One Man's Opinion: RED ESPERANTO by PAUL D BRAZILL

Before the review, a few pointers.

Mr Suit's free today and tomorrow (US).  I think it's pretty good, so think about checking it out.

Another freebie is Santa's Christmas Eve Blues (US) from Douglas Lindsay and Blasted Heath.  Surely that's got to be had.

And, forgive me for the scratched record approach, but Snubnose Press have reduced the price of all their titles to the minimum of 99c or 75p.  I'll mention again that Blood On Blood, which I haven't read but own, is at 5500 in the US charts and for pragmatic reasons I reckon that if you chase it higher up there you'll be supporting a fantastic press in a way that might well stick.  Go on, be a devil.  And if you do buy more Snubnose books for your collection, think about saving your receipts somewhere - you never know when they might come in useful.

Red Esperanto (US) practically drips in the alcoholic sweat of the journalist Luke Case, not to mention some of his other bodily fluids. 

Luke is a head case in more ways than one; I’ll not elaborate on that and will let you discover that for yourselves.

We meet him in a room in Warsaw where he’s forcing down whisky and soaking up the atmosphere.  His companion is a prostitute who has more than one admirer, not all of whom are as gentile as Case.

Case is sucked gently (oh yes) into a game that lies within a love square (a love triangle with an extra corner).

Along the way, he introduces us to some unsavoury characters from the Polish community and some rather hopeless ones from the English teachers who have washed up there.

There are wise-cracks a plenty and twists that are well camouflaged. 

My favourite character in the story is the city itself.  It’s presented with a seedy romance that really wakes up the imagination.

It’s a story with a lot to offer and I’m very happy that there’s a follow up for me to get to in the very near future.

So why's it free?

Mr Suit (US) has had some great reviews.  It's the kind of book that crime fiction lovers will adore.  This being the case, why the hell are you giving it away?

As with all things, it's complex.

First off, I'm a bit of a sheep.  Everyone's doing it and I want to be like everyone else.

And the book's not really selling, so I'm hoping that it will get a broader readership if I make it free.

I also get a buzz out of seeing the numbers tick up by the hour on my KDP account which certainly makes a change.  Maybe I'm addicted to that.

Don't you think that this might upset those who have bought it already?

It may well do and I don't feel good about that.  If anyone reads this and feels agrieved, they can contact me and I'll send them something else of mine by way of some compensation.

Writers giving their books away for nothing?  Doesn't that diminish the value of the book in more ways than one?

That depends on your point of view. 

It won't make me any money unless it hits big with giveaways.  It may add to the feeling that indie-published books are all free in the end, so why bother buying.  In turn, the books may become less expensive and writers may make less money.  That would be a shame, but I like the idea of giveaways, regardless.

And you know that only 10% of the downloads will actually be read, don't you?

That seems like an arbitary figure, but yes, I'm aware of that.  10% of a whole, positive number is still more than 100% of nothing the way maths works and so it has to be worth trying.

Have you thought about paying for advertising for this promotion?

I have and I have.  I mean, I paid $5 to get some space online somewhere.  I think it's worth a go and I can let you know if it seems to make any difference at all.

Are you certain that this is the right way forward?

Not at all.

Are you likely to give the book away again?

That really depends.

I'm giving lots of things away over the Xmas period.   In part that's because I'm a generous guy while, in part, it's entirely self-serving and I hope to make some money on the back of it.

I don't think the giveaway thing has much more juice in the tank.  My feeling is that I'd like to make this the last giveaway for a good while.  Maybe I'll stir the pot again next summer, but I won't be doing it in the same way I have of late.

Do you plan to irritate the pants off people by going on and on and on about the giveaway?

How well you know me.

So will you remove your books from the Kindle Prime gang?

No.  I like them being borrowed from time to time even if it's only a couple of copies a month.  That's a couple more readers (I hope, though 10% of 2 is 0.2 and it's difficult to imagine 0.2 of a reader - I guess it would have to be the fifth with the eyes).

Will you be writing anything else in the near future?

I have an idea of a children's horror story that I'd like to have a stab at.  See if I can build up some suspense and learn a new aspect of the craft.

Are you excited about Christmas?

I'm excited about being with my family and enjoying good company.  That would be cool.

And the book you'd like in your stocking?

I'm really curious about The Round House by Louise Erdrich (US).  It's not available here till spring, so if Santa can pull a few strings...

Anything else?

Yeah.  Did you know that Snubnose Press titles are 99c and 77p through December?  And that Blood On Blood has crossed the top 5000 barrier in America and might go even higher with your help?  You should click the links.

Happy Christmas and good luck with the giveaway.

Happy Christmas.

Paul D Brazill - The Man From Atlantis

A few months ago, when I was typically dawdling around Facebook, I received a message from Giulia from the spiffing Italian magazine Liberi di Scrivere. I’d known Giulia for a couple of years and had even been interviewed by Liberi di Scrivere.


She mentioned an upcoming ePublisher, ATLANTIS, the dark spawn of Lite Editions, a highly successful publisher of erotic eBooks. With Atlantis, publishers Lorenzo Mazzoni and Marco Belli decided to produce a series of noir novelettes, taking place in various cities around the world.

Giulia asked if was I interested. And, of course, I was!

So, I wrote the novelette RED ESPERANTO/ ROSSO ESPERANTO . It’s the story of an English hack-Luke Case- up to no good in Warsaw, Poland, a city where I lived for around five years.

Well, recently, ATLANTIS asked me if I was interested in writing a follow up to RED ESPERANTO and I jumped at the chance.

DEATH ON A HOT AFTERNOON takes the same hapless hack, Luke Case, to Madrid, Spain. A city where I once spent an intense summer. The tag line: An English hack encounters a man with a violent past, and a mysterious torch singer, during a hot Spanish summer, with fatal results.

And yes, there will be more Luke Case yarns to come.

The Italian translation of DEATH ON A HOT AFTERNOON will be available soon but you can pick up the English version from Amazon, B&N etc

You can also buy it direct from ATLANTIS, if it tickles your fancy.

CIAO!

Bio: Spinetingler Award nominee Paul D. Brazill has had bits and bobs of short fiction published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books Of Best British Crime 8 and 10,and he has edited the anthologies True Brit Grit & Off The Record 2– with Luca Veste - and Drunk On The Moon 1 and 2. His ebooks Red Esperanto, Death On A Hot Afternoon, 13 Shots Of Noir, Vin Of Venus (with David Cranmer & Garnett Elliot ) and Snapshots are out now, and his novellas The Gumshoe and Guns Of Brixton will be out pretty damned soon. His blog is here.

A Healthy Fear Of Man

available at the Snubnose discount price of 99c or 75p through December via Amazon

When I was studying writing in grad school, my professor would often ask: “If I gave you 10 bucks and sent you into a bookstore to purchase a book, what type of book would you purchase?” I often answered: crime, hard-boiled, or poetry. He would then say, “Well, that’s the genre you need to write.”
I’d like to think A Healthy Fear of Man (US)is an amalgamation of all three. It’s the follow-up to my debut novel, The Science of Paul (US), in which the ex-con and anti-hero, Paul Little, seeks to escape the trappings of Philadelphia where he’s pinned between a volatile gangster facing a failing empire, and the detective who sent Paul to prison for vehicular homicide. Both want something from Paul, actually everyone wants something from Paul. He’s an empty glass, ready to be filled—ready to become whatever someone needs, as long as it gets him one step closer to a peaceful life in North Carolina. In A Healthy Fear of Man, Paul gets his wish. He makes it to N.C.—to the succor of his deceased grandfather’s farm. There, he struggles to make it without money and resources. But it’s the South, where people help their neighbors and where secrets don’t stay hidden. Paul is visited by Bo Fellstone, his grandfather’s old friend, and a precious girl named Gilly. Fellstone wants to help and Gilly wants to be Paul’s pal. But she’s got a secret, the kind that gets her killed. Her body is found floating in Paul’s pond—she’s been beaten and strangled, and DMT is found in her system. And when the sheriff comes knocking on Paul’s door, the only man who can help him clear his name is Fellstone.

The novel tackles some of the issues that still plague the South. The idea of the New South has always been a myth in my book. Times have changed but the South is about 10 years behind, always has been. And it’s the type of place that seems cut off from the rest of the world. Things happen in the South that don’t make the papers. Crimes are committed, innocent people take the fall or they’re railroaded into taking plea deals. The uneducated, the poor, the weak are faceless pawns in a game of politics, racism, and a reconstruction period that has never ended. It’s like a man told me when I moved to N.C.: “You better watch that uppity walk. You asking for trouble and you can die down here.” It’s best to play slow, to play lame, and to blend in. Otherwise you may find trouble, just by sticking out in a crowd. Paul meets this kind of trouble head on and it’s going to take his wits and will to stay out of jail and above ground.

A Healthy Fear of Man is the second installment in the Paul Little crime series.Visit www.Aaronphilipclark.com  to learn more.

She Did It For Herself: CREATESPACE AND I, McDROLL

Life’s full of mistakes, or if I’m being positive I could say ‘learning opportunities’. I’ve made a bucket-load but hopefully that’s pretty normal. I thought publishing my novella, ‘The Wrong Delivery’ in four tasty bite sized chunks would be quite original…eh no. I think more than anything it was annoying to those readers kind enough to give it a twirl. Some kind people read the first part, ‘Corrin’s Eyes’, but that readership most definitely dwindled by the fourth and final part, ‘Running Out of Time’.

Somebody thought I was serializing my story to get more money for it – not true! A ‘get rich quick’ scheme – don’t make me laugh! I just thought it would be fun and have some kind of impact. It didn’t, so there you go.

I’ve recently started a new project with the catchy title (at the moment) of ‘Home for a Dead Dog’. You can read the first chapter over at http://all-due-respect.blogspot.in/2012/08/issue-33-august-2012.html. Several people seemed to like the characters and the dialogue so I thought I’d give it a bash and turn it into a full-length novel. That’s the plan anyway.

I do know that I lack a bit of self-belief in my ability as a writer; for someone the wrong side of fifty, I feel like a cheeky young upstart, and as a women writing noir that can be particularly dark, humorous and full of expletives, I do feel the ground shaking beneath my feet. The encouragement of a few tremendous folk like Nigel Bird, Andrez Bergen and Chris Rhatigan keep me going.

My new project is a lot grittier than ‘The Wrong Delivery’, which turned out to be a bit of a cozy little runaround Argyll, looking for a missing package. My mother could maybe even read it. She still wouldn’t like it, but I might just not quite offend her sensibilities. She refuses to read anything with ‘swear words’ and is not a crime fan. At my advanced age, do I still seek her approval? How weird.

I messed up with the publication of ‘The Wrong Delivery’, so I wanted to somehow, late in the day, pull it together into one novella. But what about those kind people who shelled out for each of the four parts? Would they ask for their money back if it suddenly appeared altogether for 77p? The answer? Make a paperback edition. Seemed like another good idea. Oh dear. Is this a pattern?

Last weekend, after editing the first part of the story yet again, I used Createspace.com to pull it altogether, made yet another new cover and after a couple of hours, hey presto, the paperback version was born. Looks pretty cool and bookish. Very easy to follow instructions, you don’t pay anything up front and your masterpiece is there on the shelves of the big bookshop in the sky for people to purchase within a few hours.

I haven’t yet got my hands on the final product, thought it would come in the mail today, but hey, this is Argyll and the post is a lot slower. Patience is required. I’m hoping for some sense of satisfaction when I hold my baby in my hands for the first time. I’m hoping that I’ll finally believe that, after a fashion, I can write. I hope that this will give me the inspiration to keep writing about my ‘Dead Dog’ and at the very least, my brother seems to be impressed.

It would be great to have a publishing deal, an agent, an editor, a proofreader, a cover designer, the things that dreams are made of, but in the meantime, I can do it all for myself – so there! That pretty much sums up my life anyway; ‘She did it for herself.’

I might order twenty copies and torture all my ‘Kindleless’ friends, I might sit at night and stroke the cover thinking how clever I am or I might just put that baby to bed and start climbing the next even bigger hill. Anyway, it’s all fun, I get a kick out of writing and it takes me far away from the humdrum problems of everyday life. Boy is that needed!

If you want a shiny paperback to hold in your own sticky little hands (go on you know you do) head over and buy one, it looks pretty.

Toodle pip!

The Wrong Delivery is available for £3.79 in the UK and for $6 in the US.  There's still time to get a copy in to Santa's sack or for the last minute gift for the one in your life who could always do with another good book.  Recommended.

The end and the beginning: CHRIS DABNOR on NIGHTFALLS

A few little plugs before I hand on to Chris - and there's some news here that's definitely worth reading.

Have you seen that Snubnose are offering their titles for 99c/75p?  They have some brilliant titles and I'm pretty sure that all of their books are worth picking up (I mopped up another 6 or so with this offer).  I'm sure you'll know what I mean when I say that and you'll be doing some mopping up of your own.

I'm going to recommend one in particular, but not for the usual reasons.  It's a title I haven't read, Blood On Blood by Jim Wilsky and Frank Zafiro.  The reason for my suggestion is that it's doing pretty well in the Amazon charts in the US and with a little more support might forge itself a position that will nudge the Amazon machine into action. It's not only the good writers we need to support, but the good publishers, so let's go out and make a difference.

And I'm also really pleased to see that McDroll's The Wrong Delivery is now available as a paperback, which might well make someone very happy on Christmas morning if they have the right kind of friends.

Another way to make a difference in the world it to donate to charity.  You can do that and be a winner in 2 ways if you pick up a copy of Nightfalls - you'll get a cracking read and the warm glow of giving at the same time.

Here's a note from Chris Dabnor about his story:

When Katherine invited me to write a piece for the charity anthology 'Nightfalls' (US), I didn''t have to think too long about it.  Since she first decided to publish one of my short stories, she's been supportive of me and my work.  So, I had a theme, I just needed a story.  My first idea was to have a protagonist who keeps hearing songs about the end of the world - REM's - End of the World, U2's Last Night on Earth and so on, and slowly begins to realise that they are portents.  I had the idea, but didn't feel I could tell it as a short story.  It also reminded me a bit of something that Gaiman had done with Constantine in an early Sandman.  I kept thinking about the music and decided on a story about a DJ who decides to host a radio phone-in running up to the end.  REM still make it in there, but only as a brief nod.  I realised, that, for the story to work, I needed a nice, pretty end of the world, something that could be accurately predicted and instant when it came.  So, I began researching extinction level events.  They're generally not as quick or exciting as you'd expect, it seems.  It was whilst researching the end of the world that I received the amazing news that my partner was pregnant.  Realising that you're going to be a father for the first time changes your perspective on the apocalypse.  Suddenly the world meant so much more to me - it had become the place that my baby is going to grow up in, and it is a beautiful and terrible place.

May I take my place in line and offer you and your partner the very biggest wave of warmth Sea Minor can manage here.  Yes, the world will never be the same again for you guys and I'm pretty sure it will never have been quite so wonderful.  Very good luck.

:)

One Man's Opinion: CHEAPSKATES by CHARLIE STELLA

 

 

I’ve been through a period of grieving these last

couple of months and it hasn’t been easy.

One thing that was radically affected was my ability

to concentrate upon any fiction longer than around a

thousand words. 

What I needed to conquer the reader’s block was a

book that would grab me from the start, would work

as a page-turner, had sharply drawn characters and

kept a really high standard of quality writing.

I tried 3 or 4 before finding my solution and in the

end it was Charlie Stella’s Cheapskates that whisked

me back to reader heaven.

I’m grateful to Mr Stella for that.

‘Cheapskates’ is a fantastic read.

Early on, the book visits a prison cell where a couple of inmates of very different personalities are housed just before their release.  The thing they have in common is a strong sense of justice and a need to see the right thing done.

For one of those inmates, Peter Rizzo, he’s all set to retrieve money from his ex-wife who owes him 50k plus interest. 

Cellmate Reese Waters is a placid man, a drummer and a reader and something of a sage.  He’s done his best to talk Rizzo after going after the cash and has persuaded his friend to allow him to act as a go-between in order to save Rizzo from a parole violation.

When the pair get out from Fishkill and go their separate ways, they agree to meet up and work things out.

Reese goes along to meet Rizzo’s ex as planned.  She’s as much of a cheapskate as he’s been told and he takes an instant dislike for her when she gives him the brush-off.

What Reese doesn’t know at that point is that the ex has had Rizzo bumped off, using connections to the mob via her lover Jimmy Valentine.

From then on the plot gathers apace and really thickens.

Reese needs to see justice done.  The cops get involved, the mob do what they can to tie up loose ends before they’re indicted for one thing or another, there’s a drunken bus driver, a mean old man who eats discount cakes all week for lunch, there’s a radical Muslim brotherhood offering muscle, a discredited officer from the organised –crime squad and there are solicitors with hearts and without.

It’s a tangled web they all weave and it’s clear from the beginning that some of them are going to get caught up by their own dealings.  What’s not so clear is who that’s going to be.

Stella works the plot like a master plate spinner.  The points of view change at regular intervals and this is managed with immense skill.  The plot thickens at every turn and the twists make this interesting from start to finish.

I loved many things about Cheapskates.

Firstly, the characters are diverse and very-well defined.  They come from different backgrounds entirely and Stella uses the differences in ways that play with stereotype as much as they buck the obvious to find the unique.  What this allows is for changing the angle of story-telling with ease as the people involved are immediately recognisable.

Next there is the mob background.  I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for a good gangster tale.   What makes it all the better is that it feels like Stella has been there and lived the life.  It has a real authenticity to it all that you won’t often find in fiction.

There’s the dialogue.  It’s a pleasure all on its own.

And there’s the humour.  Amidst all of the serious plays is a really dry comedy that provided another dimension.  I like to laugh and I laughed a lot – with people like the ones on these pages, it would be difficult to keep a straight face.

The overall work is a piece of class.  If the book was in the mafia it would be the Godfather.  And you’d better believe that, believe me.

Apocalypse Tango: Dale T. Phillips

The new Nightfalls anthology is a good thing, a collection of fine stories where the proceeds go to help those less fortunate.


When editor Katherine Tomlinson asked me if I'd like to submit a story, I said yes, and told her I'd just published a collection of stories about the end of the world, Apocalypse Tango.

Uh... she said, well, that's what the new collection is about.

Okay, no problem, I'll just write another one...

But I'd used up my available scenarios.

When she told me about the charity the proceeds were going to, the idea began to form. Since the last night of 12/21 was so close to Christmas, it grew to having the apocalypse seen through the eyes of a young Latino child who's confused as to why the grownups are acting so strangely around the time Santa is supposed to come. And since the Los Angeles area charity was there, that became the locale, and even the theme. The prompt for the collection guided precisely what the story was to be.

Within the tale, I wanted to explore the different reactions that people would have: some lose themselves in drinking or drugs, some end on their knees praying for salvation or redemption, some who would like to end with pleasures of the flesh (going out with a bang, not a whimper), some in finally getting that one thing they've always dreamed of, and some, committing that last act of ultimate love.

And a nod to the apocalypse coming 50 years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, when we came within a whisker of having it happen then. Plus ca change, you know...

Religion, death, Christmas, love, and the end of the world, all in a few thousand worlds. Guess that says it all.

Green Day

This is a long piece. If you don’t have the time or the patience to stick with it, click on this link to Nightfalls (US) to avoid any complications.


When the invitation from Katherine Tomlinson arrived in my email, I was delighted. Being asked to participate in an anthology by someone you respect is something special and it can be a tonic to any flagging ego.

Needless to say, I told her I’d be there and, no doubt, I went around smiling for the rest of the day.

I was grateful for the time I had to write something down, too. 6 months I had. More than enough. All I had to do was to imagine the end of the world and tell a story about it. Simple.

My idea came almost immediately. I wanted to use a DJ. Have him working like it was any other normal day. Maybe let him reflect upon his life and his regrets and use his status and his radio studio to put out word that he wanted to speak to the love of his life. Someone he’d not been in touch with for far too long. Maybe make peace or find some physical comfort with the woman.

It got me thinking about what I’d want to be doing when the world came to a full stop. Sex was there. Drugs. Family togetherness and playing games. Finding a spot in nature and contemplating. Joining some big party. The final choice would definitely be a difficult one. I reckon for me, I’d go for being with my family and imagining it was Christmas day – food, celebration and love.

Then came the time when 6 months had all but passed. Katherine emailed me a reminder with a week to go to the deadline and the word-count was zero.

Sadly for me, when I got the message from Katherine it coincided with my mother falling, damaging her arm and her confidence enormously. I asked Katherine for a week’s extension and it was very kindly granted.

The Monday after I’d returned from my time seeing her, I set about the opening. It involved the DJ driving in to work. There were pros and cons about the end-of-the-world thing. There were lunatics and the frenetic out on the streets, but the roads were free of traffic and it was an easy journey.

The DJ found a name, Greene, and so the story found its title also.

I came to admire Green Day at the first time of hearing, something from Dookie as I played pool with a couple of mates in Hampstead. I even went to see them around 15 years ago and loved their energy and the fullness of their sound.

Things were coming together nicely. Another couple of visits and I’d have it polished off by the end of the week - all I needed was to decide on what was going to happen.

The idea came the next day and it was something of a U-turn. No matter, now I knew my direction it would be simple.

The next day was Thursday. The day my mum was due out of hospital. The day it would come to feel like the world really had come to an end.

I got the call in the middle of a lesson. Mum had died. I cried – couldn’t help myself. I told the children I was working with how they could use what they know, tried and stop the quiver in the voice and sent them back to their own teacher. The motor-skills group finished off and left me alone. The adults were kind to me and told me to go home, not that I had any choice. First, what I needed to do was cry my eyes out until there were no tears left to make sure that I could be safe in the car.

I arrived home. Took a hug from my wife and got into bed.

Amidst a storm of emotions was some kind of clarity – I needed to clear my decks. A promise is a promise and my story needed to be finished. Besides, I needed something to focus on. Something to latch on to in a world that just wasn’t making any sense.

I typed at the keys. The words came. Sometimes I remembered what was really going on, so I quickly buried myself back into my fiction.

The words kept coming. The story seemed to hold. I found an ending and was done.

A couple of reads through and as soon as my wife stopped writing up her work, I grabbed the chance to get on the computer to send it to Katherine.

I explained the situation. Told her that I had no faith in what I had just produced and that I wouldn’t be in any shape to edit and entrusted that job to her.

And that’s when everything seemed to fall to pieces. When a brutal numbness took over my life.

I got back to some kind of normality after the funeral.

Katherine was great. Really lovely. So lovely that she suggested that the book might be dedicated to my mum, that plain old Irish woman who hadn’t managed to make it home. I didn’t want to be selfish, but at the same time couldn’t turn down such a warm and human offer. It’s in the book now and I’m so happy that it’s there. So delighted to see my story made the grade too.

And that’s how I came to write this story. It’ll be a marker in life for as long as I’m able to hold on to such things.

In so many ways it was the end of the world. Now, I suppose, it’s time to try and turn that into a new beginning. I can begin that process by recommending that you buy this book. My mum was big on charity and Nightfalls is for a very good cause. How neatly things can sometimes fit together.

With thanks.

Kaye George - THE LAST WAVE

by Kaye George

I’m thrilled to have a story included in the anthology called NIGHTFALLS: Notes from the end of the world, edited by Dark Valentine’s Katherine Tomlinson! When I first started considering my story, which was to include the thoughts of a person who knew it would be the last night on earth, I had to start with how I should have the world end.

Apocalypse literature is not new to me, as a reader and a moviegoer, but it sure was as a writer. I once wrote a humorous zombie piece, but it only involved the death of one person, within the story. The threat of world annihilation was there, but only implied.

But now I had to get serious and think how the world might really end, if it ends soon. I’ll have to give a little background on myself for this to make sense. I’m a teensy bit neurotic. When a new strain of flu is announced on TV, I have it. (A mild case not worth going to the doctor for.) When anything contagious is going around, I have it. (Same parenthetical statement as above.) When a new form of mental deviation is discovered, I’m prone to it. Some people call it hypochondriasis, others call it hysteria. Whatever, it works for me.

Another thing about me is that I like to read popular physics, Isaac Asimov, Brian Greene and the like.

One thing I worry about is radio waves. Every day there are more and more devices in the US, and around the world, that get data from waves. The towers surround us. Waves are being beamed for our TVs, our phones, our Ipads, wireless Kindles, WiFis are everywhere. I even have a router filling my house with waves. We can print, remote, with no wires, from anywhere in our house and even from across the street.

All those waves are everywhere! And they’re going through our bodies. The only thing controlling all this chaos is keeping track of band widths. I’m scared.

Throw in a little physics, like the fact that colliding waves give off heat, and I had my plot.

My story is called 'The Last Wave'.

Kaye is the author of a number of titles including Choke, the Imogen Duckworthy Mysteries and the collection A Patchwork Of Stories.

 

http://kayegeorge.com/index.html

APOCALYPTIC WALTZ - Richard Godwin

 

 

1)      Will you answer the last question first?

No, look at the last question.

2)      Is this question two?

It depends which numerical system you are using.

3)      Do numbers matter?

They do to mathematicians and salespeople.

4)      Are you in Nightfalls (US), the anthology of stories about the end of the world, edited by Katherine Tomlinson?

I am, and it’s a great anthology full of stories by some fine writers, among them Christopher Grant, AJ Hayes, Chris Rhatigan, Thomas Pluck, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Col Bury, and yourself Nigel, to name but a few.

5)      Tell us about your story.

It’s called 'Blackout', a Beckett type skit on two characters stuck in a building surrounded by corpses. They talk about the meaning of life and argue about who has ended up with the biggest sausage.

6)      Any other news?

Mr. Glamour, my second novel, is out in paperback with Black Jackal Books, and he is preparing to meet you. Consider him Hannibal Lecter in Gucci. This is a novel about designer goods and those obsessed by them. It is a novel in which identity is linked to brands. Here are a couple of review excerpts:

‘The writing of Richard Godwin is original, bold and gets writers talking. Mr. Glamour is a giallo extravaganza that would make Dario Argento blush and request movie rights right away. It's a novel that builds on its layers to reach an absolutely crazy climax that not only lives up to the story, but that rewards the readers with a huge jaw-dropper moment. Rare are the endings that live up to their stories, but this is quite the success. A great story about identity in an era where your ass belongs to a designer.’

Benoit LeLievre, Dead End Follies.

‘Mr Glamour is a striking effort from one of the most daring crime writers in the business. It is the noirest of noir, fatalistic, ultra-violent and hellishly addictive.’

Mike Stafford, Book Geeks Magazine.

Mr. Glamour is available here in the UK, here in the US.

7)      That it?

Apostle Rising, my debut novel, which has sold foreign rights in Europe, is now out for the first time as an E Book. In it a serial killer crucifies politicians. The E Book comes with some juicy extras, an excerpt from Mr. Glamour and four deliciously dark Noir stories, like the finest handmade chocolate. It is available:

Here in the US

Here in the UK

On Kobo

On Xin Xii

8)         Do you believe the end of the world is nigh and what is your answer to the first question?

No and yes.

You can find out more about Richard Godwin at www.richardgodwin.net

The Next Big Thing - Nigel Bird

I'm on a chain-gang.  The bracelets are killing me and I'm parched.

Never mind, it's what you get if you agree to be tagged in a never-ending book-blog string and it's what you get when you have good friends to tag you.

My tag came from Daniel O'Shea over at his blog Going Ballistic.  He's done a great interview over there and now it's my turn to give the questions a try.

At the end of the piece, I'll link to the folk I've tagged so you can find out about their great stuff as soon as they've been roped in, branded and put theirs up.

Thanks to Dan for the tag.  Now, here goes:

1 What is the working title of your next book?

Because I've only just put out Mr Suit (US), I'm going to refer to that as my 'next book' because I've not had time to think of a new story yet. 

2. Where did the idea for the book come from?

I was moved by the court-cases here in the UK by people with great physical difficulties who wanted to have the right to die – a man with locked-in syndrome was so incapacitated that he couldn’t take his own life and his close family couldn’t end things without being charged with murder.  It seemed crazy and I wanted to write a serious novel on the subject. 

As research, I read The Diving Bell And The Butterfly and also a brilliant novel called Senseless (by Stona Fitch).  They were so good, I needed to find another approach, hence Mr Suit.

3 What genre does your book fall under?

Screwball noir.

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

I’d have a man with locked-in syndrome for the role of Archie just to get it right. His wife might be Joan Crawford and Mr Suit would be Broderick Crawford (I figure that’s OK because them being dead already doesn’t make the prospect of the film being made any less likely). 

Ritchie, Tarantino and Capra can collaborate on production and direction.

5)   What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When a plan for a gangland euthanasia party goes wrong, someone’s bound to end up sleeping with the fishes.

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

 It’s self-published as an e-book and a paperback. 

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

Though it’s only a novella, I spent a long time on the first draft.  A good couple of months fine tuning. 

Unusually for me, when it came to the edit I ended up adding words rather than taking them away to try and give this one a slightly different feel than my usual work. 

 

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

It’s a pretty crazy plot with a zesty pace and a fair dose of adult content.  For that, I reckon I’m blaming Anthony Neil Smith, Allan Guthrie, Matthew McBride, Douglas Lindsay, Charlie Williams and Donna Moore. 

9   Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See question 1.

 

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

It’s unpredictable – I doubt the twists can be fathomed in advance of coming across them.

It features the slowest getaway vehicle in the history of crime fiction.

There’s a little sex to add some spice it that’s your boat.

The humour runs through it from start to finish, so if you’re a fan of dark comedy it might well be for you.

Now for my first tag. 

Drum roll.  I mean McDroll.  She's funny and Scottish (you might have guessed), she's lovely (which you possibly know) and she writes great stories (should you not know that, maybe it's time to find out). 

Off you pop.