LINWOOD BARCLAY'S NEW NOVEL--A TAP ON THE WINDOW

Hi folks,

One of my all-time favorite authors is internationally-bestselling Canadian Linwood Barclay, who writes truly amazing thrillers. In fact, I recommend his work to my novel-writing students and clients as one of the best examples of how a writer creates tension on every single page… which he always does.

My only complaint of him as a writer is that he doesn’t write nearly fast enough! My preference would be for him to come out with a new novel each week, but I guess that isn’t too feasible…

What that means is that when he does come out with a new one, I’m all over it, like sweat on a marathon runner. And, I know to never begin a Barclay novel at night. Not unless I plan to stay up until the sun rises…

Well, he finally came out with a new one! A TAP ON THE WINDOW.

And this one is his best so far!

I’m not good at writing plot summaries so I’ll just rely on the Amazon copy for that:

It’s been two months since private investigator Cal Weaver’s teenage son Scott died in a tragic accident. Ever since, he and his wife have drifted apart, fracturing a once normal life. Cal is mired in grief, a grief he can’t move past. And maybe his grief has clouded his judgment. Because driving home one night, he makes his first big mistake.
A girl drenched in rain taps on his car window and asks for a ride as he sits at a stoplight. Even though he knows a fortysomething man picking up a teenage hitchhiker is a fool, he lets her in. She’s the same age as Scott, and maybe she can help Cal find the dealer who sold his son the drugs that killed him. After a brief stop at a roadside diner, Cal senses that something’s not right with the girl or the situation. But it’s too late. He’s already involved.
Now Cal is drawn into a nightmare of pain and suspicion. Something is horribly wrong in the small town of Griffon in upstate New York. There are too many secrets there, too many lies and cover-ups. And Cal has decided to expose those secrets one by one.
That’s his second big mistake.

What I bring to the table for your consideration is that I really couldn’t put this down! It’s like every one of Linwood’s novels—drenched with tension and blow-by-blow it just keeps ratcheting up--you simply can’t quit reading. It can be used as a textbook for writers who want to learn the very best techniques of creating tension on every page… and it can be read by readers who like their books to be riveting and keep them on the edge throughout the entire novel.

Bad things happen. Lots and lots of bad things. And the ending is so damned powerful. This is by far his darkest novel.

For me, there was an added bonus. Part-way through the read, I came upon my own name! Well, not exactly my entire name. A character named Len Edgerton. Just one sentence that says:

If that happens, if we get a few more complainants—in fact, this kid said he knew of at least one other person, by the name of Len Edgerton or Eggleton or something—well, that might play out very differently.

Well, Linwood and I are kind of friends—in fact, he gave me a great blurb for THE BITCH which comes out in January from New Pulp Press, so I had an inkling that maybe he’d chosen this name on purpose. So, I emailed him. Here’s our exchange:

Me, to Linwood (we’d been talking about Bouchercon and Thrillerfest and he’d told me he wouldn’t be able to make Bouchercon, but would be at Thrillerfest)

I hope to make Thrillerfest. BTW, I see you've got a minor character named "Len Edgerton." Just wondering... :)

To which, Linwood replied (succinctly)

Yup.

And I answered:

OHMYGOD! That's all I can say! I'm already your biggest fan--now I'm your WAY-BIGGEST FAN.

And Linwood came back with:

I'd forgotten about that. I was casting about for a name one day and must have seen something you posted on FB, and thought, that'll do, but I can't do the name exactly the same, so I changed a letter.

Don't sue.

To which I said:

Sue?! I'm so tickled pink I can't see straight. Thank you! Although, if that would have been me, I would've gotten the guy over the rail and into the river... :)

(That last was about what this character did, later on in the novel.)

So there you have it. Inside “skinny” on how I ended up in a frickin’ Linwood Barclay novel!

I have no doubt that this will help make it a bestseller.

No doubt at all.

You’ll wanna get this puppy. It’s one of the best I’ve read in a long time. And I read a lot.

Blue skies,

Les

STORAGE WARS AND CREATING TENSION IN NOVELS

Hi folks,

Just about all of us writer types are always looking for ways to improve our craft. I know I am, and I’ll bet a month’s rent you are as well. Sometimes, I think we limit ourselves a bit by only going to the “regular” sources for help on improving our art. You know: craft books, webinars, writer’s conferences, blogs, video presentations… all of those places we know we can find information. Those are all great sources, but sometimes I think we miss other great places where writing instruction might be available.

If you’ve followed my lil blog here awhile, you might remember the bit I did on Chef Gordon Ramsay. Remember I compared what he put forth on his KITCHEN NIGHTMARES shows as being perfectly suited for writers? Absolutely!

Well, for the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about another show that I think provides great examples for writers to use in improving our craft.

STORAGE WARS!

Yep. If you haven’t seen an episode, check it out on the Arts & Entertainment network. http://www.aetv.com/storage-wars/ You’ll be happy you did I think, especially after seeing what I found valuable for our craft in the show.

TENSION.

Yes, tension. As gripping as any Linwood Barclay mystery or Stephen King horror novel. Well, maybe not quite as tense as Mr. King’s and Mr. Barclay’s work—pretty hard to beat the masters! But, still enough tension to warrant our taking a look at how they achieve it and apply it to our own work.

First, for those who perhaps haven’t seen the program, it’s about a group of people who make their livings by going to storage locker places and buying, in auction, those lockers which’ve been abandoned by their previous owners.

Sounds kinda sucky, doesn’t it! I imagine the producers had a better pitch description than I came up with! But, basically, that’s what the show is about.

I’ll bet that before this show aired many of us have at least been to a storage locker place and never once thought of it as the setting for a gripping show. I know I never did! But these folks made this apparently innocuous setting and “ordinary” characters so interesting that my wife and I have even talked about chucking it all and entering the business ourselves… Well, briefly. Then, my wife Mary inserted some common sense into the discussion by uttering the magic words, “No way, Charlie A. Cheese.”

Anyway. Back on point.

If you haven’t watched an episode, do so at your first opportunity. When you watch the show, take note of the commercials. Well, not the commercials themselves—the part of the show immediately before the commercials come on. Notice something? If you’re anything like me, you’re silently urging the commercial to “hurry up, already!” We want to return to the place the narrative stopped before the ad popped up. We grow more and more impatient as the ads appear, and then, finally… finally… the show returns. But… another groan escapes our lips as what we see next is a brief snippet of what was last on the screen. And, what was that? Several standard things. It might be a glimpse at a locker that was just opened and Barry has just spotted an item at the back everyone else missed. Although  It might be Jarrod and his bosomy (and sharp-tongued) wife Brandi who’s just gone through the locker he won in the auction for it and everything they looked at was junk, until this last box and when he opened it, he exclaimed, “Oh my God!” At which point the screen went to… you guessed it… commercial breaks. Without allowing us to see what he’s going bananas over.

Not only were we transfixed waiting for the revelation of what was in Jarrod’s box or what it was Barry spotted that put a gleam in his eye… the producers show a really cruel and even sick side of themselves… they don’t show what we’ve been waiting for right away, but heighten our tension even more by repeating the buildup that they ended the previous segment with.

Tension.

By pros.

Spend some time some evening and watch this show. See if you don’t see techniques you can steal for your own fiction. I’ll bet that aforementioned rent money that you will.

What other TV shows do this for you? Start watching shows with a new eye—when you come across one where you can’t wait for the commercials to be over, study how they achieved that effect in you and figure out how to apply it to your own writing.

If a show about a storage locker facility can generate this kind of tension, imagine how their techniques will work in your own novel which has a way more cooler setting than a storage locker!

What other television shows can you think of that achieve this? And, besides TV shows, what other sources are out there that can help inform our craft that we don’t normally think of? And, what are some of the other ways STORAGE WARS works to create tension? Can you spot at least two?

Blue skies,

Les

THE BITCH is coming! Promise...

Hi folks,

I know at least some of you are awaiting publication of my psychological thriller, THE BITCH, and I just wanted to give you an update on it.

The holdup is due entirely to the publisher, Eddie Vega. Lest you think I just threw Eddie under the bus, allow me to explain.

The whole problem is, Eddie's a perfectionist. Definitely a guy who's out of touch with modern life! Who in contemporary publishing does what this guy does! And, what is it he does, exactly?

Well, if you’ve read many ebooks, you’ve no doubt encountered a number of glitches in at least some of them. Paragraphs separated by space breaks, ala Lorrie Moore… but not on purpose as her work is. Those little wing-dings that mysteriously appear, such as the little blank boxes that sometimes show up. Paragraphs that aren’t indented. Spelling errors, punctuation mistakes, lines split mysteriously in places that don’t make sense. Dozens of other glitches.

Those who’ve published ebooks are well aware of them. The best publishers try to eliminate as many as possible. They appear because of the conversion programs available. What goes into the wood-chipper of a conversion program isn’t necessarily what comes out. While the best publishers do their best to clean up and eliminate conversion errors, there are some who could care less. Just slap it up on Amazon and fuggetaboutit. Some of these publishers just don’t give a damn. Slap it through the program and get it out there…

Not Eddie, nor Cort McMeel, the publishers of Bare Knuckles Press and Noir Nation International Crime Magazine. These guys are just plain anal. They have this ridiculous notion that what the buyer sees on his/her Kindle or Nook or other e-reader should be nothing less than perfect and that nothing on the page detract from the reading experience.

Here’s an encapsulated history of the editing of this book. First, I went through at least three major edits and rewrites of the entire manuscript under the guidance and tutelage of Cort and Eddie. Several dozen additional minor rewrites. This was before it was sent out for the ebook conversion process.

Eddie worked with the artists and technical wizards of the brilliant firm of Hurricanes and Butterflies in Prague, both for the cover and for the conversion to ebook format. He spent literally weeks just on the cover. Not to mention spending a boatload of money on it! This wasn’t some cover art from Jim Bob at the local graphic shop. He wanted the perfect cover. And got it, at least in my opinion. Oh—and that’s another thing. While most publishers I’ve worked with have been very gracious in soliciting my opinion about the cover on my books, not all do so. These guys really care that the author likes his cover.

For the past month, Eddie has had the three of us—him, Cort and me--going over and over the converted manuscript. Three times we’ve gone over and over a new version. Each time, we found and ferreted out conversion errors and my own errors.

Eddie and Cort have literally been working on manuscripts for BKP for 20-hour days, seven days a week. For months and months. They only publish books they’re passionate about and they’ve treated my manuscript with more respect and loving care than I’ve ever experienced with any other publisher, including several of the Big Six legacy publishers.

I’ve had to turn my phone off at night to get any sleep. Eddie is a vampire and if I didn’t turn off my phone, I’d be sure to get a call from him at three in the ayem. He often works through the night and I think he thinks the rest of us are doing the same.

The thing is, both Eddie and Cort feel this is a great book. And, they treat it with that kind of respect. Whether it is or not, I imagine readers will let us know. I’m very happy with it—especially after these guys helped me make it much “gooder” than it was when I submitted it to them.

I wish all my writer friends will get to experience a publishing experience akin to mine with Bare Knuckles Press with their own publishers! It’s the kind of experience that renews my faith in publishers—the kind that used to exist in larger numbers. Who aren’t concerned about the money first and foremost, but more in delivering what they feel to be worthwhile literature to the world.

So, I’m not throwing Eddie under the bus at all. Mostly, I love the respect and care he’s given my work, even if it gets the release date moved up some.

At this moment, we’re hoping it’ll be available in a day or so. In the meantime, I just wanted those of you who’ve been asking me when they can get a copy to know what’s going on. It’s all good.

I also wanted to share with you what some folks have said about THE BITCH in the blurbs they’ve generously given to me. As you can see by their names, these are people most of us know from their own, superb work. It means a lot to me what they had to say.

BLURBS

THE BITCH is the kind of raw crime fiction that’s right up my alley, like sandpaper for the brain. Edgerton has got the chops. Mad chops. Gonna make us all ashamed of our puny efforts one day.

 —Anthony Neil Smith, bestselling author of All the Young Warriors, Choke on Your Lies, Psychomatic, Hogdoggin’, Yellow Medicine, The Drummer, To the Devil, My Regards, Devil Red (Hap and Leonard) and others.

The Bitch is a vicious barnstormer of a novel, a noir rollercoaster that won’t let you unbuckle until that final three-word smackdown. Les Edgerton is Eddie Bunker’s pulpy cousin and Eugene Izzi’s soul brother, and with a spiritual family like that, you can’t go wrong. Pick it up immediately.

—Ray Banks, internationally bestselling author of Dead Money, Beast of Burden, The Big Blind. Saturday’s Child, Donkey Punch, No More Heroes and others.

Les Edgerton doesn’t pussyfoot around. He writes about real people drowning in desperation in THE BITCH. He’s got a story to tell you so get ready; it’s coming at you fast. Get ready…

 —Linwood Barclay, international bestselling author of Never Look Away, Clouded Vision, The Last Resort, Fear the Worst, Too Close to Home, No Time for Goodbye, The Accident and others.

Les Edgerton’s brilliantly hardboiled THE BITCH is the tense and hard hitting story of Jake Bishop, a reformed ex-con whose dark past drags him back into a life of crime like an umbilical cord tied tight around his neck.

 —Paul D. Brazill, author of 13 Shots of Noir.

I liked THE BITCH so much that I wanted to publish it. But we lost out and Bare Knuckles Press got a hell of a book. The Bitch is a dark crime fiction story that never once pulls a punch or ducks behind some bullshit like “happy endings” or “closure.” The Bitch isn’t afraid to stay dark until the very end.

 —Brian Lindenmuth, editor/publisher of Snubnose Press and Spinetingler Magazine.

From its opening sentence to its last, THE BITCH is an engrossing journey into some very dark places. Les Edgerton writes like a poet with a mean streak, and his prose goes down easy and smooth like good liquor as it carves up your insides.

—Henry Perez, author of Mourn the Living and Killing Red.

Imagine, if you will, Les Edgerton, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler sipping straight whiskey while swapping lies in the back booth of the Linebacker bar as the “noir” legends welcome Edgerton into the brotherhood of broken dreams. With THE BITCH, Edgerton earns his way into this special literary brotherhood. No, The Bitch isn’t a wild woman, but prison slang for “ha-BITCH-ual criminal.” This is a taut tale of double-cross, death, diamonds and destruction as Jake Bishop fights to protect all he holds dear—his freedom, his pregnant wife, and his teen-age brother—by holding The Bitch at bay when trapped into one last job. Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe could learn a thing or two from this hairdresser.

—Bob Stewart, author of Remorse (Pinnacle) a True Crime Book of the Month selection, Hidden Evil, and others.

 Les Edgerton. I just read his newest hard-boiled effort, THE BITCH, and I realized I didn’t once breathe through the entire thing. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it is one of the most fun, dangerous, if not pyromaniac literary performances of the past year (word up is that parts of it are taken from Les’s own life. Holy crap, this guy shouldn’t be alive!). Like Les’s previous bestselling nonfiction effort on writing, HOOKED, this novel is a sure bet.

—Vincent Zandri author of The Remains, The Innocent, Moonlight Falls and The Concrete Pearl.

Every crime novelist remembers how his breath was literally taken away when he first started to read the early novels of Elmore Leonard. Les Edgerton has used the time he served in prison well. Years from now many future crime writers will also remember discovering him. His first crime novel, but not his first published book, THE BITCH is a realistic crime noir kind of novel that reminds me of Unknown Man 89, La Brava, Stick, and The Killer Inside Me (Jim Thompson).

 —Joseph Trigoboff, author of The Bone Orchard and The Shooting Gallery.

And then, there’s this!

Paul D. Brazill and Luca Veste both named THE BITCH on their lists of top novels of 2011.

It just doesn’t get any better than this. At least not for me! Watch this space for the announcement of its availability.

Blue skies,

Les