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A Taste of Things to Come – A Teaser for My Next Novel, ‘Mystery White Boy’

I had a great opportunity on Sunday to read an excerpt of my work in progress, Mystery White Boy, at a four-author event at Kennett Brewing Company in Kennett Square, Pa.

At first, I was a little unsure what I was going to read. But after some soul-searching and review of the MWB manuscript (as it stands so far), I figured reading from it would go over much better with the folks who would be paying to hear “thriller” writers talk about what they do. Continue reading → A Taste of Things to Come – A Teaser for My Next Novel, ‘Mystery White Boy’

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Funky Friday: Sonny Knight and the Lakers Make New Sound Old

I’ve often joked that if I managed to make it to Heaven, I’d want my own horn section whose job would be to follow me around and punctuate my conversation with James Brown-style R&B call-and-response awesomeness.

More realistically, I’m constantly on the lookout for new bands that reach back to that classic soul sound and drag it (sometimes kicking and screaming) into the 21st century. Some bands try, succeed a little, then peter out (I’m looking at you, Red Hot Chili Peppers), while others, like Sonny Knight and the Lakers, do right by the Godfather of Soul. Continue reading → Funky Friday: Sonny Knight and the Lakers Make New Sound Old

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Zoinks! A Big Announcement

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“Daphne” by Dandon Fuga

 

I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but I’ve decided to forgo any additional work on my second novel and leave Codorus Press.

I appreciate that many of you enjoyed “Immaculate Deception” when it came out back in 2010, but the truth is that on the side sense then I’ve been earning an additional living as a closeted writer of erotic Scooby Doo fan fiction. Continue reading → Zoinks! A Big Announcement

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NoNoNoNo: The Tyranny of #NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

We’ve now officially passed the middle of what all writers (and exasperated spouses/family of writers) know as National Novel Writing Month. And I have come not to praise this obnoxious exercise in virtual participatory nonsense, but to kill it, burn it, gather the ashes in a bucket and bury them. In a deep, deep hole.

But what is NaNoWriMo, as it is so frequently described and hashtagged by those writers the rest of us just want to punch in the throat? It is a challenge, issued to writers annually by NaNoWriMo.org, to pound out 50,000 words of a novel during November. Continue reading → NoNoNoNo: The Tyranny of #NaNoWriMo

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Novel No. 2’s Soundtrack Takes Shape

tapecollection

Call me an overachiever.

It’s not enough for me to just imagine characters and settings and plot and all the tasty ingredients that typically go into a novel. No, I’ve got to go the extra mile and imagine what those characters are listening to, what music might be playing the background of a given scene and what songs would accompany the film version of the story that I spend years imagining in my head.

And yes, I do it all for you, my beloved readers.

OK, not really. The fact is, I can’t help it. I’m an annoying hipster’s worth of musical knowledge packed into the body of a middle-aged prepster. The combination of the words and the music is just there, and there’s really not much I can do about it. Continue reading → Novel No. 2’s Soundtrack Takes Shape

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Tuesday Writing Tip: Every Generation Has Something to Say

I’m a child of the late 1960s, which – if you do the math of generational pigeonholing – puts me squarely among what has historically been referred to as Generation X. Because we can with some clarity recall live in the final 30 years of the 1900s, we are the last of the true 20th century boys and girls.

The Generation X moniker comes in large part from the novel/short story collection Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland, and has since been used as both a term of derision/proud banner by those who view this demographic from the outside and those who belong to it. Continue reading → Tuesday Writing Tip: Every Generation Has Something to Say

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Wednesday Writing Tip: The Best Genre is the Genre Mashup

This video, brought to us by the fine – and brilliant – folks at Postmodern Jukebox – is a stunning example of what I like to call a genre mashup.

Assuming you have any perspective on 20th century music and 21st century TV, it’ll be easy for you to get most of the references above. For those who need an education, here’s a brief breakdown. Continue reading → Wednesday Writing Tip: The Best Genre is the Genre Mashup