquitous cell phones. Every other driver I saw on the streets chatted on one. I guess I’m the last person in the country who doesn’t own or carry a cell phone, beeper, or other wireless gizmo. Anyway, that was the reason why I cast my main character Brendan Fishback in the 1970s. I wanted to eliminate the ease and handiness to the cell phones. He’d have to go run down a coin phone to hold any communication.

Conflict. Brendan had to be an edgy, young man with a lot on his plate. He’s powering through a pot self-detox when he is accused of falsely murdering his girlfriend Ashleigh Sizemore and arrested for it. He later makes bail on a legal technicality and heads off to nearby Lake Charles to grab a little R&R that soon goes horribly awry.

Setting. My long-time office mate’s husband hails from the Johnson City, TN, area, and I’d heard stories about life down there. One strange tale, I recalled, was of a manmade lake then later drained for some reason. The formerly inundated towns—their buildings, flagpoles, and streets—were still intact on the emptied lakebed. That ghostly image sticking with me, in part, inspired the fictional Lake Charles. The usual urban city found in classic noir this time becomes a dying lake with green scum congealing on its surface and contained by a leaky earthen dam. As a kid, I’d hiked on long jaunts along the lovely Appalachian Trail wending its way through the Great Smoky Mountains (in North Carolina and Tennessee). I believe this was how I came to identify the right place to stage Lake Charles.

Characters. I’ve always admired strong, tenacious ladies, and they played a big part in my growing up. Enter Brendan’s twin sister Edna and their mother, Mama Jo. Edna, a rough customer, is kidnapped at Lake Charles, but we suspect she can fend for herself. Mama Jo uses some tough love to help pull Brendan through his personal crisis. His father Angus left them when Brendan was still in diapers for reasons yet unknown. I like the idea of a distant or missing parent as a way to tear a big hole in the main character’s emotional fabric.

Dreams. A dream sequence was also integral to the story. Brendan’s pot withdrawal spawns his vivid dreams, a side-affect that I’d researched to find out. Also, his Uncle Ozzie is something of a clairvoyant who once consulted with the renowned psychic Edgar Cayce. Brendan has inherited some of Uncle Ozzie’s mystical talents.

Pace. I like to read the novels that keep moving. Keep it snappy. The characters use cars, planes, boats, buses, bikes, skateboards, taxis, or some conveyance. This is how we live, even in the 1970s. Brendan aims to leave his hometown in a quest to catch up with Angus last heard from while toiling on the Alaskan Pipeline. While returning home from a rock concert in a distant city, Brendan finds Ashleigh murdered inside their motel room, and he has no memory of it. Teamed up with the Army vet Mr. Kuzawa, Brendan chases down the right clues to solve her murder.

Humor. This one is always difficult for me. What I hold as funny might not strike you the same way. Black humor as done by Westlake, Willeford, and Lansdale makes me laugh aloud. Slapstick, cute dialogue, and over-the-top antics bore me fast. That sort of stuff usually falls out of my work during the subsequent rounds of edits I make. Dry wit and low-keyed banter work better for me. Sometimes humor just arises from the situations which is a cool thing to have happen.

Lake Charles went through edits right up until the final stages. The late George W. Scithers, the first editor for Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, suggested some changes, including how to open the novel. I just hope I don’t take eight years to bring my next titles into print.

Ed Lynskey is a crime fiction writer with his family near Washington, D.C. His five mysteries featuring his P.I. Frank Johnson are THE DIRT-BROWN DERBY (Mundania Press, 2006), THE BLUE CHEER (Point Blank/Wildside Press, 2007), PELHAM FELL HERE (Mundania Press, 2008). TROGLODYTES (Mundania Press, 2010), and THE ZINC ZOO (Mundania Press, 2011). LAKE CHARLES (Wildside Press), a stand alone, is due out in 2011 from Wildside Press. His work has been anthologized by St. Martin’s Press and University of Virginia Press while his poetry has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. His reviews have appeared in New York Times Book Review and Washington Post. His mystery fiction has been praised by James Crumley, Linda Fairstein, Ken Bruen, Bill Pronzini, John Lutz, Barbara D'Amato, and Megan Abbott.

Who Haven't You Read, But Should?

I am picking William Gay. I have heard for years about how great a writer he is and I just never find my way to him.

How about you? What writer do you mean to read but haven't?

Let's make a pledge to read this writer (whoever yours is) by Labor Day. At least one book. What do you say. Any genre, any writer--as long as you haven't gotten around to reading him/her yet.

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS STORY": Cindy Rosmus

How I Came to Write “Death Takes a Snow Day”

“Death Takes a Snow Day” was originally published in Pulp Metal Magazine:

http://pulpmetalmagazine.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/death-takes-a-snow-day-by-cindy-rosmus/#more-2006

Fans of Tina, Bar 13’s grieving, enlightened bartender, may remember her from two previous stories.

It all started with “Stickyfingers” (See Issue #11 of MediaVirus, June 7, 2010. <http://mediavirusmagazine.wordpress.com/>).

In “Stickyfingers,” Tina is a chubby kid who catches her mother . . . shoplifting! That brown corduroy coat with the deep pockets stuck out in my head, ‘cos years back, my own mother did the same thing. “This cheese costs too much,” she told me. Then, with this impish grin, slipped the cheese in her pocket! “You put that back!” I said. “What kind of example are you trying to show me?”

Yeah, right, you’re thinking. Me, the pillar of morality. But I was the geekiest kid alive, back then.

In the story, “Stickyfingers,” Tina is too shocked and horrified to accuse her mom. Instead, she recalls mean Sister Michael’s warning that all thieves will rot in hell. In her mind, Tina sees her mom decomposing right there.

“Thick as Thieves” (See Issue #15 of MediaVirus, October 4, 2010. <http://mediavirusmagazine.wordpress.com/>) was originally the second half of “Stickyfingers,” but I found both worked better as individual stories.

In “Thick as Thieves,” grown-up Tina is the new bartender at Bar 13. She mourns her jewel thief/crackhead boyfriend Felix, who was recently beaten to death in jail. Tina blames Carolyn the crack whore for that. Of course Carolyn shows up at Bar 13 to con booze, smokes, and bucks from Hank, the nicest guy going.

The twist is, Hank has another girlfriend: Patsy, Tina’s thieving mom! Neither let on that they’re mother and daughter. But after Tina cries to her about Felix, Patsy avenges Felix’s death herself, by snatching Carolyn’s purse. After all these years, Tina and Patsy finally bond.

There’s no thieving mom in “Death Takes a Snow Day,” but Carolyn is back in action, bleeding the dying Hank for all he’s got. Tina hates Carolyn even more for preying on Hank, after Carolyn helped get Felix killed.

Even more than in “Thick as Thieves,” the ghost of Felix dominates this story. Tina mourns for him, wears his beat-up leather jacket, has no kind of life. Finally, she sees a younger version of Felix shoveling snow off Hank’s driveway. By this time, we realize Hank is dead.

Have they switched places?

I based “Hank” on a wise friend, who died shortly before “Death Takes a Snow Day” was written. We all still miss him.

I based “Felix” on my ex, who split right after this story was completed. I wrote my heart into it. I wore Felix’s leather, grieved for him, myself. How ironic, that it was our relationship that died, not him. He’s still alive and kicking.

Till my next story.

Wait’ll you read that one.

Cindy is a Jersey girl who works in New York City & who talks like Anybody’s from West Side Story. She works out 5-6 days a week, so needs no excuse to drink or do whatever the hell she wants. She loves peanut butter, blood-rare meat, Jack Daniels, and Starbucks coffee (though not usually in the same meal). She’s been published in the usual places, such as Hardboiled, A Twist of Noir, Beat to a Pulp, Out of the Gutter, Mysterical-E, Media Virus, and The New Flesh. She is the editor of the ezine, Yellow Mama. And she’s still a Gemini and a Christian.

Helena Bonham Carter

In Room with a View--before she took on character parts.


































Has there ever been a prettier woman so willing to not appear so?

A Writing Question

I have a new story up at SPINETINGLER-to celebrate Father's Day--kind of.

Here's a question for readers and writers alike. A member of my writing group is writing a crime novel. In the first chapter, a man piloting a boat alone, is shot. Very exciting and well written.

In the second chapter, a cop comes on the crime scene. The narrative tells us he knows nothing about boats--emphasizing his middle eastern heritage. The story continues to wow me but...

Boating terms are used as he begins his investigation. Words like "aft" (he turned aft) and "stern" and even parts of the boat itself are referred to by their proper names as he goes about his business.

Now I think that even though the story is not told in the first person, using these terms makes it seem like this cop knows about boats (when he's said he doesn't) and throws things off. Of course, living where I do, some of the people in this group are boaters and they say words like "aft" and such are widely known enough for it to be okay.

What do you think? Am I (d)aft?

SNUBNOSE PRESS

Spinetingler Launches Snubnose Press

ANNOUNCEMENT: Spinetingler Magazine is pleased to announce the launch of Snubnose Press, an e-publisher of crime fiction.

Spinetingler Magazine has been publishing new and emerging writers since 2005. Building from that foundation Snubnose Press will seek to publish only the best in short crime fiction. With the traditional publishing market contracting, Snubnose Press will fill this gap by publishing original anthologies, novellas and short novels.

Visit Snubnose Press at http://snubnosepress.wordpress.com/ (Brian Lindenmuth and Sandra Ruttan)

The debut title of Snubnose Press is an anthology of six original short stories called Speedloader.

Upcoming releases will include short story collections by Patti Abbott and Sandra Seamans.

Speedloader Description:

From the trenches of WWI to the abandoned row homes of Baltimore; from a rural charnel house to the Texas-Mexican border these six stories explore the dark heart of crime fiction today.

Speedloader features stories of…

…revenge that will challenge you to a game of uncle that you may not win and will haunt those who are able to finish it.
…clashing motives on the Texas Mexico border.
…a slide into an alcoholic haze.
…a struggle with the weight of a personal choice when confronted with the sins of the past.
…getting caught up in actions far beyond one’s control.
…small crimes covered up and lost amidst larger forces.

Speedloader is six stories slammed home and ready to kill.

With all new, original stories from Richard Thomas, Nik Korpon, Nigel Bird, newcomer WD County and Spinetingler Award winners Matthew C Funk and Jonathan Woods.

Visit Snubnose Press at http://snubnosepress.wordpress.com/

"How I Came to Write This Story" Jed Ayres

(Jed on left with Kieran Shea and Wallace Stroby at Noircon)

HOW I CAME TO WRITE THIS STORY

Once upon a time, I wrote a movie. A kick-ass crime saga set in the hellish wilds of Mexico. Think Sam Peckinpah and Jim Thompson. Think William Friedkin’s Sorcerer and David Milch’s Deadwood. Hardboiled and heartwrenching, soul crushing and spirit churning. That was the movie I wrote.

Then the movie got made.

Which is not something to complain about. You know, there’s a long, proud tradition of writers bitching about movies made from their material that I’ll uh… not be taking part in here. I’m proud of the film because it was damned difficult to make. Really, just a marathon of suck, a tsunami of bullshit and petty crime and infidelity that I’m entirely pleased with myself and everybody else involved for surviving. Buuuuut… it really isn’t the film I set out to write. In fact, during the making of that film, I was re-writing (the whole damn thing) daily just to make it cohesive. (http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2008-07-16/film/dark-night-this-kingdom-is-built-on-sneaky-filming-in-the-florida-keys/ )

The movie is the movie is the movie, but when it was all through, I realized that I still had this story that I hadn’t succeeded in telling, and I wanted to tell it. Still. Not only that, but I’d just become aware of a little publication called Murdaland which was a dangerous trip right down my scary little alley and what do you know, they were accepting submissions for their next issue for another two weeks.

I’d never written a short story before, but I knew I wanted to be part of this moment in crime, so I cranked out yet another version of my story, really sharpened the focus, cut everything extraneous and in ten days had poured my skeevy little heart into several drafts of that thing and it still wasn’t clicking. I switched the POV back and forth from first to third a half dozen times before splitting the difference with second, (still the only time I’ve used the second person) and found that it worked - forced my giant idea into a very focused channel.

Murdaland rejected it.

Three times.

With an ever escalating pitch.

Looking back, they were right to. It was maybe too on the nose hardboiled for them, (they liked to come at the crime thing from weird angles) but my persistence paid off. People I admired like Ken Bruen, Scott Phillips, Jason Starr, Craig McDonald and Murdaland editor Michael Langnas all read it and did something no had ever done for me before – they took me seriously, (or it felt like they did anyhow) – and that made all the difference in the world.

Through those generous cats whose doorstep I’d flung my little flaming literary turd bag upon and had had the patience to answer the bell, stamp out the fire, clean off their shoes and meet the eyes of the kid hiding in the bushes with something less than utter contempt, I found the whole online publishing realm and a suitable foster home for my hard-knock bastard with Todd Robinson at Thuglit. He even placed it in a book alongside some heroes of mine and damned if that didn’t swell my head even more.

The book is called Sex, Thugs and Rock & Roll. My story is called "Politoburg." It’s not available for free anymore, but if you have money you could go buy a copy.

And that’s the story of how I became such a big shot prick.

WHAT HAPPENED TO?

Kevin's Picasso flower

A weird thing has happened on facebook. People from my very large neighborhood in Philly formed a group and are remembering all of the stores, schools, teachers, kids, music, etc, events of my youth and also the decade before and after me.


I have learned that one of my best friends (my maid of honor) married a Pew!! How rich she must be.

And another died, but no one knows why or when. Now maybe you stayed close to home and know about all of your childhood chums. I sure didn't. I left Philly at nineteen and have never returned in any meaningful way.

So what about it: do you know what happened to most of those people in your youth; or are they better left in the past? I know Phil feels the past is better left untrammeled. But I love hearing about the food we ate, the music we heard, someone's first car, how the music teacher was insane.

Cash Laramie is now available for download

David Cranmer's terrific stories are now collected in this volume.
I suggest you get them hot off the press.

Western noir is the new hot genre. I think Ace Atkins said it somewhere yesterday but I'm stealing the line.

THE SUMMING UP, Friday, June 10, 2011

THE SUMMING UP, Friday, June 10, 2011

Joe Barone, Jolie Blon's Bouncer, James Lee Burke
Paul Bishop, Death Pulls a Double Cross, Lawrence Block
Michael Carlson, Murder in Memorium, Didier Daeninckx
Bill Crider, We'll Always Have Murder, Bill Crider
Scott Cupp, Shadow In the Sun, Chad Oliver
Martin Edwards, In the Night, Lord Gorell
Ed Gorman, The Last Match, David Dodge
Jerry House, All Judgment Fled, James White
Randy Johnson, The Case of the Howling Dog, Erle Stanley Gardner
George Kelley, The Traveler in Black, John Brunner
B.V. Lawson, First Cases, edited by Robert Randisi
Evan Lewis, The White Circle, Carroll John Daly
Steve Lewis/Curt Evans, A Hell of a Woman, Jim Thompson
Ed Lynskey, The Bail, Dorothy Uhnak
Todd Mason, The Fantastic Pulps, edited by Peter Harning; WHat Did Miss Darrington See, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
J.F. Norris, The Coming of Jonathan Smith, Harry Ludlum
Richard Pangborn, The Axeman's Jazz, Julie Smith
Graham Powell, Darnkess at Noon, Arthur Koestler
Eric Peterson, The Broken Gunn, Louis L'amour
James Reasoner, Recruit for Andromeda, Milton Lesser
Richard Robinson, The Red Smith Reader, edited by Dave Anderson
Gerard Saylor, Cripple Creek, James Sallis
Ron Scheer, Max Brand, South of Rio Grande
Mike Slind, The League of Frightened Men, Rex Stout
Kerrie Smith, Dupe, Liza Cody
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, The Sunrise Guns, William Colt MacDonald

Friday's Forgotten Books, June 10, 2011

THE SUMMING UP will come over the weekend. Sorry for the delay.

Taking a week off next week, but carry on without me.

Ed Lynskey is the author of the newly released Lake Charles among other fine books.

The Bait by Dorothy Uhnak. 1968. Simon & Schuster.

One of the delights I’ve experienced in my writing career was the opportunity to conduct a phone interview with Dorothy Uhnak about a year or so before her tragic suicide in 2006. I’d read all of her novels, so I felt as if I’d had prepared enough. I needn’t have worried. She was a pistol, very friendly and engaging. You can read my interview and essay here: http://tiny.cc/ge08r.

The Bait won the 1969 Edgar Award for the best first novel, and Anthony Boucher praised it in his New York Times review column. It introduced her character Detective Second Grade Christie Opara (the surname is Czech) who went on to appear in two subsequent novels: The Witness (1969) and The Ledger (1970). Christie was based on Ms. Uhnak’s own fourteen-year career as a twice-decorated detective with the New York City Transit Police. Christie is a 26-year-old widow living with her small son Mickey and mother-in-law Nora.

After her husband died two years before in a construction job accident, Christie now works for Casey Reardon of the District Attorney’s Squad. En route to a big LSD drug bust, Christie arrests Murray Rogoff for indecent exposure while riding on the NYC subway. She sets off a chain of events that brings her back to clash with Murray under far darker circumstances. Three young ladies have been strangled, and Murray becomes the prime suspect.

I like Ms. Uhnak’s characterization, the precise mannerisms and pitch perfect dialogue she uses. She also injects enough gritty on-the-job realism to her cop tale without going overboard or bogging it down. The scenes showing the cops’ interactions feel natural and smooth. Banter and humor surface even when setting a trap with Christie offering herself as “the bait” for the murderous psychopath Murray. Christie strikes up a romantic interest with Reardon, a married man with a reputation for having affairs. I don’t remember how all that shakes out through the rest of the Opara trilogy.

Murray also wears special glasses to protect his lashless eyes and keep them moist. Ms. Uhnak told me she based his character on a real life perp she arrested who wore such special glasses. The perp left his lasting impression on her. She said she’d searched the police archives to hunt down his old arrest record.

I bought my paperback copy of The Bait from a used bookstore for $1.50. I thought our library system still shelved most of her books, but my online check just revealed all but one title have been culled. Within five years of her death, her books have disappeared. What a pity. She was a first-rate crime fiction writer and one of the pioneer lady authors working in the police procedural subgenre. At any rate, I suspect her used and ex-libris books are readily available for a mere few bucks.

Ed Gorman is the author of the recent STRANGLEHOLD and editor of ON DANGEROUS GROUND and Other Stories. You can find him here.

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

Dictionary: The word “picaresque” is taken from a form of satirical prose originating in Spain, depicting realistically and often humorously the adventures of a low-born, roguish hero living by his/her wits in a corrupt society.

This is the only word I can find to adequately describe THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge. In a winningly cynical voice, a young swindler tells us all about working scams in places as far flung as Cannes, Tangiers and Lima, among others. He is particularly deft with women.

Good to remember that Dodge was also a travel writer of considerable note, so the backdrops here are almost as vivid as the characters, who are mostly low-borns working their way downward reeking of sweat, booze and occasionally blood.

Dodge hangs a good deal of his tale on the romance between Curly and a fetching young woman of British royalty named Regina. She, unlike most other humans who trod the earth, seems to feel that Curly’s soul is worth saving and she attacks this task with almost saintly (and sexy) determination.

I didn’t care much about the story, but was won over completely by the high style of the prose, the incorrigible personality of the narrator and the unending list of badasses who appear along the various map points. This has the feel of a memoir rather than a novel, and that makes it all the more realistic.

I think you’d have to say that Dodge – who wrote this novel sometime in the early ’70s even though this is its first publication – didn’t have much interest in the usual tropes of genre thriller fiction. Graceful and sardonic writing seem his biggest fascination, a true world view with some gunfights, fist fights and bad ladies thrown in every once in a while to honor pulp expectations. I should note here that early in the first chapter, Dodge struts his stuff, introducing us to an attractive and appealing middle-aged woman who is using him as her current boy-toy. You know you’re in the hands of a real writer when Dodge makes us like and even respect the woman. Not a cliché in sight. I knew right off I’d like book just because of its opening chapter.

His daughter Kendal Dodge Butler provides a loving, even endearing afterword about her father. He seems to be about what I expected: a man who had his darkest adventures early on and then settled into a respectable middle-aged family life that allowed him the leisure and luxury to pursue his writing where he got to polish up some of those old adventures and display his wide knowledge of cons and scams. –Ed Gorman

Joe Barone
Paul Bishop
Michael Carlson
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Curt Evans
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
Richard Pangborn
Graham Powell
Eric Peterson
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Mike Slind
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple

My Life at the Theater: RAIN DANCE

(Matt Letscher)

We saw RAIN DANCE by Lanford Wilson (who died in March) at the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea, Michigan in 2001.

TPR is the dream child of Jeff Daniels and he encourages local playwrights and actors to produce plays in this lovely theater in a lovely town. I can't think of a better place to see a play.

RAIN DANCE had the added plus of staring Matt Letscher, who grew up down the street from us and has made quite a career in the theater, in movies and on TV. RAIN DANCE takes place in Los Alamos, NM in 1945 and explores decisions made by scientists in the Manhattan Project.
Hard to believe but we saw this production in 2001. It seems like yesterday.

Here is an interview with Lanford Wilson. I have seen quite a few of his plays over the years and always enjoyed them.

How I Came to Write This Book: Simon Swift

"How I Came to Write This Book"

BLACK SHADOWS

I have always been a writer. My earliest memories contain the writing of stories. As a child, I had dreams of being a film star, a spy or an author. It was clear that of the three, writing was my real passion, and dreams aside I was never going be cut out to be the next James Bond or Marlon Brando! Every opportunity I got, I would write whether it be stories, poems, reviews and I am sure, quite a lot of nonsense along the way.

For a while, life took over and writing took a back seat to playing the doting husband and father, kicking a football around on a Saturday afternoon, and bettering the lives of young children as a teacher. I suppose during this time I became more of a reader, devouring heaps of great books, from Ellroy's LA Noir to Haruki Murakami's awe-inspiring work. Old detective novels from the likes of Spillane, Chandler, Hammett, Max Allan Collins and Bill Pronzini were constant companions. It was clear, that soon I would return to my own writing, although the writing of Black Shadows was a very slow and steady process...

I started writing Black Shadows many years ago. After University, I embarked on a 12 month odyssey of adventure, travelling the world with my beautiful girlfriend. Alongside the odd pair of clean clothes and a stack of paperbacks, my most treasured possession was the notebook, which contained the chrysalis of my own hardboiled novel.

Upon hearing about Authonomy, a new website for aspiring authors, I gave Black Shadows a thorough edit and decided to upload. Authonomy was a rollercoaster journey, but did introduce me to many great people, some offering invaluable advice. It wasn't all good, but what it did do is give me the opportunity to polish and improve the novel. Black Shadows attained a gold star from authonomy in January 2010, on the way to becoming the all time top ranked crime novel and generating a record of over 1000 reviews.

Whilst waiting for the review, I took a deep breath and decided it was time to start querying agents. The first time I got a request to see the full manuscript my heart leapt. This happened many times and I received a good deal of positive feedback but unfortunately no deal. When the review from HC came through a couple of months later, to my immense relief it was very positive, in places it could even be described as glowing. Although HC were not offering a deal the review carried a clear message that Black Shadows was of publishable standard, but would be more suitable to a small niche press.

After submitting to Wild Wolf Publishing in August 2010, I was offered a contract to publish in January 2011. It was a hell of a long wait, and more than once I felt like it wasn't going to happen. When it did, I have to say, it felt great. The goal was always to get the story out and read and at one point, I had the dilemma of having more than one contract offer. What would normally be a writer's dream actually felt quite burdensome. I had to make the right decision!

Errol, the main character, has been developed over many years. I suppose he was born from a thousand mysteries, encapsulating Sam Spade, Phil Marlowe, Mike Hammer and more recently Max Allan Collins' Nate Heller. And of course with a good dose of Simon Swift mixed in there. I wanted to make him much more three dimensional than the typical wisecracking private eye, but not lose that authenticity and hardboiled grittiness.

Black Shadows is such a labyrinthine mystery, it was a constant worry, ensuring I maintained all the interweaving plotlines, subplots and red herrings. My intention was to steep it in history, the real life death of Dutch Schultz being the inspiration, and to weave the fiction around this.

I am currently putting the finishing touches to the sequel, The Casablanca Case, a much darker novel, which reveals much about the friendship of Errol Black and Hermeez Wentz. This is a crime mystery story, but also a tale about murder, betrayal and love.

Although Black Shadows has only been out a short while, it has already garnered some great online reviews to go with the Harpercollins' one.

Bestselling author and queen of the hardboiled novel, Debbi Mack, gave it the big thumbs up, as did bestselling crime author, Jake Barton. It was also featured on noir legend Alan Guthrie's crime blog and upcoming author Dan Holloway's. As Errol would say, "It is the start of something big!"

Website: http://errolblack.weebly.com/

Publishers website: http://wildwolfpublishing.com/SSwift.aspx

Amazon paperback (UK): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Shadows-Simon-Swift/dp/1907954082/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1301345022&sr=1-11

Amazon paperback (US): http://www.amazon.com/Black-Shadows-Simon-Swift/dp/1907954082/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1301345022&sr=1-11

Amazon kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Shadows-ebook/dp/B004TAFNCM/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1301345022&sr=1-11

Waterstones online: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/simon+swift/black+shadows/8542180/