#360: Poisoned Ground.  I just reviewed Sandra Parshall’s new Rachel Goddard mystery for Book Pleasures.  If you missed it, you can also look in the section “Book Reviews” of this blog.  It’s an entertaining read for all mystery fans.  Ms. Parshall is a cut above Mary Higgins Clark and Carla Neggers, those Big Five superstars; she doesn’t receive enough recognition.  But there are many authors like that who have written very good books but are unsung.  I try to do my part by pointing them out to readers.

#361: Vengeance is Mine.  I also just reviewed Harry James Kreb’s mystery on Amazon (I’ll repost this review next week here).  Unlike Sandra, Harry is an up and coming mystery writer who is a bit of Robert B. Parker, Jeffery Deaver, and James Patterson all rolled into one.  Read my review and check out the book.  Looks like this is mystery week at “News and Notices”—I’m working on finishing and content editing of The Collector, a new Chen and Castilblanco mystery that I hope to release this year.

#362: Writer’s Digest.  I’m trying to digest the latest May/June number and having problems.  There’s no meat on the bones!  It’s dedicated to writing for kids and teens and to writing funny.  You’re better off visiting and reading material at online sites (and you don’t need WD to find them) for the former and tired, old Dave Barry is no longer funny (now Hiaasen, another Florida comedic author, he’s funny!).  Again, Elizabeth Sims’ article, “Finding the Funny in Fiction,” might be worth a read, if only for the terms, but if you don’t know this much, why the hell are you trying to write comedy (of course, that’s comical in itself)?

Don’t get me wrong.  I think writing comedy is difficult.  I try to be amusing in my writing, especially through Detective Castilblanco, the cynical, acerbic, and wise-cracking protagonist in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” but that’s never my main goal.  It was amusing to me that a cat outsmarted the bad guys in The Secret Lab, but that’s more self-indulgence—I like cats.  Maybe someday I’ll write a comedy-mystery or comedy-thriller, but I won’t go to WD to learn how to do it—I’ll study authors who already do it well.  You should too.

#363: Freebies.  Speaking of Detective Castilblanco, you can still get a free copy of my new novel Aristocrats and Assassins even though I don’t do KDP Select free ebook promos anymore.  I will send you a complimentary copy in return for an honest review.  Act now because my reviewing budget is limited.  Or, you can just buy the damn book—I could have bought two of them for what I paid for coffee last Sunday after a walk in the park (finally, a nice day after this crappy winter).  Damned if I’ll give you a free coffee and damned if I give you a free book either—unless you write a review.  (It seems people’s priorities are all askew!)

#364: Soldiers of God.  My three series are all part of one big timeline.  Never mind how insane I have to be in order to keep this all straight (especially because the books weren’t written in any particular order—I don’t think linearly).  The one missing ebook link in this chain is Soldiers of God.  I’m putting finishing touches on its ebook second edition, completely rewritten for your enjoyment.  It links the two sci-fi trilogies, namely the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” to the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”  Coming soon!

#365: Books on my reading list.  It’s faster to mention them here than try to visit Goodreads—wading through their user-unfriendly website is a bit like pulling teeth without novocaine (I’m avoiding the trade name)—Marathon Man, anyone?  I found two new books I want to read, both non-fiction.  The first is the Rumsfeld memoir with the oxymoronic title The Unknown Known.  Fortunately, Rumsfeld didn’t write it, and the title is appropriate, because Rumsfeld is living proof that military intelligence is an oxymoron.  (And oxymoron isn’t Elmer Fudd on Percocet, in case you wonder.)

The second is Flash Boys, the story of how Wall Street electronic traders used fast computers and short fiber optics lines to scam other big traders, including Fidelity and Vanguard.  Of course, the last means that they scammed the 401(k)s containing many middle class citizens’ hard-earned retirement savings.  The legal system has a lot of catching up to do because this was a crime, pure and simple.  The fact that there’s no law against it doesn’t mean they should get away with it.  Our legal system is not based on Roman law where anything goes as long as it’s not prohibited (I’m speaking to the laws of the old Roman Empire that form the basis for the legal systems in Latin countries).  It’s ironic that we’re talking about signals going down fiber optic links at almost the speed of light (the packet structure slows things down) when the legal system moves like a turtle running uphill in molasses.

#366: Do you miss me, Kill Zone?  I used to comment on this blog, although I mostly lurked (I still lurk, but less frequently, because I’m pissed at them).  Unwittingly or otherwise (I believe the latter because I’m paranoid), the people that run this site [killzoneauthors.blogspot.com] have eliminated the ability to comment using your name and URL of your website in favor of delivering their soul to Google and other orgs that want to control everything on the internet (see my post last week about the internet—this fits in the ugly category of the good, the bad, and the ugly).  I simply refuse to play this game.

#367: ITW.  While I’m bitching about the Kill Zone (it’s a site listed in WD’s list of 101 best websites for writers, by the way, now open to only some writers, of course), I might as well bitch about sites like the one belonging to the International Thriller Writers.  The latter, of course, bows to Big Five favorites like James Patterson (that guy in the TV ads who calls you “dahling”), authors who have made millions for the big NYC publishers (they would have made more as indie writers, but what are a few millions among sycophants?).  Let’s face it, these are like country clubs where only the one-percenters are allowed.  Sure, they create their two-tier caste system, allowing anyone to join, but you’re only a voting member if you’ve made money for the Big Five.  Moreover, the voting members have no intention of supporting newbie authors, us riff-raff devils who might have fresh ideas and compete with the monopoly of the book markets and the dying big-barn bookstores.

I know this is non-productive whining, but these old boys’ clubs shouldn’t receive anyone’s support, and, a fortiori, they won’t receive mine.  And here’s fair warning to all the Pattersons, Baldaccis, and other Big Five authors out there: I won’t buy any ebook of yours if it’s more than $10, especially if it’s just another regurgitation of your old and tired plot ideas with a different title.  I haven’t bought Patterson in years (well-meaning but naïve relatives have given me some of his drivel—whether I read it or not, the book gets donated to book sales so as not to clutter up my bookcase with irrelevant crap).  I prefer to buy, read, and/or review two or three ebooks from authors with new and fresh ideas (see Parshall and Krebs above), not old and tired ones.  ‘Nough said.

#368: Joe Konrath.  Before continuing with my acid reflux, let me say this old boy has a positive rep for sticking his finger in the eyes of the Big Five, but recently I’ve decided that he just looks out for old Joe.  Some time ago, I heard about his library initiative and applauded it in this newsletter (visit his website—I won’t give the link here, though).  Libraries get the shaft from the Big Five and are struggling with the new digital publishing paradigm.  In particular, I’ve discovered no way to donate ebooks to them.  It seems, though, that Joe’s initiative is more for Joe (and maybe friend Barry Eisler), because there’s no way I can see for other indie authors to participate in his library program.  In particular, I had no response from Joe’s lackey who runs it.  Tell me it ain’t so, Joe.

In libris libertas….      

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2014 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.