Preorder info for my new book, LAGNIAPPE

Hi folks,

For those who like to be the first in on a new book, my new collection of short stories, titled LAGNIAPPE, published by Down & Out Books, is available for preorder. It becomes available on June 12. The more people who preorder it, the faster start out of the chute it can make and all that's good for me, so...

Here's the info on how to glom onto either an ebook or paperback version.

For Paperback, click here.

For Ebook, click here.

The skinny on it...

Twenty years after the publication of his first short story collection, Monday’s Meal, Les Edgerton delivers the goods once again in this collection of harrowing tales of outlaws, ex-cons, frightened men and women, rap-partners throwing back tall boys and taller tales, children forced to become killers, stabbings and shootings, bad asses and sad asses…a wide-ranging collection of distinct and memorable characters who will exhibit a kind of wisdom not obtainable from the halls of academia. This is not a gathering of people contemplating their navels but real people facing the consequences of their actions…and it ain’t often pretty.

Praise for Les Edgerton…

“Les Edgerton has swiftly become my favorite crime writer. Original voice, uncompromising attitude and a pure hardboiled style leap him to the front ranks of my reading list. He will become legendary.” —Joe R. Lansdale, author of Paradise Sky, The Bottoms, Edge of Dark Water, The Thicket, and the Hap and Leonard series, the books behind the TV series of the same name, and many others.

“Reading Les Edgerton’s stories is like listening to those old World War II broadcasts from the London blitz, with the reporter crouching under a restaurant table, microphone in hand, while the bombs drop on the city and the ceiling caves in. Edgerton reports on the world and the news is not good. There’s a kind of wacky wisdom in these bulletins from the underside of life; the stories are full of people you hope never move in next door, for whom ordinary life is an impossible dream. This is good fiction; Edgerton writes lean and nasty prose.” —Dr. Francois Camoin, Director, Graduate School of English, University of Utah and author of Benbow and Paradise, Like Love, But Not Exactly, Deadly Virtues, The End of the World Is Los Angeles and Why Men Are Afraid of Women.

“Les Edgerton is the new High King of Noir.” —Ken Bruen, author of The Emerald Lie, The Guards, Pimp, and many others.

Thanks for considering getting a copy. I'm very proud of these stories! Several of them have been nominated for some cool awards so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Blue skies,

Les

I don't know about Joe Lansdale here, but I know that I thank you! As you can see, I'm down to my last cigarette here so if you buy a copy it helps me out in a big way...

Review for THE DEATH OF TARPONS

HI folks,

A really thoughtful article about my first novel, The Death of Tarpons, just came out yesterday from the Betimes Books blog. The writer, Hannah Keane, really did a bang-up job and one of the things that impacted me emotionally was how she came up with photos from my hometown of Freeport, Texas where the story was set, one in particular, the shot of the Tarpon Inn which I saw every day of my life. It was at the end of the town square where my grandmother's bar and taxi company sat. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words and in this case it was for me. The day that photo was shot, I know I had looked at the building as I did every day. It put me right there and I could smell the shrimp in the air and just evoked a powerful, powerful memory!

Here's Hannah Keane's article:

The Death of Tarpons: A Journey into darkness

By Hannah Keane

On the occasion of the new release of Les Edgerton’s debut novel, The Death of Tarpons, in paperback format by Betimes Books and in electronic format by Endeavour Press, we are taking a look back at what makes Edgerton’s first work of fiction so special. For something which, at first glance, seems so different from his later works, how does it fit so seamlessly in Edgerton’s body of work?

First published in 1996, The Death of Tarpons stands out in Edgerton’s repertoire for how different in tone it is from his subsequent novels. To many, Edgerton is known as an acclaimed crime writer, but his most loyal fans will also know that he has never wanted to limit himself – or be limited – to one genre of writing: from short story collections like Monday’s Meal to young adult fiction such as Mirror, Mirror and plenty of non-fiction, Edgerton has explored writing in its many forms.

Consequently, it should come as no surprise that Edgerton’s first piece of writing is a touching coming-of-age story about a young teenage boy trying to build a better relationship with his father.

“Then, last year, I got this fantastic idea to do something totally on my own, in secret, that would show him once and for all I could do something mechanical. Manly. Then, he would love me and be proud of me and put his arm around me. I decided to build a boat. For him.”

This sounds as far removed as possible from other works like The Rapist or Just Like That but, as one reviewer and fellow author has mentioned, the seeds of Edgerton’s later fiction can indeed be found here.

“Edgerton’s later novels have become Noir classics to many, and ‘The Death of Tarpons’ hints at a moonless childhood that explains the author’s successful literary journeys into darkness.”

– Jack Getze, Spinetingler Magazine, 2017

In The Death of Tarpons, young Corey certainly encounters many episodes of darkness. Nearly all of the personal relationships around him are afflicted with violent outbursts or psychological abuse: the regular beatings of his best friend, Destin, and his mother at the hands of his drunken father; the violent reprimands Corey endures from his own father as well as the emotional neglect he and his mother receive from Corey’s father – a neglect that has driven his mother to religious fanaticism.

“Every atom in my body was in fear. I had never seen such a look on his face as there was now, not even at his angriest. It was like the face of God Himself, the face the fire and brimstone preacher Mom listened to, conjured up, Sunday mornings.”

Thus, the darkness one would expect from Edgerton’s work is present in his debut; however, it is tempered by the sweet nature of its protagonist and the loving relationship Corey has with his grandpa.

What allows Edgerton to write across different genres with such success is something that all his works have in common: an honesty that can only come from personal experience. Edgerton has described The Death of Tarpons as being “85% autobiographical” and as being a work which was long in the making, having started writing it at the age of fifteen. The setting of the novel – 1950s era Freeport, Texas – was a place where Edgerton spent part of his childhood and many characters are drawn from real life with, for example, the author’s own grandmother being just as successful and driven a businesswoman as the Grandma character featured in the novel. Just as Edgerton’s own experience as an ex-con gives a realistic edge to his crime fiction, the same truthfulness can be found in his debut.

“The Oyster Bar. The business that had sustained three generations, mine and my sister Doc’s, my parents, and my grandparents. The business that, along with the taxi cab company, my grandmother had created and ruled as her own private fiefdom. Not with some metaphoric iron hand, but with a very real Navy Colt long-barreled .45 on the dash of her taxi”.

Honesty and credibility are what make Edgerton’s writings so distinctive and evocative. When reading The Death of Tarpons, one can really visualise what it was like being a young boy, just out on summer vacation with lots of great plans for how he was going to spend the holidays hanging out with his best friend, fishing with his grandpa and getting closer to his dad.

“All the way downtown, I used lawns, head down, alert for nettles and stickers. When I had to cross a street, leave the coolness of grass, I ran faster, landing on different parts of the soles of my feet. First-day-of-summer-vacation-tootsies were too white and thin-skinned for concrete baked at ninety-plus degrees.”

As with the rest of Edgerton’s work, the vividness of his characters and settings is a result of his personal knowledge of what it was like to be a young teenage boy growing up at this time in the American South. The credibility that comes from writing about places and situations one is familiar with is what gives The Death of Tarpons, as well as Edgerton’s other novels, a distinctive edge.

The Tarpon Inn in Freeport, TX 1954.

Thanks for reading her article. Hope that if you glom onto the book, you'll enjoy the read!

Blue skies,

Les

New cover for my new book.

Hi folks,

Just want to show you the cover for my newest book that will come out in June from Down & Out Books. It's the third cover artist J.T. Lindroos has created for books of mine. He's just a fantastic artist!

Here's what J.T. said about his work:

"A new cover for Les Edgerton and Down & Out Books I’m particularly happy with. I set up this photo in our backyard with a couple of empty bottles, moonlight, two small flashlights and green and white beads from our New Orleans trip.

 The beer bottle up front (Smashing Todd’s Ambergris Reserve Wartime Stout) is a leftover prop from Jeff VanderMeer's  Shriek the Movie."

"Lagniappe" is a word that's very familiar to us natives (and former natives!) of New Orleans--it means "something extra." And, I hope that if you get it you'll agree. It's a collection of new stories that haven't been published in book form until now. All of them have been published by various anthologies.

I'll announce here in June when it becomes available.

Blue skies,
Les

Article and novel

Hi folks,

Few things happening. I was just notified my short story, Snake Farm, was nominated for an Anthony Award. Please keep your fingers crossed for me and if you are eligible to vote, you know I'd appreciate it!

A good friend of mine, Vince Zandri, just told me his new novel is out... and I'm a major character in it. Cute, Vince... If you'd like to see a truly great character, check out https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2UB7TX

And, Odyssey Press just published an article of mine on their blog. Odyssey is the literary imprint for Endeavour Books, UK's top ebook publisher. They published the ebook version of my novel, The Death of Tarpons. Check it out at http://www.theodysseypress.com/idea-become-story-author-death-tarpons-les-edgerton-tells/

Just sent the final draft--hopefully--of my new novel, Hard Times, to my agent, Svetlana Pironko. Hope she likes it.

And... that's all, folks!

Blue skies,
Les