Anticipation...

So here I am again. I’m within a week of the release of my next mystery novel, THE PYRAMID DECEPTION, and I’m wondering as I always do at this point, if anyone wants to read the book badly enough to pay for it.

With each release I experiment with the marketing. I sent my previous Hannibal Jones novel to a ton of writers and ended up with a long list of big-name blurbs. That tactic didn’t move the needle on sales. I also recruited a street team, but that cost me more free books than it sold. I did still send off review copies to lots of reviewers.

This time I’ve posted several samples on my Facebook page -  – and worked Twitter more. I made my cover reveal an event. And I posted an interview of Hannibal so people could get to know him.

I introduced the new book to the book club crowd at the recent authors and readers weekend. I offered it at a reduced price and sold quite a few copies. I’ve made sure it’s available at Barnes & Noble and offered it to several private bookstores. And I put the ebook version up for pre-order on Amazon.  But mostly I rely on word of mouth to spur early sales. I can only hope that fans of the Hannibal Jones mystery series really are eager for more.

Of course, I can’t focus on my book release the way most authors can. As a publisher I must divide my focus. I cannot slight the new acquisitions we are shepherding into publication, or our upcoming Young Adventurers anthology release, or the effort to secure keynote speakers and guest authors for next year’s Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con. So my novel may not get the flashy opening our other releases get.

Still I hold the thought every author holds less than a week from his book’s official birth. What else can I do? What last minute task have I overlooked or forgotten that could make a difference to the success of this novel?

Why Black Authors and Readers Rock

The event I attended this last weekend - The Black Authors & Writers Rock Weekend - was one of those reader-oriented parties I try to be part of every year. The concept is as simple as it is beautiful: bring a number of book club members together with several authors so that they can get to know one another. Sharon Lucas, the lady brave and ambitious enough to execute that concept has wisely broken it into two parts. On Friday evening she offers a cash bar and hor d’oeuvres to the roomful of avid readers and has the authors present in a fairly formal way. This year I was lucky enough to be on a panel, “Men of Literature” with five other successful writers who are book club favorites:  Dwayne Alexander Smith, EarlSewell, Brian W. Smith, RM Johnson, and Curtis Bunn. Their work deserves your attention.

Then Saturday 40 or so authors gathered for an all-day book fair, during which attendees enjoyed panels in other rooms. With lunch we got a nice keynote address from Dwayne Alexander Smith, author of 40 ACRES. It turned out to be a great place to introduce my newest novel, and I signed quite a few for the roomful of appreciative avid readers.

Everything I’ve said above would be great for any kind of reader oriented literary con. But why do we need a BLACK authors and readers weekend? When you pick up a mystery or romance novel do you really care what the author looks like? Well, we can debate whether or not anyone should, but the truth is, some people do. Some readers prefer to read books by people who are part of their own culture. This event had attendees from at least eight book clubs, all of whom were African American women. The clubs were as much social groups as literary groups and much of their reading is about Black culture in the 21^st century.

It is also true that some authors don’t want to speak to a general audience. Personally, I think this is a mistake that limits an author’s progress, but some of the writers at this event have proven that targeting an audience and giving them what they want is one path to a certain level of success.

Another truth: books aimed at the African American reader rarely get the display space and attention in bookstores that others get. Worse yet, all such books are often lumped together and displayed with “street lit.” Trust me, none of the authors at last weekend’s event were writing about thugs, drug dealers or hookers.

So to an extent it is a vicious circle. Authors who don’t expect fair treatment in bookstores rely on these book clubs to get the word out about their work, and the word-of-mouth support of these book clubs really can make an author a success.

So I will continue to attend Bouchercon and Thrillerfest, but I will also make sure I get to the Black Authors and Readers Rock weekend. Because it lets me reach an important audience who are not represented at the mainstream Cons. 

Bouchercon Afterthoughts

Bouchercon isn’t just a mystery fan conference. It’s an experience like no other. It absorbs two large hotels. Programming fills four days. And with 1500 attendees it can give you Disney World flashbacks when you’re lined up for a popular panel or to get a book signed.

Many writers’ Cons are designed for writers to learn and network. At Bouchercon fans outnumber writers 4 to 1. Of course, most of us writers are fans too. I still can’t get used to having Heather Graham, John Gilstrap and Alifair Burke call me by name.  I still get a little tongue-tied when I get to chat with Karen Slaughter, Kathy Reichs and Alexandra Sokoloff. Those are the best moments of the event.

The hour-long panels can overwhelm you, not so much because of the content but because there are so many choices. Seven different panels at any one time and all sound so interesting.  How do you choose between “Just the facts: T

Police Procedural,” “The Private Sector: Professional Investigations” and “Crime Mystery and the Far East?”  (Actually I bypassed them all to see a panel called “Beyond Hammett, Chandler, MacDonald & Spillane” which featured my pal Peter Rozovsky, plus Kevin Burton Smith and Laura Lippman.)

And then there were the awards. The Anthony Award is voted on by the Bouchercon attendees and most of the nominees attend. It’s fun to see who’s book is the most popular in 5 different categories. This year was a special kick as my friend Art Taylor won for best short story.

Of course, some of the best moments of the Con take place in the bar after the panels and ceremonies are over. The hotel bar was way too noisy but they did have some interesting specials. I had something called The Red Death and I have no idea what was in it but it sure did the trick. Blood Spatter was less sweet but I swear it had even more alcohol.

Meanwhile I, and the other 2 principals of Intrigue Publishing, were hunting keynote speakers and guests for next year’s Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Con. Networking galore took place, and I’ll let you know how successful we were in a later blog.

So? What were YOUR most memorable moments at Bouchercon? 

Life Between the Cons

The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity (C3) Con is over but that doesn't mean the work is over. In the military we called the next step a hot wash. It's that meeting where you go over everything you did during an operation, critique your actions and the results, and make decisions about what you could do better next time. Which panels were hits and which were misses? How should those panels run? (It's clear now that panels do need moderators.) What started too soon, or ran too late? Were the name tags the right size? How was the food? There are so many details involved in making a 3-day Con happen.

Once the decision was made to do it again next year, we had to confirm a venue, and dates. We're on the hunt for keynote speakers and local guests. We have panels to choose and a menu to put together. Not to mention all the work involved in turning last year's web site into this year's web site. We even decided to set up a Facebook page to make it easier for people to give us suggestions and keep up with Con happenings thru the year.

This year there are only ten days between the Con Intrigue Publishing puts on and one that we all attend - Bouchercon. That involves preperation too. Thursday through Sunday we'll be fishing for C3 keynote speakers and attendees among the 1,000 authors, fans, publishers, reviewers, booksellers and editors who will be in Raleigh NC for that 4-day event. We must go over the schedule to figure out which panels we'll get the most out of (7 at a time over 4 day!) Plus I'm on a panel Friday. It's called "Research: Alcohol, Drugs, Weapons & the Psychology of the Insane." As you might guess, that calls for a little research itself, so more prep.

Plus, I'm promoting my novel that willt be released next month, Intrigue's anthology that will be released in December, rewriting my next novel, and there's the usual day-to-day business of running a publishing company.

So it's a very full life in between the two Cons. But I'm not complaining. It's like the working space between two great vacations!   

One Week Before the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con

For me, publishing and even writing take a back seat for the next week while we gear up to present The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con is a great chance to spend a weekend with fans and authors of mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal fiction. For some of us, that’s enough to prompt us to attend, but for you others I’ll count down a dozen more good reasons.
the Mid-Atlantic's coolest literary event of the year.

Reason #1 to register for the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity con today: HEATHER GRAHAM! The ITW’s 2016 Thrillmaster and author of more than 150 novels and novellas gives the keynote address at Saturday dinner.  Later she’ll also give a discussion later, explaining how she has managed to balance real life with her wildly successful writing career.

 

Reason #2 to register for the C3 Con: F. PAUL WILSON will give Friday night’s keynote talk. This NY Times bestseller and creator of the Repairman Jack series has written horror, thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, Young Adult stories and a few works that defy categorization. In a class at the C3 Con he’ll shares how he is able to shift genre, what he has to do differently, and how he decides what he’s writing next.

Reason #3 to register: ANDY STRAKA: Six books into his Frank Pavlicek series, he continues to present a Private Eye who is at once traditional and totally unique. I’ll interview him at Saturday lunch and in a separate class he’ll explain the ins-and-outs of writing detective fiction, and how he decides when to stick with the conventions of his sub-genre and when to throw them out the window.

Reason #4: S.D. SKYE: a former Intelligence Operations Specialist/Analyst in the FBI's counterintelligence program, senior intelligence analyst with the DIA, Coast Guard Intelligence, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She’ll be interviewed at Sunday breakfast, then she’ll give a class telling fellow authors how to write realistically about intelligence and law enforcement – and telling readers how to spot when a writer is just making it up.

Reason #5: John French (crime scene supervisor with the Baltimore Police Department Crime Laboratory) and Dana Kollmann (C.S.I. for the Baltimore County Police Department) will give a team presentation on their expertise and take questions... no matter how weird.

Reason #6: Enjoy 28 panels and presentations of interest to readers, fans and writers.

Reason #7: One lucky attendee will win a new Kindle Fire in our Twitter contest for the most tweets using our hashtag #MdC3Con.

Reason #8: The registration fee includes five meals: Friday’s dinner, 3 meals Saturday and Sunday breakfast. Readers and writers dine side-by-side! (ask those questions you’ve always wanted to ask!)

Reason #9: Every attendee receives a goody bag that contains, among other cool stuff, a copy of this year’s C3 Anthology, our annual collectors’ item collection of short stories contributed by authors in attendance.

Reason #10: authors get to spend time with their fans, and to expose new readers to their writing by presenting on panels.

Reason #11: Registered authors’ books will be available in the on-site bookstore and there will be two giant book signings.

Reason :12: All attending authors are posted on the C3 web site and will be pictured in the C3 program

AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO REGISTER you can still meet all the authors and get signed novels at the Mid-Atlantic’s biggest book signings. The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con hosts two book signing events – both free and open to the public. Get novels signed by Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, and 30+ other authors. Grow your collection of mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal fiction with signed copies. That’s Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 6pm

It all happens at the Hunt Valley Inn, 245 Shawan Rd, Hunt Valley, MD. Want more details? They’re all on the C3 website – http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

Loss of a Legend

The literary world lost more than a great creative mind when Warren Murphy left this world Friday morning. You can read his bio elsewhere, and learn of his exciting life as a journalist, journeyman writer, creator of iconic characters and effectively the originator of a whole fictional subgenre that served as a bridge between pulp magazine stories and today’s thrillers. For me the loss is far more personal. For me, Warren Murphy was a friend, a mentor, briefly a co-writer, and one of the finest gentlemen I’ve had the privilege to know.

I first met Warren at Book Expo America in 2002. I was there with my first novel, Blood and Bone published with a fledgling Print-On-Demand company. I recognized the creator of The Destroyer series I had loved in college. He didn’t just stop and say hello. He posed for a photo with me and accepted a copy of my novel. Of course he said he’d read it, and of course since I didn’t really know him yet I was skeptical. You can’t imagine my joy when I received a blurb form him!

      "Blood and Bone is a hair-raising roller coaster ride of a story, and Hannibal Jones bursts into the        world of the fictional private eye like a pack of high explosives. I can't wait to see him in action          again." - 

        Warren Murphy, two-time Edgar award winner and creator of The Destroyer adventure series.

That year I was elected president of the Maryland Writers Association and was eager to hold a spectacular writers conference. I was a little nervous asking Warren if he’d come talk to an auditorium full of aspiring writers but he was very gracious and not only accepted my invitation, but gave one of the most inspiring keynote addresses I’ve ever heard, before or since.

As we drove him back to his hotel, Warren hit me with this idea he had… a detective agency staffed with quirky characters that all looked just a bit like Warren’s own non-Destroyer collection of characters, all dedicated to helping police in trouble. This agency would be driven by the events of 9/11 and the title he had in mind was Beyond Blue. I was naturally stunned when the great man proposed that we write this book together.

My next great memory of Warren was the Love is Murder conference in Chicago the following year. Imagine sitting at a bar with my wife, telling people I was writing a book with Warren Murphy. And I  kept one photo with him there. I'm standing with a veritable pantheon of thriller gods: David Morrell, Warren, Barry Eisler and William Kent Kruger.

More importantly: We all sat at an art auction that was part of the con. A particular painting caught our eyes, but we were in no position at that time to participate.  Days later

that painting arrived at our home with a card calling it a gift to “the bride,” which was what Warren always called my wife. More than a decade later, that painting still hangs in our dining room, an enduring reminder of this kind, witty, talented gentleman who passed thru our lives.

Of course much has happened since then. Warren battled ill health and turned the Beyond Blue project over to me to complete. He returned to writing when he could. He never stopped dreaming or spinning his dreams into adventures we could all share.

It is easy for me to imagine him up in the clouds chatting with his predecessors and peers. That poker table would surely include Alexandre Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne. They might let Ian Fleming sit in.

We are poorer for his passing, but I can say that my life was greatly enriched for having known him.

The First Hannibal Jones Interview

On the run up to the release of the next Hannibal Jones mystery I thought new readers might appreciate a chance to get to know the detective a bit better. So I'm posting here the first time Hannibal agreed to be interviewed by a reporter. He introduces that interview in his own words:

I don’t generally like being in the spotlight. I guess the Secret Service taught me it’s better to keep a low profile.

But I’m not with them anymore, and this reporter Irma Andrews helped me unravel a series of murders that caused a lot of collateral damage among the families of the victims. So when Irma asked for an interview I didn’t see how I could say no. Despite my girl Cindy’s prompting I refused to do a TV piece. Appearing in print is bad enough. At least Irma didn’t misquote me, but I think she left out some stuff that makes the whole thing a little misleading. Anyway, here’s the way the piece ran:
________________________________________________________________________________

I met with private investigator Hannibal Jones in his office in the Anacostia section of Washington. He offered me an excellent cup of coffee, which he said was made from Costa Rican beans, and sat at his desk with sunlight pouring in through large front windows. The office was small and Spartan, sparely furnished but warm and bright. Significantly, while I took notes during the interview, so did Mr. Jones.

Irma Andrews: Thank you for speaking with me today. You are listed as a private investigator but your card describes you as a troubleshooter. How would you describe what you do, and why is it different from what most P.I.’s do?

Hannibal Jones: Most private investigators do employment vetting, matrimonial and divorce work, insurance claims and that kind of stuff. My work is a lot more focused. My clientele is individuals, not corporations. I work with people who are in trouble and don’t know where to get help.

IA: But you do bodyguard work.

HJ: Sometimes.

IA: And solve mysteries like any detective.

HJ: On occasion.

IA: And if a person has been threatened?

HJ: Look, I do whatever’s necessary to help somebody who’s gotten themselves into a jam. I don’t think much about what that might be, going in.

IA: What qualifies you to do this sort of work? What is your professional background?

HJ: As soon as I was old enough I moved to the States and joined the New York City police force.

IA: You weren’t born in the United States?

HJ: No. I was raised in Germany. My dad was an MP in the army. My mom was a German national. We lost Dad in Vietnam. Anyway, I came to the U.S. to be a cop and I was going to bring Mama over as soon as I was settled but she passed.

IA: While you were away.

HJ: (pause.) Yes. While I was away.

IA: I’m sorry. So, you became a policeman…

HJ: Three years on the force to make detective J.G. Then three more as a detective. Then I passed the Secret Service entry exam. I spent seven years as a special agent for the Treasury Department, in the protective service.

IA: But after seven years, you resigned.

HJ: Yeah, well, stuff happened. I should have been one of the uniforms instead of going to the protective service. You see, in the protective service they expect you to not only protect your principal’s life, but his reputation too. I didn’t think my duty should included covering up a politician’s stupid actions. My boss disagreed.

IA: Any politician in particular?

HJ: Not going to go there.

IA: A national figure? Executive branch or…

HJ: I’m not going to go there.

IA: All right. So you had friction with your supervisor. For that you resigned?

HJ: Yeah. Well, after I knocked him on his ass the service was good enough to let me resign.

IA: Should I print that?

HJ: Why not. It’s what happened. They were actually pretty nice about it. Could have stopped me from getting the P.I license you know.

IA: So why this whole troubleshooter concept? How did you get into this business?

HJ: I guess in a way I did it for Mama. She always wanted me to follow my dad’s example. He was always there for people, always looking out for the little guy. Here in Washington, it seemed like there was an overabundance of little guys that needed looking out for.

IA: How do you get enough clients?

HJ: It was slow at first, but word of mouth is a powerful force in the hood. I did a couple of jobs pro bono - kept a couple of kids from being approached by drug dealers. After that people started to find me when they had problems.

IA: So your neighbors are your clients?

HJ: My clients are people with problems bigger than they are. Naturally that happens more often to people without big money.

IA: I know you’ve also had more affluent clients.

HJ: Well, I do get referrals from old Secret Service contacts. And I get business referred to me by the attorney I introduced you to, Cindy Santiago, my, um, friend.

IA: So you do have entrees into a higher financial stratum, but the well-to-do don’t come to Anacostia. Why have your office here?

HJ: That’s a bit of a story. This building used to be a crack house, believe it or not. I was hired to clear the bad element out of here for the owner. In the process I kind of bonded with the neighborhood. I felt at home here, and I knew if I stayed, the bad element wouldn’t be back. I guess the owner knew it too. He made me a very attractive offer to stay.

IA: Why not join a larger detective agency?

HJ: I like deciding who I’ll take as a client, and what kind of job I’ll do.

IA: What kind of job will you do?

HJ: All kinds. Well, no matrimonial stuff, or spying on people waiting for them to do wrong. But I do personal protection, missing persons, sometimes get hired to prove an accused person innocent. I’ll chase a bad element away like I did here, keep drug dealers away from kids or a pimp away from a hooker who wants to quit. Negotiate with loan sharks. Basically, if you have to deal with the bad guys and don’t want the police involved, I’ll usually handle it.

IA: You carry a pistol. What do you think of gun control laws?

HJ: Good gun control means being able to hit the target. Anybody who wants a gun can get one, so restrictive laws only keep people who obey the law unarmed and unable to defend themselves.

IA: But isn’t it too dangerous for everyone to be able to have a gun?

HJ: Based on statistics, it’s too dangerous for everyone to be able to have a car. Maybe guns should be more like cars. You get a license to carry at 18, after passing a mandatory training course.

IA: Interesting. How would you describe your relationship with the police?

HJ: I’d call it mutual grudging respect. I don’t mess with them. They don’t mess with me.

IA: How would you describe your personal relationship with Cindy Santiago?

HJ: I would describe it as personal.

IA: What have you learned doing this?

HJ: I’ve learned that most people are sheep. They’re not looking for trouble and they’ll do the right thing if you let them. A few people are wolves. They prey on the sheep, and they’re going to do wrong no matter what you do. They need to be shut out or put down hard.

IA: And you? Where do you fit in?

HJ: Me? I guess I’m the sheepdog.