Tom Pitts' new novel HUSTLE is superb! Snubnose Press does it again!

Hi folks,

I'm extremely proud to let you know that my friend Tom Pitts asked me to write the foreward to his newest novel, HUSTLE, and I can't begin to tell you how proud that made me. This book is groundbreaking in its content and approach and to use a term that is overused but apt in this case--absolutely brilliant.

Here's the foreword as it appears in the book:

FOREWORD FOR TOM PITTS’ “HUSTLER”

Tom Pitts’ Hustler is, quite simply, one of the very best novels I’ve read in a long, long time. There’s just no other way to describe it. Years from now, I’m convinced it will be viewed in the same light as the early work of Charles Bukowski—as a ground-breaking classic. To be honest, there is no one to compare Pitts to with this book. It will be the novel that will be considered as the first—and best—of, for want of a better term—“hustler” noir.

Perhaps the best comparison—not in the writing, but in the revealing of an underworld lifestyle—would be to Robert Beck’s seminal classic, Iceberg Slim. The difference is, Pitts doesn’t attempt to portray his protagonist as heroic as Beck does, but more along the lines of Jean Genet’s character Divine in his brilliant Our Lady of the Flowers. But, while both of these writers and both of these books use the settings of the underworld of sex-for-pay and/or aberrant sex-for-pleasure, there is a significant difference in Hustler, in that Pitts’ protagonist, Donny, isn’t portrayed as a man who sees himself as a maverick or a rebel, raging against the system and defiantly proud of his rebellion, but simply as a human being to whom drugs have reduced to an intolerable lifestyle which he is unable to escape, although the entire book is about his struggle to do so. Both Iceberg Slim and Divine embrace their lifestyles, but Donny does not. That is the difference and why, even though there are similarities in settings and lifestyles, Donny is more akin to Bukowski’s Martin Blanchard than Divine or Slim. And yet, he isn’t like Blanchard either. The thing is, he’s an entirely different character than just about anyone in literature. Donny shares similarities with other literary creations, but in the end, he is a whole new creation. And, because of that, Hustler is a whole new category of noir.

And, while Donny doesn’t see himself as heroic, of course he is. He’s a survivor and that is the best proof of heroism that exists. He’s proactive on his own behalf to escape the hell that he’s in and against more terrible odds than Hercules or Atlas ever faced and what makes him extremely likeable is that he doesn’t see himself as heroic in the least.

Hustler is going to be seen by its critics as both remarkable and abhorrent. Often both by the same critic. It’s going to offend some crime writers I suspect, because compared to their own work, which of course they will in their own minds, they’re going to realize that their efforts—compared to Pitts’—are more along the lines of The Hardy Boys Have Adventures in Sugar Creek. In other words, there are many pretenders and posers writing crime and noir novels, who have little or no experience with the element they are writing about. Pitts knows his milieu and better than anyone I’ve ever read. His novel rings loud and clear with hard, honest truth. He knows these guys and he doesn’t judge. Readers looking for the comfort of stereotypes are bound to be disappointed. Like Bukowski’s Martin Blanchard, he allows his characters to have souls and, indeed, insists on it.

Pitts told me that there was some pressure on him to edit some of the rougher parts to make it more palatable for readers. In his words, “They're trying to have me soften it a little, I'm trying to hold fast.” Please do, Tom! If any of this gets “softened” it will only prove that as a culture, we have, indeed, become so PC’d we’ve lost our souls. To “soften” this book would mean literature has lost to moronic politics. And we’ll all be the poorer for that.

END OF FOREWORD

The novel is available in an ebook format as well as in paperback. It's just one cool-looking book and my preference is the paperback version.

Tom and I had become friends online a couple of years ago and then I got to meet him at Bouchercon in Albany this last year and we knocked back a few brews together and instantly bonded. He told me a bit about this book then and I knew right away I had to read it. It's based on his own true life experiences and those are always the best books. You just get the kind of verisimilitude other writers just can't come close to in cases like this.

It's also by the Snubnose Press folks and these people know their crime and noir fiction. Brian Lindenmuth is simply a class act and his books all rock. I'm a bit prejudiced I suppose--they chose to publish a small collection of my short stories a couple of years ago--Gumbo Ya-Ya.

Anyway, I hope you glom onto a copy. You'll see that I haven't steered you wrong at all. It's a book that's going to make a bunch of those "Best of" lists and it deserves to.

Blue skies,

Les

Paul D. Brazill talks about noir

Hi folks,

Just wanted to share an article that just appeared in the respected blog, READ  WATCH  PLAY written by “The Godfather of Noir” Paul D. Brazill. Mr. Brazill does me the supreme honor of singling out THE RAPIST which, coming from him, means the world to me.

READ  WATCH PLAY

Talking about reading every month in 2013

A Shot of Noir

April 24, 2013

tags: crimeread, rwpchat

by readwatchplay

 

‘Noir is often considered as a genre, or sub-genre, and is usually associated with crime fiction. Really though, it is more like a style of fiction, or even a strain of fiction, rather than a sub-genre that doesn’t have to be limited to crime fiction. Noir winds up becoming a type of fiction that you have to search for and not always find, which is part of what makes a great noir story so rewarding when it is found.’ Brian Lindenmuth – Spinetingler Magazine, Snubnose Press.

Paul D. Brazill

Crime fiction is easily and readily sliced up into sub-genres, especially these days. We have the cozy, the murder- mystery, the detective story, the police procedural, the hardboiled. And it’s also categorised by country too – Scandinavian crime, for example, is expected to be very different to the Italian or French variety.

In the above quote, though, Brian Lindenmuth hit the nail on the head when he talked about noir being ‘more like a style of fiction’. More elusive, perhaps. Like a murder glimpsed from the steamy window of a passing train.

The origins of ‘noir’ as a definition of a sharp sliver of crime fiction goes back to the mid-1940s when the French publisher Marcel Duhamel cleverly packaged American pulp fiction – from the likes of Raymond Chandler, James M Cain, Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich – in black covers, as the imprint Série noire. And since then it has also been tied like a noose to the cinematic versions of those books. Films that painted the world with light and pitch black shadows.

Ostensibly crime fiction – or skirting its razor edge – noir is a taste that’s as black and bitter as an espresso or a shot of moonshine-whisky. Noir, for me, is all about mood. And a dark mood at that because, as Otto Penzler once said, ‘noir is about losers’. For writers and fans of noir, we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the abyss between the stars.

So where can you get a shot of noir? Try Derek Raymond,  Maxim Jakubowski, Vicki Hendricks’ Miami Purity, Julia Madeleine, Georges Simenon, Patricia Highsmith, David Goodis, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Albert Camus’ The Outsider, Harry Crews, Nelson Algren, John and Dan Fante, Dorothy B. Hughes, Chuck Palahniuk, Alan Guthrie’s Slammer, Dostoyevsky’s Notes From The Underground, James Ellroy, Graham Greene, Carole Morin, Heath Lowrance’s The Bastard Hand, Ken Bruen’s Rilke On Black, Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square, Tom Wright’s What Dies In Summer, Donna Tartt, Colin Wilson’s Ritual In The Dark, Steve Mosby, Richard Godwin, Megan Abbott, Josh Stallings – who has recently published a ‘noir memoir’ called All The Wild Children. And perhaps the most noir of all, Les Edgerton’s The Rapist, which wears its dark heart on its blood-stained sleeve like a call to arms to the dispossessed, disenfranchised and desperate.

Paul D. Brazill

Paul was born in England and lives in Poland. He is an International Thriller Writers Inc member whose writing has been translated into Italian, Polish and Slovene. He has had bits and bobs of short fiction published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Books of Best British Crime 8 and 10, alongside the likes of Ian Rankin, Neil Gaiman and Lee Child. He has edited a few anthologies, including the best-selling True Brit Grit – with Luca Veste. His blog is here.You can follow him on Twitter.

Blue skies,

Les

SWEET SIXTEEN!

HI folks,
Well, the novel tournament over at Brian Lindenmuth's Spinetingler Magazine continues. The star of our team, Jake, hit the winning shot as he was falling down, to advance JUST LIKE THAT into the field of sixteen. Yay, Jake! We may have lost him for the rest of the tourney as he went out celebrating last night and no one's seen him since...

Anyway, if you get a chance head on over and vote for our team, JUST LIKE THAT. If we win, we plan on spending the money on botox treatments for our head cheerleader, Sandi. (And, yes, Sandi spells her name with an i and dots it with a heart...) Sandi, has a particularly sad life story. When she was three, her parents lost her at the mall and security guards raised her. Horrible childhood! Shop, shop, shop... until your feet fall off! In a way, however, Sandi was lucky. When she was born, both her hands were in the exact shape and size of a credit card, which made her childhood much easier than it could have been. Actually, much better than if she'd been found and raised by wolves...

Sandi will be awaiting the outcome of this round, nervously sipping on a mimosa over at her regular table at Spago's. Let's don't let this brave girl down! Go to http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2012/03/03/tournament-of-crime-fiction-ebooks-sweet-16/ and vote for JUST LIKE THAT, and let's book that treatment for this little warrior!

Some terrific books are left in the tourney and some terrific books have already departed. If you're looking for a list of good reading material for this coming year, just copy down the titles you'll see here.

Blue skies,
Les

P.S. If you haven't read JUST LIKE THAT, just scoot on over to http://www.amazon.com/Just-Like-That-ebook/dp/B005GHDY82/ref=sr_1_3_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330788986&sr=1-3 and pick up a copy. Also, if you have time, please click on the "Like" button. It's at 44 "Likes" and I'm told when it hits 50 Amazon does neat things for the book in terms of marketing. That would be nice! Then I could get MY operation...

Novel "tournament"

Hi folks,

Spinetingler Magazine is having a bit of fun. Editor Brian Lindenmuth is conducting a NCAA-Tournament-style competition for crime novels published last year. It's just for fun, so if you'd like to participate, go to http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2012/02/29/tournament-of-2011-crime-fiction-ebooks/
and cast your vote for the books you like.

As it just so happens... I have one of mine listed. JUST LIKE THAT. I'd ask you to vote for it Chicago-style... you know--vote early and vote often, but... curses! Brian's thought of that and it's only one vote per email address.

There are a lot of really good books in the competition.

Blue skies,
Les

GUMBO YA-YA

Hi folks,

I'm still glowing from the Best Thriller Award from the Preditors and Editors poll! Again, thank you, each and every one who voted and got your pals to vote--what you did for me was the real award.

And... it doesn't stop. I was just informed by Brian Lindenmuth, my editor at Snubnose Press, that my short story collection, GUMBO YA-YA, will be released within the next couple of weeks. He told me I could show y'all the cover... which I LOVE!

Here it tis...

I love it!

Watch for it--I'll be announcing it the instant it becomes available.

The title came about in the same manner as did the title for my first collection MONDAY'S MEAL. There are a couple of requirements traditionally for short story collections. One, at least half should have been previously published in prestigious literary magazines. This collection satisfies that requirement as all but a couple were published in such venues as High Plains Literary Review, Houghton-Mifflin's Best American Mystery Stories, Murdaland Magazine, The Analecta, Blue Moon Literary and Art Review Magazine, Imaginary Friends Anthology, Flatmancrooked, Aethlon, Noir Nation International Crime Magazine, On The Record anthology, and an essay in it was published in Circle K Magazine. A couple of the stories were nominated for the Pushcart Award and Edgar Allan Poe (short story category) Awards. So, that requirement was satisfied. Although, increasingly, collections aren't requiring prior publication as much these days.

Two,  short story collections are traditionally supposed to be centered around a theme.


Which was a problem with MONDAY'S MEAL and I faced the same problem with this one. There just isn't a theme in either collection. And publishers decided a long time ago that readers wanted to know what the stories were about. They didn’t feel readers would buy otherwise. If the reader was into crime or noir, they wanted the stories in a collection to be about… crime or noir. If they wanted to read tales about romance, they wanted to know that’s what they were buying. If they wanted horror… well, you get the picture. The problem was in MONDAY’S MEAL was that the stories included in it were kind of all over the map. No “theme” involved. Just stories. So I came up with what I felt was the perfect solution. I titled it MONDAY’S MEAL.

In the South, where I grew up, Monday was traditionally washday. In my youth (back when dinosaurs first went on the endangered list) Monday was the day when the wife took care of her brood of children, did the week’s wash, cleaned the house, did a host of other chores, and still prepared a hearty meal for supper. Because of time constraints, that was the day most women prepared a stew or, where I lived, on the Texas Gulf Coast, a gumbo. It was the perfect meal for Mondays, because the woman could run in whenever she had a spare moment or two, throw in an ingredient, and go back out and hang out another load on the clothesline and yell at the kids for fighting amongst themselves. What happened was a lot of ingredients went into it—ingredients that, upon first glance, looked unrelated and even questionable as to how they’d work together—but in the end, when she ladled it out to her husband and kids, turned out to be a delicious combination.

And that was how and why that collection came up with its name.

I faced the same problem with this collection. Stories without a theme. This time, the answer came to me much quicker. I grew up in a bar and seafood restaurant in Freeport, Texas. My grandmother, who owned the business, had a wood stove she reserved for one dish only. Gumbo. Only Yankees cook gumbo on electric or gas stoves. True Southerners use wood stoves. And Grandma Louise Vincent was, if anything, a “true Southerner.” In fact, she wouldn’t serve a Yankee in her establishment. Kick ‘em right out. Some who were booted threatened to go to the law as their civil rights were being violated and she told them to go right ahead. It wasn’t a problem for her as the county sheriff was a daily customer… And didn't care much for Yankees either...

She had a real problem when her daughter—my mother—married a Yankee, but that’s another story…

Anyway, nowadays if you go into a restaurant that serves gumbo, it’ll reflect a theme, same as short story collections. “Shrimp” gumbo. “Okra” gumbo. “Crab” gumbo. “Crawfish” gumbo. (Or, as we called it, “Mudbug Gumbo.”) Whatever. In our restaurant, Grandma Vincent made the same kind of gumbo most oldtimers made. A concoction we called “Gumbo Ya-Ya.” It had different ingredients in it, depending on the season and depending on the availability of ingredients. Ingredients, that when considered separately, didn’t always appear to be compatible. But… they were. Once cooked together, the meal ended up absolutely delicious.

My own favorite ingredient—in season—was crab eggs. I absolutely love the orange, gummy texture and flavor of crab eggs. Probably an ingredient that Yankees would turn their delicate noses up at…
Anyway, that’s how this collection of stories got its name. Thought you might be interested in the genesis of the title.

And, I really hope you like the stories in it! There’s a bit of a bonus. Besides the stories, there is an essay I’m very proud of, titled “Censorship and Why I Love Charles Bukowski.” This essay has a history. I wrote it as my graduating address for my MFA degree at Vermont College and delivered it to the single largest crowd at graduation in their history, according to Pam Painter, well-known author and one of my advisors, who’d been on the faculty since the program began. It was later published in Circle K Magazine. In it, I rail against what was a new phenomenon at the time—a concept called “political correctness.” At the time, I saw it as one of the biggest threats against freedom of speech ever propagated. Today, more than 15 years later I see it as… the same thing.

There’s also a bit from a memoir I’m still writing on that I think folks will enjoy. It’s centered around my son Mike and me when he was a little guy and I was coaching his youth baseball league team.

Anyway, I’m pumped up that Snubnose Press has seen fit to publish this work. Just a few years ago, it had become increasingly difficult to get a collection published. Most publishers wouldn’t touch ‘em for a simple reason. Sales usually didn’t justify the publishing expense. Thanks to ebooks, that’s changing. And, that’s a good thing, in my mind.

I hope you’ll agree.

Blue skies,
Les

P.S. Here's a hint for Yankees attempting to cook their first gumbo. Well, two hints. First... you make a roue. Many otherwise good cooks can't make a roue. My mother can't and she's a born and bred Southerner. I'm proud to say that I make a great roue! Second, and most importantly--never put your spices in until just before it's done cooking. Otherwise, all the flavor "cooks up" and you'll be left with a tasteless, bland meal. Just sayin'...

And, if you can glom onto crab eggs, throw 'em in...

RADIO INTERVIEWS ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Hi folks,

Couple of things going on today you might want to check out.

First, I’d recommended my friend Lisa Lieberman Doctor to Jennifer Wilkov to be interviewed on her radio blog show on WomensRadio and it’s up! To listen to a truly brilliant writer and Hollywood executive who operated at the highest levels of filmland and television delivering useful information for both screenwriters and novelists, listen to her interview at http://www.womensradio.com/episodes/Your-Book-Is-Your-Hook!--Military-Wife-and-Author-Plus-A-Creative-Writing-Coach/10632.html

Second, I’ll be participating in my second interview today at 6 pm EST on Giovanni Gelati’s radio blog show The GZone. This should be like a fart in a skillet, as I suggested to Gio that instead of just interviewing me, he might consider some other folks as well, in a panel setting. So, it’ll be moi, plus Cort McMeel and Eddie Vega, founders of Bare Knuckle Press and Noir Nation Magazine, along with Sandra Ruttan and Brian Lindenmuth of Spinetingler Magazine and Snubnose Press. I’ve got stuff coming out from all of these guys, so it should be kind of interesting. Listen to us at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop. The interview goes live at 6, but if you miss it, it’ll be in the archives and readily available. I’m kind of excited about this and hope lots of you tune in.

Blue skies,

Les

TWO-WAY SPLIT by ALLAN GUTHRIE

Hi folks,

I want to talk about a book and a writer I recently discovered who's the "real deal," Allan Guthrie.

Recently, Brian Lindenmuth, my editor at Snubnose Press, made a comment about one of my novels, The Bitch, which was a wonderful compliment to it. He said, “I thoroughly enjoyed it and I appreciated that it was a dark novel that ended darkly. So many novels are dark in the telling but pull back at the end, leaving me to shake my head.”

Normally, I wouldn’t insert myself or my own work into the review of another’s work—that smacks of crude and blatant self-promotion--but Brian’s quote so perfectly fit my assessment of Allan Guthrie’s novel, Two-Way Split, I wanted to give him credit and then trust that the reader of this review and Mr. Guthrie himself, wouldn’t take offense at doing so.

Like Brian, I am so often disappointed when reaching the end of a noir or crime fiction when the work takes a major turn and ends with a “Hollywood happy-sappy” finale. You know, where the mass intellect is satisfied that the person they’re rooting for throughout the book didn’t end up in jail or get killed or maimed or something terrible. I always recall what screenwriter Callie Khouri went through with her brilliant screenplay of Thelma & Louise, when the “suits” at the studio wanted to let the two women live at the end—perhaps go off to prison for a few years and then emerge as happy campers. Thank god, Khouri resisted all of that silly nonsense and had Thelma and Louise plunge to their deaths off the Grand Canyon!

And, here we get another writer who doesn’t bow down to the knucklehead mouth-breathers who prefer such sappy endings! You know those folks. They’re the ones who keep that political correctness bullshit going and whose spiritual forebears were responsible in earlier ages for changing the Cinderella story where the evil stepsisters originally cut off their toes to fit the slipper into the insipid and soulless version kiddies are subjected to today. Those folks who don’t like to see much truth in their fiction… Or in their own lives…

Two-Way Split starts out dark, gets even darker, and ends in almost total blackness. Superb! A novel for intelligent readers. Halleluiah! Sharon Sheehe Stark, a brilliant writer who led one of my workshops during one of my MFA residencies at Vermont College put forth to us her very original and against-the-common-herd-mentality of fiction teachers, when she dismissed the prevailing writing theory of creating characters, who promoted the technique of “having your bad guy like kittens,” as a sort of trick to get the reader to like him or her.

Sharon gave contrarian advice. “Paint your character as dark as you possibly can. Don’t make him ‘love kittens’ or any of that crapola. Create a real person who hates cats as much as he hates everything else. Do not fall temptation to giving him any of those ‘saving graces.’ If you do that (and here is her genius), then the light will shine through the cracks.” (Italics mine.)

This is precisely what Guthrie does in his novel. He gives us characters who act honestly, according to their view of life, as flawed as that view may be to those who prefer their characters to end up in AA or forgiving those who trespassed against them. Ain’t happenin’ in Two-Way Split.

And, best of all, this is a novel that is enormously entertaining. The words such as “riveting” and the phrases such as “couldn’t put it down,” or “this was a page-turner,” are overused in assessments like this—many times, undeservedly--but dang it, all of those and more apply to this novel. I couldn’t put it down; it was riveting; it was decidedly a page-turner… and I’ve become a huge, huge fan of Guthrie. This is going to cost me some bucks, as now that I’ve read Two-Way Split, I have to buy the rest of his novels… and he has a few!

I’ll leave it to others to deliver plot points and all that. I just want to get out the message that this is a powerful book and one you’ll thank me for recommending to you. One thing I will mention is the title. It’s one of the great titles in literature. It works on several levels which I won’t reveal. You’ll just have to read it to find that out.

One note about the ending. As you can guess, this isn’t one of those “happy-sappy Hollywood endings.” It is, quite so, one of the best endings I’ve ever read. A good ending represents both a win and a loss. In Thelma & Louise, for example, the “loss” is fairly clear. They die. The win takes a bit more thought, but it’s also clear. The two women achieve their independence from men. Two-Way Split also has a profound win and a profound loss. You’ll have to read it to see. I promise you it’ll be worth it.

I teach creative writing. You can bet I’ll be using this novel in my classes. I’m already using it to inform my own writing.

Blue skies,

Les

P.S. Allan Guthrie is a writer, editor and literary agent who lives and creates fantastic fiction  in Scotland. I think he wears a kilt and plays bagpipes, but that isn’t confirmed and may just be a stereotype spread by vicious rumors… You can check out Allan Guthrie on his blog and website at http://criminal-e.blogspot.com/ and http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/

GUMBO YA-YA TAKEN BY SNUBNOSE PRESS

Hi folks,

Well, this is turning into a banner year! Two days ago, I received an offer from Snubnose Press to publish my new short story collection, titled GUMBO YA-YA. This makes the fifth book placed this year. I'm starting to get dizzy...

Snubnose Press is the new ebook press founded by the prestigious Spinetingler Magazine http://www.spinetinglermag.com/  and it’s a distinct and singular honor to be published by them. I was alerted to them by two of my heroes, Paul D. Brazill, one of the top noir writers in the world, and by Jack Getze, Fiction Editor of Spinetingler and author of the Austin Carr series. I met Jack a couple of years ago when we were both appearing at the Writer’s Retreat Workshop in Kentucky and became instant buddies. Turns out we both share a love of good writing—in particular, crime fiction—and Mr. Jack Daniels. I was introduced to Paul by Robin Billings, a terrific writer in her own right. The moment I first read his work, his particular genius was evident and I became a huge fan. If you haven’t yet read either of these guys, I’d recommend you glom onto their work. You can check each out on their blogs—Jack at http://austincarrscrimediary.blogspot.com/ and Paul at http://pdbrazill.blogspot.com/. Tell ‘em I sentcha!

Jack gave me a heads-up on Mr. Lindenmuth’s tastes, saying, “He goes for very edgy, nourish stuff. No happy endings, you know?” Do I know?! Jack just described my twin from whom I was separated at birth! He described my own tastes perfectly and I started feeling good about my chances with him. None of my stories will ever be considered by the Disney folks. Reminds me of something my wife Mary said recently. She said, “Okay. How am I going to recommend my husband’s books to my friends? They’re titled THE BITCH and THE RAPIST!” I answered by saying, “I understand. How about if I change them to ‘The Hardy Boys Visit the Playground Slide' and ‘The Sugar Creek Gang Catches Flies’.” She felt if I did so it would make it somewhat easier for her to recommend them…

I do understand Mary’s concerns. I encourage her to voice her feelings. After all, she only fell in love with me because of that Stockholm Syndrome thingy and we’re trying to work past all that business and ancient history…

It pays to network. However, while knowing prominent people in the business is extremely helpful, it still all comes down to the work. No matter who you might know, if the writing isn’t top quality, your work will get rejected the same as anyone else’s who doesn’t measure up. Thankfully, Brian Lindenmuth, the editor of Snubnose Press and nonfiction editor and awards director at Spinetingler Magazine saw GUMBO YA-YA as a quality work. Brian’s wife, Sandra Ruttan, was the co-founder of Spinetingler Magazine, along with her former husband and along with Jack Getze. Check out Sandra’s books on the website—if you like dark crime, she’s your writer!

I always try to practice due diligence and research any press before I submit. Before I queried Brian, I purchased and read their first published book, Speedloader, a collection of six stories by six different writers. An awesome collection! Not a weak story in the lot! Simply a gathering of six extremely good writers. As soon as I read this collection, I knew this was a press I wanted to be published by.

As of this writing, the collection consists of 14 stories and two essays. I’ll be adding one more story to it as Cort McMeel and Eddie Vega, publishers of NOIR NATION are reading five of my unpublished stories to pick one for the inaugural issue, and as soon as that’s determined, that story will be added. It could easily end up with fewer stories, as my experience with collections is that the editor will most likely delete a story or two from the final version if he feels it might not be as strong as the others. Or, maybe not. I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision as I like all of them—they’re my babies!

I love writing and reading short stories. Collections, as a rule, don’t make publishers or their authors rich. But, I have reason to believe we may do well on this one. My other collection, Monday’s Meal, has sold all but about 100 copies of its print run, and garnered rave reviews, including this one from The New York Times:

The New York Times Book Review

The sad wives, passive or violent husbands, parolees, alcoholics and other failures in Leslie H. Edgerton's short-story collection are pretty miserable people. And yet misery does have its uses. Raymond Carver elevated the mournful complaints of the disenfranchised in his work, and Edgerton makes an admirable attempt to do the same. He brings to this task an unerring ear for dialogue and a sure-handed sense of place (particularly New Orleans, where many of the stories are set). Edgerton has affection for even his most despicable characters—"boring" Robert, who pours scalding water over his sleeping wife in "The Last Fan"; Jake, the musician responsible for his own daughter's death in "The Jazz Player"; and Tommy in 'I Shoulda Seen a Credit Arranger," whose plan to get hold of some money involves severing the arm of a rich socialite—but he never takes the reader past the brink of horrible fascination into a deeper understanding. In the best story, "My Idea of a Nice Thing," a woman named Raye tells us why she drinks: "My job. I'm a hairdresser. See, you take on all of these other people's personalities and troubles and things, 10 or 12 of 'em a day, and when the end of the day comes, you don't know who you are anymore. It takes three drinks just to sort yourself out again." Here Edgerton grants both the reader and Raye the grace of irony, and without his authorial intrusion, we find ourselves caring about her predicament.—Denise Gess. The New York Times Book Review, November 16, 1997

Monday’s Meal also earned a starred review from The Library Journal, along with great reviews from “Studies in Short Fiction,” The School Library Journal, The Port Arthur (TX) News, Texas Monthly and blurbs from such writers as Dr. Francois Camoin, Diane Lefer, Vince Zandri, Melody Henion Stevenson, Carol Anshaw, and Gladys Swan. It was also a Finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award.

And, I think this collection is even better. It ought to be—hopefully, I’ve become a better writer since that book came out!

What’s really cool about Snubnose Press is that because of Spinetingler Magazine’s outstanding reputation as a publisher of top-notch fiction, their books are going to be treated by reviewers, bestselling lists, and awards organizations the same as print books. That’s a huge advantage over many ebook publishers.

This marks the fifth book either my agent Chip MacGregor or I have placed this year—it’s without doubt my best year as a writer! Kind of makes up for the lean times

Hope you find this interesting! And, those who’ve known me for awhile know I’ve had some really, REALLY lean years, so I hope this gives my fellow writers who are undergoing dark times now hope for their own futures. As that great Canadian philosopher, Red Green says: “Keep your stick on the ice. We’re all in this together. I’m pulling for ya!”

Exactly.

Blue skies,

Les

How I came up with the title "GUMBO YA-YA"  is a story in itself. Story collections are supposed to fit into a theme. When my first collection, MONDAY'S MEAL was taken by the University of North Texas Press, the tales in it didn't fit much of a theme. They were kind of all over the place--kind of like me about whom folks say I'm like "a fart in a skillet." While this collection is a bit more focused, theme-wise (all dark), they still cover lots of areas. I came up with "Monday's Meal" as a southern institution that fit the body of work. In the Deep South where I grew up (Texas and Louisiana), Monday was traditionally wash day. That meant the wife not only had to take care of her kids and husband and do the regular chores, she also had to do the weekly wash. There wasn't much time to make a meal, so the traditional meal became gumbo or a stew--something the woman could stick on the stove and, when she had a spare minute or so, run in and throw in an ingredient as it simmered all day. There were a lot of ingredients, that, at first glance, didn't seem to go together, but when it was finished and served her hungry brood, turned out delicious. 

I grew up in a bar and restaurant in East Texas that my grandmother owned, and she had one wood stove in the kitchen that was reserved strictly for gumbo. Nowadays, restaurants serve gumbo by particular names, i.e., "shrimp gumbo," or "chicken gumbo," or "crab gumbo," or whatever. Oldtimers just made... gumbo. It could have any number of ingredients and usually did. (The one ingredient that almost always was in it was okra, and of course, to begin with, "first you make a roue.") For instance, in season, one of the best ingredients would be crab eggs. They're delicious and have a wonderful texture and flavor! She would simmer the pot all day long and when she got a minute, throw something into it. We just called it "gumbo ya-ya" as every day there was a different mixture. Again, often including ingredients that you might not think would go together, when you tasted it, it was wonderful. Ergo... the title GUMBO YA-YA. My hope is that when you read the gumbo assembled in my collection, you'll think it's delicious as well...