Bad to the Bone, So Bad, a Devil Wants Him

Clive Barker's Harry D'Amour is the classic bad guy with a heart of gold, so bad his actions, though logical, isolate him from most of his associates.

Yeah, not all heros are played up as good guys. Clive Barker came to the top of the gotta read list when I searched for something different to read, and I ended up grabbing The Scarlett Gospels. Wanted to get out of my comfort zone since it felt like I was reading the same authors over and over again. Well, The Scarlet Gospels was different, but not that much since R. S. Belcher has join my "'panwriterdom" of writers I buy without even looking at the book blurb. 

Lots of good stuff going on in The Scarlet Gospels, something you'd expect from a writer this prominent with so many books in his portfolio. Thought the characterization a little weak, but there was just enough sympathy/curiousity to keep me at least skimming through the pages. Norma, the character who sees ghosts, kept pulling me through the more cliched parts, a bad thing for a thriller, when you start getting the feeling been there, seen that. Harry D'Amour, indeed, is seedy beyond the max, but he never quite jelled for me like Jack Reacher does.

Found the trip into Hell interesting in light of my own demons, but thought the description rather bland. Liked the political turmoil of the plot line a lot though.

Worse point. I skimmed way too much of the book. Even was beginning to wonder if I was getting too sleepy to early, feeling older than I felt before I started reading the book.

Take a look at a sample and other reviews for yourself on

Amazon       Nook        kobo

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Other Interesting Reading

The "By the Book" of the New York Times Book Review section gave me a memory-chuckle again this week. Anthony Boudain, a food writer, made a comment about cooking snobbery--one of his favorite food writers was never a snob about food, even though he wrote about French cuisine. Don't know about you, but I've always equated French cuisine with snobbery.

My mind skipped to the snobbery of literary writing circles towards genre writing circles. Like, wondering how often to you get put down because you read genre fiction? I know I drew all sorts of comments the one month I tried to work on my college's literary journal, even heard the words "genre hacks" more than a few times. Did think it was ironic that I was the only one in the group that had been published...as a freshman. 

That's definitely not important now. But I did chuckle again when I saw the ad for Anne Rice's new book Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra. No, I'm not going to say that Anne Rice is an literary writer. But I did get a chuckle from the copy saying it was a blend of "historical fiction, fantasy, and romance."

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Going back to the point of The Scarlett Gospels putting me to sleep. Got Laurell K. Hamilton's new book. Stayed up until 1AM reading, even though her editors didn't do a good job of using the cutting room floor. Which makes me wonder why Hamilton's books haven't been turned into "film". Plenty of streaming services on there distorting books ala Crossroads, Texas.

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My Writing Rut

Have decided marketing books is an addtiction. I look at the promo stats even though I'm not doing any promotions. [Yeah, sales stopped.] Which means I'm wasting lots of time not writing. Not that I'm worried. It's the cookie baking time a year around our house. I do Greek 
cookies and 
baklava for Christmas presents. No one in my family needs any more stuff and buy what they need when they need it.

Would be negligent, though, if I didn't plug my short stories, you can check them out by clicking here. Showdown at Crossings is a prequel to There Be Demons. It tells the tale of Granny Nan's death. Britt Kelly, the protagonist of There Be Demons, worrys Granny Nan's advice like a sore tooth as her world crashes around her ears.

You can also access my 99c and Free short ebook versions on kobo.

Getting to Know You -- Using Flashbacks to Develop Characters

Did you miss R. S. Belcher's debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, when it first came out? 

I know I did. I can't even remember seeing the striking cover in the new books sections of the two bookstores I frequent. Fortunately, the family lending library treated me to the read. Guess New York City stores get to sample more books than the boonies where I live. Not only did the book keep me reading past my bedtime, but it snuck up on me with a lovely, believable steampunk subplot.

The Six-Gun Tarot takes place in Golgotha, Nevada on the other side of the 40 mile Desert from Reno/Virginia City. Belcher gives us one of the most ethnically mixed populations I've encountered in my reading and integrates the various belief systems into a complicated, occult fabric that's one of the most original takes on the western fantasy arcana I've seen. Yeah. The Tarot plays a big part in it.

Belcher develops his characters with extensive flashbacks which almost stand as novellas. Each of the main characters having some occult power or other ... even the supposedly Christian ones ... was just frosting on the read. Through the flashbacks, the reader learns about the acute danger the town faces.

Of course, the wounded hero and his pals must save the sheep like citizens. Sound like the cliches runneth over? Don't believe it. All the characters have odd-ball pains and strengths that will save the people of Golgatha ... if they can only arrive at the pit in time.

So recommended, I've been lending or suggesting the book to all my writer friends, even the ones that don't read fantasy. See excerpt and reviews at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Interesting Links

To Blog or Not to Blog. Rachelle Gardner recently posted some interesting comments about effective social media and writers. It all boils down to what you are passionate about. Makes me wonders why I'm blogging. Is it just a marketing myth? You can read it by clicking here. Care to comment on what you think? 

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My Writing Rut

Guess I'm back. Just ran out of steam over the winter doldrums. Medical issues didn't help. Besides I was/am tired of doing book reviews. Reminded me too much of English classes, I guess.

I'm in the process of revising my whole media presence. keeping Facebook ... because I interact with people I know there as well as having an author page, where it's easy to interact to comments -- when they happen. Yeah, I'm a pipsqueak, but the only media that turned out humanish was Facebook, in spite of all the manipulations.

May continue on Twitter, too, where I have two accounts: a "personal" one and a promotion one. Chances are you're reading this by responding to a tweet.

Oh, yeah. The writing. May have been scarce on social media, but I've been writing. I've finished the draft of On the Run. The 50 page novella turned into a 280 page draft with an entirely different protagonist than the one I started out with. Guess there won't be a sequel to Noticing Jamilla. The short story did give me a better idea of my demons than the outlined world I used in Night for the Gargoyles and There Be Demons, but I guess Cassy Mae will remain a singleton quick read.

Now I'm incorporating all the addenda into the draft so I can get On the Run to my beta readers. Then, I get to go back to edit There Be Demons because the world is more complicated than it was before.

Ka Pow! Time to Get Some Thrilling Comic Book Action

    Picked up William C. Dietz's Redzone: The Mutant Files off the to-read pile and rocketed off to the days of yester-year when my reading was confined to comic books -- because my teachers had convinced me I couldn't read.  Don't know why the book was there. It's not the kind of book I usually read. But, if you want a thriller filled with action, the book won't disappoint.

   Redzone isn't just another dystopian novel, set after a bioterrorist killed off most of humanity and turned a sizable portion of the survivors into despised mutants. Political boundaries have realigned with Pacifica, along the west coast of the US, for normal people. Nevada-Utah-Arizona has become a land controlled by mutants. Casandra Lee, a detective with the Los Angeles police, travels into the redzone where mutants are in control to seek her missing mother. That the story does this in the middle of a serial murder investigation feels weird, but Lee lands in an assassins sights, which ups the action. Thrills are the goal here, not logic, I guess.

   Casandra Lee isn't the usual dysfunctional detective with a drinking problem. She tends to kill suspects at a faster rate than normal, but then, she is attacked more often than most cops. Lee's the target of two would-be assassins, the group of mutants, who follow her back to LA from Nevada, and the Bonebreaker, the serial cop killer the department had mobilized to capture. Yeah, for the record, Lee will be is next victim, but that villain doesn't seem to be in any hurry.

   Character development isn't the strongest point in action thrillers. Yet most of Dieitz's characters come across as people rather than space-fillers. Lee is a sassy, kick-ass, intelligent protagonist with a temper that gets her into trouble as often as not. Sounds like a cliche, but I didn't think so while I was reading. The support characters were believable, too, if standard, including a love interest.

   The medical basis of the plague that created the mutants bothered me a bit. Didn't feel like Dietz incorporated medical knowledge about airborne diseases in his characters' interactions with the wider, might-be-carrying public. Hints were made, but nothing was consistent...or meaningful. Since his world resulted from a virulent contagion that changed genetic material, I felt in need of a bit more explanation. But since I didn't really think about it until after I completed the book, no points off. 

  The book met my "one more chapter" test so I'll recommend it even though the plot line is a little fractured. Dietz creates a believable dystopian world as well as an investigative cop procedural, at least for someone relatively unknowledgeable about police procedures -- like me.

Read excerpt and more reviews at Amazon and B&N Nook.

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Interesting Links

   Found this article at the Savvy Book Writers blog -- Nothing New in e-Book Price Wars -- very interesting. You might want to take a look at it, reader or writer.

   Accepting the dangerous reputation of the Fair Folk from folklore, I have never been a particular fan of Tinker Bell. Imagine my delight when I found Sylvia Spruck Wrigley's blog on Five Reasons Not To Piss Off the Fair Folk. By the end of the blog, I was thinking what a wonderfully funny novel this premise would make. -- No. I won't be writing it. Not only do I have too much in my files already, but I don't write funny.

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My Writing Rut

   The first demon attack in On the Run is finished and ready for revision...sometime, when I get an
ending onto the book. But the "Nate" chapters that started my novella back last spring are ready to be worked on. Have about 7,000 words and a couple empty chapters.

Am wondering why this would ever be a novella.

   Spent a lot of time this week organizing my writing files for On the Run and pulled out a page full of suggestions for my transition chapter for when Pillar is kicked out of the Academy. Yeah, she's going to be on the roam again, but gotta make it different this time around. Grylerrque is still waiting in the wings too.

   Now, I need to clean up debris ... or should I say, I'm placing ideas from the pile of sticky notes around my computer in the appropriate chapters. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll start the transition chapter to the next and last part of the book.

   Then, I need to pay some attention to my website again. Which means I have to get on the phone with Go Daddy. Ugh.

The Challenge of Writing: Solving Craft Problems by Wolf Schimanski

Today my guest blogger is Wolf Schimanski, thriller writer and author of Meter of Deception and Meter of Corruption.

The Challenge of Writing:

Solving Craft Problems

     My Worst Writing Fear? Interesting question. I love to write and have my ideas come to life in print. I struggle with bad habits such as lengthy paragraphs and sentences, whether my chapters are too long or two short and if my I’s are dotted and t’s are crossed like I suspect most writers do. I have learned a lot from the experience of writing my first book and tried my best not to make the same mistakes again. It’s an evolving process; if you want to get proficient in something you have to practice, practice and practice some more and that is what I am attempting to do.

            Another thing that frustrates me massively is the expectation of perfection that some readers seem to have. What impresses them is perfect punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure and everything else that comes with it. I have read literally hundreds of novels by the best authors on this planet and still see mistakes even with the professional editing staff they have at their disposal. But I am looking for an exciting story that makes my heart race and keeps me up at night turning the pages. A mysterious, intriguing and captivating story with a killer plot, great pro and antagonists and that excitement of not knowing what is on the next page until I turn it, is what I strive most of all for.  

            Writing is the magic to paint a scene from words to the big screen of imagination and the best writers have learned the formula for doing it consistently over and over and over again. That is why they are the best. And what else am I doing to get to that level? Read, read and read some more and write, write and write even more. I am one dimensional in the sense I only have created lengthy action/thrillers to this point as that is where my passion lies. Writing smaller pieces such as this is certainly a welcome way to hone my craft.

            One of the things on my bucket list besides finishing my third novel is to set up and dedicate some time to a blog weekly as it will commit me to write consistently as currently I write in spurts. One chapter and then I may not write again for a week. But I am working on that and have settled down to a more regular pattern. I am also in the process of joining a local writers society in my town as I am learning is that I can’t do it alone and need input and help from others who are more knowledgeable and experienced  than I am.

            These are some of my writing issues and how I am attempting to deal with them. The beauty of writing is that the sky is the limit but you need to get off the ground first to get there.

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Author Bio:

Wolf Schimanski

     Wolf Schimanski is a man of many interests and talents. He has trained in martial arts, enjoys a variety of sports and is an accomplished guitarist and musician. Professionally Schimanski worked many years in the information technology, management and financial planning industries.

            An avid reader turned breakthrough author, Schimanski brings his own unique spin to the action/thriller genre and thus far has released two exceptionally gripping, fast paced works of fiction---Meter of Deception and Meter of Corruption.              

           Schimanski lives with his wife Terri and divides his time between their lakeside home in Mount Forest, Ontario in the summer and their winter residence in London Ontario, Canada.  He is currently working on his third novel, the final installment in the Meter trilogy. 

          So how let me tell you a little about how “Meter of Corruption” came to be. I have been an avid reader of Action/Thrillers all my life and one day asked myself what type of story would I like to read?

The old washed out alcoholic detective theme stumbling along in a serial killers tracks had been done to death in so many ways, I really wanted to breathe some fresh life into the genre.  Take  4 friends,  furious action, a relentless pace, an evil and ruthless villain, some humorous and sexy diversions and an ending no one will see coming!

You can purchase Meter of Corruption at Amazon and B&N Nook.                                                                                       

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 Blurb:

METER OF CORRUPTION 

    

                                                                                   

  Jon-Erik, Joey, Angel, and Tina have been through some severe tough times together, and they’ve made it through to the other side. But just as things are fina

lly calming down and starting to go smoothly for them, chaos reenters their lives, and it threatens to destroy everything they hold dear.

This highly anticipated sequel to author Wolf Schimanski’s debut novel Meter of Deception finds the fearless foursome comfortably settled into a domestic paradise. Jon-Erik and Angel as well as Joey and Tina have settled down and are engaged to be married, and the men are working together as partners in Joey’s family furniture business.

  But corporate shark Richard Rasmussin has his sights set on their business, and he’s determined to swallow it whole. A ruthless, underhanded, crooked man, he’ll stop at nothing until he takes hold of the business, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that no one interferes with his larger, wide-sweeping wicked schemes.

  Can these four friends muster up the courage and skill to survive Rasmussin’s attacks? Or will they fall victim to corruption, depravity, and danger that is unprecedented even for them?

  The second installment in the Meter trilogy, Meter of Corruption, follows the protagonists as they battle to protect their lives and livelihoods from the sinister web that threatens to suffocate them. Full of non-stop action, unexpected plot twists, and spine-tingling revelations, this page-turner spans wayward and exotic locations, such as Jamaica and Russia, and delves into an underworld so dark and diabolical it’ll leave you at a loss for words.