OCTOBER-NOVEMBER APPEARANCES

Hi folks,

Well, a whole bunch of stuff just snuck up on me! Just looked at my calendar and there are four writers/book events in the next couple of months I’m taking part in, case any of y’all are in the state on the following dates. And, for those who aren't, I get to take part in a world-wide teaching event on the 'puter.

1. I’ll be appearing on computers world-wide on Friday, October 5 for WANA (We Are Not Alone) media maven Kristen Lamb’s brand-new international classes via Skype along with a veritable Who’s Who of writer people. I’ll be talking about Story Beginnings. For complete info, check it out at http://wanaintl.com/wanacon-oct2013/ We already have a huge crowd but the beauty of computerland is that there’s no limit to the audience. This is the next big thing in writer’s conferences, trust me. Check it out!

2. Will be signing books, appearing on panels on Saturday, November 9 from noon until 4 pm at the Allen County Public Library (Ft. Wayne, IN). Michael Martone will be in attendance also, along with a bunch of other writers from the area. Should be fun! One of our premier bookstores, The Bookmark will be on hand to help sell our books. Remember—Christmas is right around the corner! What better gifts than books?

3. On Saturday, November 16, CJ Edwards is hosting a Noir@The Bar in Indy and I’ll get to read with a bunch of true noir heavyweights, including CJ, and possibly David Michael Keaton, Jed Ayres, Frank Bill and others. As soon as I get the final list, I’ll post it. If you’ve never been to a Noir@The Bar event, I’d urge you to put it on your bucket list and do it right away. Nothing like it, I promise you! Rude, crude, and rowdy! Also, the Booked Podcast folks will be there to do interviews. These are the real deal!

4. On Saturday, November 23, I’ll be conducting a REALLY BIG (channel your inner Ed Sullivan voice here) workshop where I show the movie THELMA & LOUISE and provide commentary throughout, showing salient fiction techniques, for the Indiana Writer’s Center. This one is a labor of love and exhausting to deliver and I’ve heard rave after rave from those who’ve attended this one before. Click on http://www.indianawriters.org/ or go to http://www.indianawriters.org/products/a-fiction-writers-workshop-at-the-bijou for complete information.

A Fiction Writer's Workshop at the Bijou

Instructor: Les Edgerton
Date: Saturday, November 23
Time: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Location: Marian University/TBD
Cost: $114 non-members, $78 members, $66 student/teacher/senior members
A Fiction Writer's Workshop at the Bijou will focus on the practical aspects of fiction writing as informed by the film Thelma & Louise which we will watch in its entirety. I will stop the movie frequently to point out various techniques in characterization, dialogue, plot, story structure, transitions, mood and tone, setting, creating riveting scenes, and other elements that you can apply to your fiction. As a decided bonus, Bijou will also provide crucial information on such topics as why "watercooler moments" are important in creating a bestseller and how to create them.


And, finally, I’d like to share a couple of recent reviews on Amazon for THE RAPIST that gladden my heart:

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cultured Voice Talks from the Death House, October 2, 2013

By 

Scott Adlerberg - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: The Rapist (Paperback)

Truman Ferris Pinter sits on death row for the brutal rape he has committed, and the death he seemingly caused his victim. Pinter tells his story himself, and for the entire length of this astounding novella we sit squarely in Truman's mind, as twisted and cold a mind as one is likely to come across anywhere. He's a man utterly without remorse for his actions, but he also happens to be very well-read and articulate. He lets us know in no uncertain terms that he has his reasons for what he did. THE RAPIST takes us on a tour through his convoluted mind, and through his twisted perceptions, we begin to understand his life, and damn if this utter sociopath makes us see things (at least a little) from his point of view.

Absolute brilliance is the only way I can describe this book. You could call it a noir novel, but I'd say it's more firmly in the tradition of works like Camus' THE STRANGER or Ernesto Sabato's THE TUNNEL or Walker Percy's LANCELOT. The novel as existential monologue told by an unrepentant criminal. Edgerton himself said that a prime inspiration for the novel came from the Charles Bukowski story "The Fiend", which is about a man raping a little girl. Except that in "The Fiend", as Edgerton put it, even Bukowski pulled back a bit, forgoing his usual first person narration to tell the story in the third person. In other words, Bukowski didn't handle this material head on; Edgerton dares to.

THE RAPIST also brings to mind Dostoyevsky's NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND and (I do not say this blithely) Nabokov's LOLITA. Truman Ferris Pinter is even darker in his personality than Humbert Humbert, but the brilliance and audacity he uses language with, to convince himself and us of certain things, is quite like Humbert. How reliable is this narrator? And Truman, like Humbert, can be, shall we say, not entirely self-aware. There is a house of mirrors quality to this novel that is quite Nabokovian. And as in LOLITA, we get inside the mind of someone almost everyone would consider despicable, and if we don't, well, like him, we certainly understand him. Then there's the Borges influence, the mind-bending what is real what is dream what is real aspect of the book. In a way completely appropriate to Truman, the novel ends in a manner that reminded me of Borges's great story "The South." I really can't say much more than that or I'll be giving too much away. Suffice it to say, the ending is perfect, the last line a dinger that sums up Truman and reduced me to dark dark laughter.

This is a memorable book, a tough uncompromising book, a book that in the very best way calls upon a great literary tradition to be not quite like anything ever written before it. 

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary Noir, September 24, 2013

By 

Michelle T. Isler "Godmother" (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rapist (Kindle Edition)

This is my first Les Edgerton novel and it will not be my last. I find it a true art to take a story about a truly, monstrous man like Truman Ferris Pinter and present it in such a literary fashion. If it wasn't such a heinous crime that Truman committed, you would feel a little bit sorry for him. He had such a rough childhood that he taught himself to escape reality by floating outside of his body. His nightmare childhood became the life of someone else, at least that is how he remembered it.

As he waits on death row, he has a religious struggle within himself about what will happen to him after his number is called. If you do not have a religion, what will become of the soul? But, you have to wonder if Truman really had a soul.

Beautifully written, yet very disturbing. I highly recommend it.

Thanks! I appreciate the nice words!

 Hope to see some of you at some of these events!

Blue skies,

Les