Proof

We got our proof copy of the book in yesterday. Time to get out the fine toothed comb and see if we can find any last little typos or grammar problems. I feel grateful to have a second set of eyes at this stage. I know I'm terrible at this sort of thing. The new novel has been put on hold for almost 2 weeks while I take care of all this other junk but I'm chomping at the bit to get back to it. I think I may read it through from the top to get back into it and see if I am just wasting my time or not.
I finally made it to the Mystery Bookstore's fall blowout sale and got some interesting stuff for super cheap including a signed SJ Rozan book for $4 which is cool. About to start up one from 1959 called The Smasher that I got and seems really pulpy vintage in that way that I love. Only 148 pages too. My mind is easily tricked into thinking that reading more shorter books is more of an accomplishment that reading fewer longer ones. I'm simple that way.

Mug Shot

So I was asked by this anthology I am a part of - Harbinger*33, more details to come - to include a "mug shot" along with my author photo. I love this idea. It is a safe bet that all writers have a trusty mug by their side when they work. Mine, I should say, is never filled with coffee. I don't drink caffeine or alcohol. Never smoked cigarettes, never taken any drug. I know, I know I just got thrown out of several writer's groups. I am a shame on the art form. In any event, I liked the way the photo came out of my desk and mug where I write deep into the night. I'd love to see other writer's spaces. I'd venture a guess that none are spacious, most are crowded with papers and other books in towering TBR piles. Do you write in a closet? An office? The attic? A coffee shop? Show me your space! I showed you mine.



Bonus points for anyone who can ID the poster on the wall in the background. I have 9 posters and 9 lobby cards from old Film Noir movies decorating my office. (there's your clue) Very inspiring!

And completely without her permission I went ahead and stole a picture of JB Kohl, my co-writer, in her space. And she's holding a mug. Perfect!

2 down and 3 stars

I finished my stories for a competition I'm entered in and also an anthology I'm a part of. Whew! Feels good to have those done. Writing just for fun is...fun. Writing for a deadline and possible accolades can be nerve-wracking. It does jump-start the ol' creative juices though. I like both stories. Both very different.
And another story, Brotherly Love, a nasty piece of flash fiction I dashed off for the folks over at the Flash Fiction Offensive garnered my first online review in Keith Rawson's BSC review column.
3 stars. Not too bad. One more star to be had there but what can you do with a piece under 1000 words. Frank Bill's Flesh Rule got the full four and that is well deserved.

New Stories...still more to do

I've got two new short stories making debuts this week. My first story for The Flash Fiction Offensive is called Brotherly Love. It's quite sleazy so consider yourself warned. Do I need to say it is a work of fiction? I doubt it but might as well. Yes my sister did peirce my ear once but that's about as far as it goes. I am not a purveyor of 'write what you know'.
Another piece, The Room Next To Room 5, is up at Thrillers Killers and Chillers. This is a short that became a novel. One that I need to get back into and do a serious edit/rewrite. It needs work. I sent it out and got a stack of rejections and then having not seen it in about a year I started to re-read it and realized that all those rejection letters were correct. I still think there is a lot of good in there so I am excited to get back to it...someday. There is a lot on my plate right now. I have two short stories due by the end of the month. I have started them but I'm not settled on them quite yet. Mostly because I need to just focus. I'm about 3/4 done with a new novel and it is hard to put it aside for fear of losing momentum. Oh what is a writer to do? This is just the kind of problem I like having though. Better than to have no one interested.
So, okay, back to work.

More Prizes!

As if it wasn't enough! Fellow Second Wind Publishing author Deborah J. Ledford has graciously given over a signed copy of her book Staccato hot off the presses! That makes the grand prize package a whopping FIVE signed books. You can sit back and hope to get snowed in this winter because you'll have plenty of reading material - if you win that is! Submission are accepted until the end of the month. Scroll down for all the rules.
Thanks to all the authors who have contributed books.


And of course any chance to pimp our hot cover...

Heating up

Submissions are rolling in. We got one all the way from the UK today. It is fascinating to see what people come up with when tasked with writing a story around a fist. Some great stuff so far.
We got a good mention on the BSC Review in Keith Rawson's new column on short fiction all over the web. It's great to have Keith doing a wrap up of noteworth stories.
I am honored to be among those chosen to submit a story for the 1st Watery Grave International contest being run by Corey Wilde over at his blog. I can only be so flattered though since the ten finalists were pulled out of a hat. Now I just need to come up with a story. I started on something the other night but I'm not sure it's prize-worthy so I'm going to keep ruminating on this one. It's is open to anything and I almost wish it had restrictions to narrow it a little. Sometimes the wide open ocean of ideas can be intimidating.
We're awaiting the proofs of the book any day now and then we'll see if we're still on track for an Oct 1 release. A pre-order page should be up soon after the proof is approved. Hopefully we can get some interviews and reviews once it is out and people have read it and hopefully like it. When I played in bands we always got the most entertainment from the bad reviews but it does bruise the ego a little bit. It is part of the risk of putting out something creative into the world. Once it is out of your hands - all is fair. I know not everyone will like it. Some may hate it. I assume the people that would hate it just won't even pick it up so I'm not too worried about getting angry hate mail. Reviewers can be fickle though. Oh well, fingers crossed!

Keep 'em coming!

The entries are rolling in on the contest. Others are still mulling over how to use that fist. It's going to be stiff competition. To let off a little steam (as in, procrastinate from writing the new novel) I did up a short story for laughs. It features some of my writing "friends" - those people who I've never met but love their writing and chat with on facebook, etc. - all re-imagined as actual criminal characters. I assumed they all had a good sense of humor and I hope I was right. Check out the story here. It's a hoot if you know the players involved. If you don't, it's still a bloody good time.

Flash Fiction Contest!

Welcome writers! My co-author, JB Kohl, and I would like to invite you into our world. Our book, One Too Many Blows To The Head is about to be released. It is about the dark world of crooked boxing and the Kansas City underworld in 1939. We want you to read it. In fact, we're willing to give you an autographed copy. All you have to do is share a story with us. Here's how it works:
The working title of our book was FIST. We scrapped that short, punchy title for the much longer and hopefully more evocative one above. What we want from you is a short story, under 1000 words, that uses a fist as the inspiration. It can be a literal fist, a metaphorical fist, a fist used in a fight, a fist clenched but never used -- you're writers, you decide. We want to see what our seedy world inspires in you.
The top three stories that amaze us, shock us and make us suck wind like a shot to the gut will be prizewinners. It's that simple.

PRIZES:
First prize is a four-book pack including One Too Many Blows To The Head autographed by both authors, a copy of JB Kohl's first novel The Deputy's Widow, autographed by her, an autographed copy of Carpet Ride by Norm Brown a fellow Second Wind Publishing author and finally a copy of Murder in Winnebago County autographed by fellow Second Winder Christine Husom.
Second prize is a signed copy of One Too Many Blows To The Head and a signed copy of The Deputy's Widow.
Third prize is a signed copy of One Too Many Blows To The Head.
BONUS:
Also for the first prize winner, your story will be published at A Twist of Noir Much thanks to Christopher Grant for trusting that the quality of submissions will be high enough that he agreed to publish the story sight unseen.
JUDGING:
JB and I will narrow down the submissions to a top ten at which point they will go to a panel of judges, not us, for a final verdict. Votes cannot be bought by becoming a Facebook fan or blogging about our book to your readers or spreading the word about the Oct. 1st release date. Did I say cannot be bought? I meant can. (Okay, I can feel Jennifer frowning from all the way across the country so, no, I guess they can't be bought that way. We won't say no to the mention though)
DEADLINES:
Submissions are open right now and will be open until the end of Sept. Winners to be announced here and at A Twist of Noir on Oct 15th.
All stories, of course, remain solely the author's property and after the contest is closed you can do whatever you like with them. If you'd like to mention that it was written as a part of this contest we'd love it if you mention the book. We're not dumb. We want to sell a few copies to more than our parents.
Above all we want you to wow us. Blow us away. Tell us a story we never would have thought of.
WHERE TO SEND IT:
Copy the text of the story (no attachments please) into the body of an email and send to: ericbeetner@ca.rr.com with the word submission in the subject line. I will acknowledge receipt of your story and then you have to just wait it out until the results. Please include a short bio in the event that your story is published.

That's all. Hit us hard - we can't wait to see what you come up with. Please help us spread the word about the contest and the book and support your local independent bookseller and indie crime authors. Second Wind is a good place to start.
(Special thanks to Norm and Christine for supplying a copy of their book. That's four top flight doses of crime for the low low price of free. You won't be disappointed)

Coincidence or not?

I am reading a book now by a well established and highly respected author. It is fairly pulpy (in a good way) and I am struck by how casually circumstances pile up by sheer coincidence to help move the plot along. I always second-guess myself while writing, always striving for "realism". This may be foolish in the crime genre.
I myself don't mind a little artistic license to help a story along. An element of the fantastic is a good thing, I think. If this story wasn't spurred on by some amazing happenings then why write it down? For example, few stories are written about a caper gone right, only one gone horribly wrong. So, what of the blind luck that moves a book along from plot point to plot point? How forgiving are you? I give authors a lot of leeway, more than I give myself. I constantly revise to make things less dependent on coincidence. Organic and true are my mantras.
Should I loosen the reins a bit? It certainly would make things easier. And when a writer of renown and a forty-year career can get away with it, why not me? Ah, there's the rub. I think established writers are given a pass on that sort of thing. Maybe it's just the fact that a highly entertaining book can trump some wild coincidence but I think people scrutinize freshman authors much more over style and plot devices. It's not a bad thing. Having readers be on guard with a finely tuned BS detector is not a bad thing. But getting readers to go along with some suspect plot workings just because you are telling them one hell of a yarn would be even better!

Put off procrastination

I write at night. I work during the day, as most of us do. I am a TV editor and I'm currently working on a documentary series that is pretty intense trying to make it all work and make sense. In general I use a tremendous amount of my creative brain power during the day job and often find that there's not much left by nightfall. That's my excuse anyway to put things off.

Last night I didn't really feel like writing after I got out to the office around 10:00, answered some emails, checked around the blog world for anything I missed and worked on finishing the press release for One Too Many Blows To The Head. That put it around 11:15. Easy enough to call it a night but I soldiered on working towards my minimum goal of 1000 words a day on the new book. Not sure if I would write anything worthwhile or even get beyond 50 words or so I plunged in. I'm glad I did. I ended up with some nice moments and things I didn't know the story needed until I got there. I ended up with about 1500 words and I was really happy with it. Just goes to show you that sometimes all that is needed to get the creative juices flowing again is just to start the juicer. Just keep typing. Forward progress that needs to be heavily edited is still better than no progress at all.