MY MEMOIR ADRENALINE JUNKIE IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Hi folks,

The day I've been waiting for is here! My memoir, ADRENALINE JUNKIE, launches today! Available on Amazon and other venues. Hope you'll give it a read and if you like it, please consider leaving a short review on Amazon--those mean a lot!

Here's the announcement by my publisher, Down & Out Books:

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New from Down & Out Books: Adrenaline Junkie: A Memoir by Les Edgerton

Lance Wright Uncategorized November 19, 2018  0 Comment

New from Down & Out Books …

ADRENALINE JUNKIE: A MEMOIR by Les Edgerton
Publication Date: November 19, 2018

Buy the trade paperback from the Down & Out Bookstore and receive a FREE digital download of the book!

Also available from the following retailers …
Print: Amazon — Amazon UK — Barnes & Noble — IndieBound
eBook: Kindle — Kindle UK — Nook — iTunes — Kobo — Play

Synopsis … Adrenaline Junkie is more than a renowned, multi-award-winning author entertaining with his life history. Les Edgerton understands that backstory matters. It influences the present. So he journeyed through his past seeking answers for why he was the way he was. Seeking answers for his thrill-seeking, devil-may-care, often self-destructive, behaviors. Seeking a sense of personal peace.

Why was he compelled to be the best he could be in all his endeavors—legal or otherwise. What drove him to excel, then flee success, only to strive for supremacy in another field?

Adrenaline Junkie holds the answers. With nothing held back. With his life-saving humor, an indomitable spirit, and a fierce courage to expose the ugly and painful. Like the tough, raw, vulnerable characters Les writes about in his short stories and novels, he exposes us to a man fighting against family, society, and his own sense of injustice. Fighting for a moment—regardless of how fleeting—to feel in control of his life. And, as uncomfortable at times as Les’s life adventure may be for us to witness, we come away grateful he took us with him.

So settle back. Meet a real-life, twenty-first-century Renaissance man. A real-life adrenaline junkie.

Praise for ADRENALINE JUNKIE:

“Adrenaline Junkie is a raw and harrowing memoir that brilliantly combines great sensitivity with brutal honesty. Les Edgerton is never afraid to reveal his vulnerability—and culpability—as he takes us on a head-spinning ride through the bizarre and terrifying experiences in a life that was often defined by violence. The result is a breathtaking page-turner that will keep readers hooked from page one and will never let them go.” —Lisa Lieberman Doctor, former Warner Bros. prodco president, president of Robin Williams prodco, Blue Wolf Productions

“Filled with stories of knifings, armed robberies, brutal prison fights, and Charles Manson (yes, that Charles Manson!), Edgerton proves that life can be stranger (and certainly more violent) than fiction. But Edgerton isn’t just a guy with a tough story to tell. He’s a poet who startles you with sentences both stark and darkly beautiful. An astonishing accomplishment.” —Jon Bassoff, author of Corrosion

“Adrenaline Junkie is the compelling, beautifully written story of an extraordinary man who has lived on both sides of the tracks. Les Edgerton achieves a sort of sainthood among sinners, an apotheosis of rebellion and force, much like Harcamone at Fontevrault, or a hero in a Johnny Cash song, a huge, Promethean work of major significance and scale.” —Richard Godwin, critically acclaimed author

“Edgerton’s prose hits with the force of a hammer—as does his recollection of an America, both deeply flawed and wonderful, that is now more important than ever to keep in our sights. Adrenaline Junkie makes sense of one man’s life while showing us all new aspects of our own.” —Jenny Milchman, USA Today bestselling and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Cover of Snow and Wicked River

“No one can accuse Les of being a ‘crime tourist’. He’s lived the life, done the bird, and now he’s written the book. Adrenaline Junkie should be on any prospective (or established) crime writer’s list. An entertaining, darkly-rendered tale of one man’s adventures in the very belly of the beast.” —Tony Black, author of Her Cold Eyes

“Sometimes shocking, often poignant, occasionally distasteful, frequently funny, and always brutally honest, Adrenaline Junkie tells the story of one man’s harrowing yet ultimately successful quest for redemption. Written with razor-sharp clarity, Edgerton’s memoir is a triumph.” —Robert Rotstein, author of We, the Jury

“Adrenaline Junkie will be required reading for crime writers one day, a bible for future authors to study rebellion and the human spirit, that smart-ass spark inside us all that doesn’t like taking orders from parents, teachers, and even the law. Author of The Rapist and The Bitch, two of the most profound noir novels published, an ex-criminal and former prison inmate, Edgerton knows what makes all of us tick, and how, with not much of a shove, any one of us could end up behind bars. One of the most fascinating autobiographies you will ever read: from professional thief and pimp to award-winning author and teacher.” —Jack Getze, author of the award-winning Austin Carr Mysteries

“Adrenaline Junkie is at once heartbreaking as it is funny, and just plain sick. A masterful work that will be lauded by both writers and the general reading public alike.” —Vincent Zandri, New York Times and USA Today bestselling and Thriller Award-winning author

“Edgerton is a back-alley Kerouac. Walk away from this knowing that your life-defining moments were his slow Tuesdays.” —Liam Sweeny, author of Presiding Over the Damned

“In a way, Edgerton already wrote Adrenaline Junkie in his crime novels. With the veneer of fiction removed, his always entertaining, often enlightening, sometimes infuriating and unapologetic stories hit even harder. Without any doubt, Edgerton is one of the great storytellers of fiction—and now non-fiction.” —Benjamin Sobieck, author of The Writer’s Digest Guide to Firearms and Knives

“Having survived an American Gothic horror story of a childhood, unrepentant former thief, dope dealer, hedonist, Navy hellraiser, and porn actor, Les Edgerton—now a writer and teacher—tells a tale of many tales: If Scheherazade were an old pirate who got away with the gold, this would be his opus.” —Earl Javorsky, author of Down to No Good

“Les Edgerton’s expertly told memoir is in turns tragic, thrilling, funny and heart-breaking. Adrenaline Junkie is a powerful blend of coming-of-age story, family drama and low-life crime thriller.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Last Year’s Man

“Edgerton has lived a life most of us only write about. That he’s actually lived it and has the chops to deliver such a vividly drawn memoir gives me a raging case of writer’s envy.” —Maegan Beaumont, award-winning author

“How often is a memoir genuinely astounding? A reformed outlaw takes us through his harsh rural childhood, working harder before he was twelve than most of us ever will. There follows armed robbery, pimping, drug dealing, rape in prison, narrowly avoiding a hellcat’s castration attempt, suicide foiled by the rope breaking, a walk on part for Charles Manson and his creepy serial killer mate—who got short shrift from our host. And so much more…So many startling sentences: ‘She was going to be his last fuck before the operation and I was going to be his first after he became a woman.’ ‘It was then Charles Manson started to contact me…’ There’s a satisfying twist late on after he becomes a family man so this fascinating book has just the right ending. Essential reading. Makes Bukowski seem like Donny Osmond.” —Mark Ramsden, author of The Dark Magus and the Sacred Whore

“A tryst with Brit Ecklund, a shoot-out in a deserted high school, robbing a laundromat in front of a patrol car. Those are just a few moments is Les Edgerton’s checkered past. He went from a Huck Finn-like childhood in Texas, the swinging sixties as a criminal, time in Indiana’s Pendleton prison, and eighties excess in New Orleans, with little slowing him down until a good woman found a way. Funny, harrowing, and poignant in spots, reading Adrenaline Junkie is like being lucky enough to sit at the bar next to that guy who has lived a lot of stories and knows how to tell them. Yes, Les Edgerton was an adrenaline junkie and he always knew where to get a fix.” —Scott Montgomery, MysteryPeople Crime Fiction Coordinator

I'VE GOT A SHORT STORY IN PAUL BRAZILL'S NEW EMAGAZINE, PUNK NOIR MAGAZINE

Hi folks,

CRIME FICTION, DOWN AND OUT BOOKS., FICTION, LES EDGERTON, NOIR, PUNK NOIR MAGAZINE

FICTION EXTRACT: LOVE TUNNEL BY LES EDGERTON

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

(From my novel, THE GENUINE, IMITATION, PLASTIC KIDNAPPING from Down & Out Books) 

An hour later, Tommy and me are sitting on the St. Charles streetcar, at the stop by the zoo down by Club 4141, watching people get on in the front. The last two on are a young tourist couple in matching yellow Bermuda shorts.

“Cool,” Tommy said. “Tourists. They’ll have cash.” He took a drag from his cigarette. He was sitting directly under the “No Smoking” sign, but held it outside the window.

I didn’t disagree. There were maybe fifteen people on board, not counting us and the motorman. This was looking better and better. Might get as much as a couple of thousand out of this crew.

“See that?” Tommy said. I followed his eyes which were locked on the buxom female member of the tourist couple. She was a looker.

“Yeah? So?”

“So this.” He brought his forearm up, pretending to take a bite out of it.

“You wish,” I said, grinning.

“Yeah, well I got something her boyfriend ain’t.”

I laughed out loud. “Right, Tommy. Ugliness. But I think she’s maybe one of those weirdos goes for brains and looks. At least one of those.”

Tommy turned and gave me a look. “I’m talking technique here,” he said. “I got this technique.”

“Technique?”

“Technique.”

“What… you got a cute way of gettin’ on and off?”

“Naw, man,” he said, shaking his head like he can’t believe how dumb I am. “That’s like a big dick. Everybody’s got that.”

I snickered. “I don’t recall you was so blessed in the big wang department, Tommy.”

“Yeah, well I was cold that time. We just got out of the lake, for crissake. See, Pete, being a champion at sex is like being good at basketball. You got to be able to go strong to the hole.”

There was a young gal behind us who I could see was trying to ignore what Tommy was saying. She squirmed in her seat and studied the scenery out the window, them mansions sliding by.

I was dying to know Tommy’s ‘technique’ and asked him.

For the rest of the story, go to Punk Noir Magazine. 

Blue skies,

Les

PART TWO OF MY INTERVIEW WITH DAMIEN SEAMAN

Hi folks,

Here's a brief excerpt from the second part of my interview with European writer, Damien Seaman.

Damien Seaman

How to write better, faster and more successfully

·         Blog

“In the past ten years nearly three dozen of my students have gone on to publish their novels or gain a top agent”

Les Edgerton knows how good a writer he is. He’s not afraid of saying so, either.

To preorder, click here.

Or of pointing out how many people he’s helped to get published…

“Just about everything I’ve written has found its way into print,” is one of the ways he says it.

“All of us were bona fide geniuses,” is another.

That last statement refers to his first writing group at Indiana University at South Bend, when Les was a student under teacher Elaine Hemley. And where he picked up the confrontational teaching style he now uses with such success with his own online students.

He also believes that “writers” and “authors” are separate entities. To Les, a writer is a person of intelligence who writes from the heart, and writes the books they need to.

An author is clever, and lucky, and writes the same marketable book over and over.

You want to take a guess which one Les thinks he is?

“I’m a writer, primarily,” he says. Adding: “I used to pretend to be humble, but why bother?”

Maybe that’s why so many of his writing students have wanted to throw things at him. And why some even quit on him.

But confidence and conflict also breed clarity:

“If a writer can’t accept the truth about their writing, then chances are pretty good they’re never going to get published,” Les insists.

“And, that’s our only goal—publication by a quality press.”

(Worth noting that I’ll have a half dozen or so interviews with some of these successful students on the blog soon. Then you can judge for yourself if these techniques work. And if your writing would benefit.)

This is part two of my interview with Les. (If you missed it, click here for part one.)

As you’ll see, even when answering questions, the man can’t help but entertain:

“At this stage of my life, it’s much more important to me to be honest than to have people pat my back.”

You ready for a blast of old school advice and strong opinion?

Is your goal to become a better writer and to get published by “a quality press”?

Then buckle in, and read on…

For the rest of our interview, go here.

This was a lot of fun. Damien's one of the best interviewers I've had the pleasure of working with.

Blue skies,

Les

REVIEW OF ADRENLINE JUNKIE BY DAMIEN SEAMAN

Hi folks,

Here's part of the review of my forthcoming memoir, ADRENALINE JUNKIE, by European writer, Damien Seaman on his blog:

Damien Seaman

How to write better, faster and more successfully

How to write an exciting memoir

What writers and aspiring authors can learn from Adrenaline Junkie, a memoir by Les Edgerton

As a writer, Les Edgerton doesn’t believe in prologues.

Despite which, he’s got one in Adrenaline Junkie [link to Amazon]– the memoir he’s been dying to get published since the 1990s, when he first wrote it. And a humdinger of a prologue it is, too.

See, as a writing teacher, Edgerton advocates that his students write openings that hook the reader emotionally so they can’t help but read more.

Well, try this…

Writing of his time in Pendleton Prison in the 1960s, Edgerton says that every night the prison DJ would play Porter Wagoner’s The Green, Green Grass of Home. And every night in a cell above his, Les would hear another of the inmates crying.

“And then, one night, we didn’t hear the guy sobbing. I remember that just like it was yesterday. In the morning, after we got back from chow, here came a bunch of hacks, carrying a body down the tier walk wrapped in a bloody sheet. It was this guy. He’d cut his wrists the night before.”

Cut to: Edgerton, out of prison, years later, driving along the road with radio on.

On comes the song Green, Green Grass of Home:

“All of a sudden, I was blinded by uncontrollable tears and had to pull over to the side of the road before I ran into somebody.

“Isn’t it funny that at the time of your misery you don’t feel the emotion, but later, when you’re in a good place, you do? It’s just funny, isn’t it…”

Becoming a writer – and becoming a man

And that, Edgerton says, is what this book is about:

“A lot of moments in my life—some good and some bad—and how they formed me. I’ve had a chaotic life and that’s been on purpose. I’ve consciously sought out as many experiences as I was able to and I tended toward seeking out dangerous experiences—that’s what triggers the adrenaline and adrenaline is my drug of choice.”

Not bad for a prologue. We already have emotion and a compelling hook. And this is before the story proper has begun, of course.

Here – for those keeping score and paying attention and all that – is how this memoir really begins:

“When I was eleven, my father walked into his bedroom and caught me stuffing several of the coins he collected and kept in a sock in a dresser drawer, into my pockets. Most of them were foreign coins he’d picked up overseas during World War II and I have no idea how I planned to spend English half-pence or German Reichspfennig coins or if I even planned to spend them at all. I just wanted them because I thought I could take them without getting caught. After he put his belt away, and I pulled my pants back up, my father made me take four of the smallest coins and swallow them.”

And now we have a story, ladies and germs.

For the rest of Damien’s review, click here.

Thanks for a really thoughtful review, Damien.

Blue skies,

Les

NEW INTERVIEW WITH DAMIEN SEAMAN

Hi folks,

Part I (of two) of my interview with European writer Damien Seaman on his blog has just come out. Here's a bit of a teaser:

Damien Seaman

How to write better, faster and more successfully

·                    

About Me

·                     Home

·         Blog

The memoir HBO was desperate to film

When writer Les Edgerton sold his memoirs, the president of HBO demanded the film rights. Les was on cloud nine. But then the deal fell through…

To read the whole enchilada, go to here. 

This was one of the best interviews I've ever been privileged to participate in.

Blue skies,

Les

To preorder, go here. 

MYSTERY PEOPLE BOOKSTORE IN AUSTIN GIVES REVIEW OF ADRENALINE JUNKIE

New post on http://mysterypeople.wordpress.com

3 Picks for November by mysterypeopleblog Forever And A Day by Anthony Horowitz Taking some material from Ian Fleming, Horowitz goes back to James Bond's first mission as 007. MI6 sends him to Marseilles where he encounters drug smugglers, power players, and an alluring spy master. to find out what the previous 007 discovered before he was murdered. This book captures the cool style of the Fleming Bonds and cold blooded attitude of the secret agent, especially with the twist at the end. Nighttown by Timothy Hallinan Burglar Junior Bender is hired to steal an antique doll for more money than it is worth. When he stumbles across somebody else trying to steal it, Junior and his girlfriend are on the run with a shady hit woman as their only hope. Hallinan skillfully uses humor, his anti-hero's point of view, and the city of Los Angeles for a fun caper novel with heart and a wonderful literary reveal. Adrenaline Junkie: A Memoir by Les Edgerton Author Les Edgerton lets you into his life that leads into some of his great crime fiction. Following him through the swinging sixties and hedonistic seventies and early eighties, he led one hell of a life as a thief, convict, and hair stylist. Les pulls no punches in the telling. It's not all pretty, but it's all pretty entertaining. This is like experiencing that guy at the bar who had collected a lot of life experience and knows how to talk about it in book form. This post is ad-supported ​ mysterypeopleblog | November 2, 2018 at 10:19 am | Tags: book recommendations, crime fiction,mystery, new books | Categories: Book Review, three picks | URL: https://wp.me/p223C2-8i5 Comment    See all comments    Like

NEW REVIEW OF HOOKED

Hi folks,

A new review of my craft book, HOOKED, has just appeared on European author Damien Seaman's blog. Here is how it appeared:

Damien Seaman

How to write better, faster and more successfully

How to get publishers to *really* read your book

IN-DEPTH REVIEW: Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers From Page One And Never Lets Them Go, by Les Edgerton

Click here

I won’t mince words.

Hooked! is a writing guide you need to own if you are serious about your fiction writing.

What do I mean by serious?

Well, the book sets out to help you write something “publishable” and is very clear about what that means in terms of story structure.

So, serious means if you want to get a publishing deal (or a good agent to represent you).

Or if you want to sell more self-published books – because what publishers want is dictated by what readers seem to want.

Either way, this book is for you.

Author Les Edgerton has published 20 books plus innumerable short stories and magazine articles during his career. He has also taught creative writing, and been nominated for several awards for his fiction.

He has a good idea of what sells, in other words.

How to write a sellable manuscript to a quality press

Although here I introduce a note of caution.

Les is not a huge bestseller, and he does not teach how to write the doorstep blockbuster novels you buy in airport bookstores. He knows how to write a sellable manuscript to what he calls a “quality press”.

He’s also very clear that the technical limitations of what publishers will buy are strict.

“Novels and short stories, no matter how complex their plots may appear, are almost always based on a simple underlying structure: A character begins in stability in his world; this word becomes unstable after the introduction of an inciting incident; the character struggles to restore his stability; and a new stability is established at the conclusion,” Edgerton writes.

So far, so uncontroversial. At least to most of us. But then Edgerton continues:

“What is different about today’s story structure is that the first part of the equation – stability – has been shortened considerably and, in many cases, completely omitted.”

In other words, this book is a master class on story structure as expressed through the microcosm of a book’s opening.

Readers – and publishers – want to be hooked from the very first line, Edgerton explains. They want an opening that grabs them and pulls them through the book.

What an inciting incident is – and how to get it right

So, we get a lot here about the importance of the inciting incident – what it is and how to use it properly.

This is essential reading. Also essential to read more than once. Why? Because it’s actually pretty hard to grasp in practice. Or, at least, I’ve found it to be so.

It’s a concept that seems laughably simple. Until you try to apply it to your own work and you realise you have a certain blindness – or lack of ruthlessness – about what an inciting incident really is, and whether or not your book has one.

As a result of this, Les asserts that a great many books start in the “wrong place”. Indeed, he has said this to me about one of my books – one that was previously published.

So believe me when I say this is essential knowledge and essential to apply over and over until you are utterly confident that you get it.

A lot of tricky concepts, each one explained with practical examples

From the inciting incident idea, Edgerton takes through related concepts:

·         Story-worthy problems – what they are, how to come up with them and how to write them into your manuscript

·         Surface problems – how they differ from story-worthy problems, and why, and how to juggle the two

·         How these problems relate to your character – and to your reader

·         Setup and backstory – how much the modern manuscript should contain, plus exceptions to the rule

·         How to combine the inciting incident, story-worthy problem, initial surface problem, setup and backstory in a way that seems natural and engages your reader

As you can see, there’s a lot to take in. Which is why it’s not just worth buying this, but reading through multiple times and then applying to your work in progress as soon as you can.

I speak from recent experience, as at the time of writing Les has been eviscerating a story opening of mine. And I thought I knew this stuff!

As I said, this is a book for writers who are serious about improving their craft. But not just that. It’s for writers at all levels of experience.

I’ve published two novels with two different small publishers and there’s material in here that I only now realise I didn’t grasp as thoroughly as I thought I did.

I would wager it’s the same for you.

Read this book at least twice if you’re serious about your writing

In summary, buy this book. Read it at least twice. First time for pleasure. Second time, make notes. As many as you need to. Ask questions. Read it a third time to look for the answers to your questions.

Now apply it to what you’re working on. And go back through the book with your specific work in progress in mind.

That’s how important and how useful this book is. Also how important it is that you fully understand how to apply it.

Anyway, do make sure you buy it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. And, once you’ve read it, nor will you. Be able to recommend highly enough, I mean.

You’ll see.

Buy or browse Hooked, by Les Edgerton

Also, come back to the blog next week for my two-part interview with Les, and my in-depth analysis of his fantastic memoir, Adrenaline Junkie. 

Thanks, Damien!

Blue skies,

Les