Janis Joplin Documentary

Janis Joplin and I are the same age--well, I guess I'm older now since she's room temperature. We grew up just a few miles from each other--Janis in Port Arthur, Texas and me in Freeport, Texas. Interesting place and interesting times to grow up in...

Enjoy!

Blue skies,
Les

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

HEROES...)

Hi folks,

I love heroes and heroines. Heroes are what makes life tolerable and give us goals and show us… possibilities. It’s why I love sports so much. It’s that transcendent moment when the pitcher, exhausted beyond belief, reaches back to all those years of throwing in the backyard at the target on the barn wall, dreaming of that day in the last game of the World Series when he throws the final strike, goes to that moment in his memory and brings his exhausted body to the brink to throw the last pitch of a no-hitter. It’s that defining moment, when the tight end, goes up on the last play of the game and jumps six inches higher than he ever has before, to grab the ball and step across the end zone to win the game they were two touchdown underdogs in in the last possible second. It’s the race horse, bleeding from his heaving lungs who forces himself one last stride to go ahead of the favorite.

It’s all those things and smaller moments where a lifetime of toiling in obscurity and anonymity for a moment that may never come that the athlete trains for, that when it does and he puts all those efforts into a superhuman effort, that define a person. And define us all as members of the human race. It’s those moments that show us what’s possible.

I love competition. I abhor the mentality that’s given us “participation trophies” and make just showing up somehow credible.

And, that’s why I like American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent and the other like programs so much. Are they cheesy? Yes, sometimes. Are they staged? Yes, sometimes. But, for all those instances, there are times when we get to see the human spirit lifted as high as it can possibly be lifted. And, those are the moments that reign supreme. It shows us the human spirit. And, nothing is more wondrous than a man or woman overcoming tremendous odds and succeeding. It takes the worst kind of person to ignore or boo that.

I spent the entire afternoon watching those moments on TV and feel I’ve invested my time wisely. It feeds my soul. It makes me believe I can do the same in my writing. It makes me proud to be as member of this thing we call the human race.

It shows me we all have possibilities—that we can all be heroic. And, why would anyone settle for anything less?

Imagine…

Blue skies,

Les

A beatiful voice by an unknown singer. Damn! Those Brits!

Roberta Flack - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 1972

Two things you may have missed...

Hi folks,

Just wanted to post a couple of things you may have missed that I think you'll find interesting.

The first is today's post on the blog, Detectives Without Borders, which reprints a poem of mine that I got to read at Eric Beetner's event at Bouchercon where us noir writer folks read our work. Check it out at:

http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2013/09/noir-poetry-from-les-edgerton-at.html

The second is a post I did a few days ago that I think may have gotten lost because it was short and sandwiched between two longer posts. I think if you give it a listen you'll either want to report me to the appropriate authorities/organization or else just laugh. It was a podcast my friend Vince Zandri and I did with host Joshua Graham live from Bouchercon on Thriller Radio. Vince and I go way back to the nineties when we were both at Vermont College getting our MFAs and beating the poets in softball... Check it out at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thrillerradio/2013/09/20/joshua-graham-interviews-vince-zandri-and-les-edgerton#.UkBnYS-cl8o.blogger

Hope you enjoy these!

Blue skies,
Les

Reading my poem at Bouchercon.

REVIEW OF CORROSION BY JON BASSOFF

Hi folks,

I want to introduce you to a new book that is one of the best novels I’ve read in decades. First, a disclaimer: I confess I was favorably disposed to like this book even before I opened the pages. It’s by Jon Bassoff, my publisher at New Pulp Press. Jon, in my opinion, is simply the single best publisher on the scene today. I say “in my opinion” because it’s just that. There may well be publishers as knowledgeable, as wise, as talented as Jon out there—and I know several who belong in that upper 2%--folks like Allan Guthrie of Blasted Heath, Brian Lindenmuth of Snubnose Press, Frank Nowatzke of the German press Pulpmaster, and some notable others—but I’ve read every one of Jon’s list of published books and there isn’t a single clunker in the bunch. Not one! I don’t know of any other publisher who has done what he has, and that doesn’t denigrate the ones mentioned nor any others—Jon has just put together an unparalleled list of writers and brilliant work.

 (Click on the picture for the Amazon link.)

That said, even though I was predisposed to like his book, I was completely caught unawares of the brilliance of CORROSION put out by DarkFuse. It absolutely blew me out of the water and surpassed my already-lofty expectations.

By ten miles.

CORROSION is easily one of the best novels I’ve read in the last decade and ranks up there—in my estimation—with the best of Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Joe Lansdale and Tom Franklin. And, I read a lot. An average of five novels a week.

It stars a protagonist that I think will end up in the pantheon of the very best of dark characters such as Anton Chigurh, E.O. Smonk, and Joe Lon Makey—the tortured soul of Benton Faulk/Joseph Downs/The Preacher… who are all the same man. Who loves two women enough to torture and kill them—Constance and then Lilith (the name of the first “Eve” in the Bible, which should be a solid clue as to the depth of these characters.).

This is the story told from the fevered and twisted mind of a sociopath/psychopath and when we are in the dark with him, we are genuinely and thoroughly frightened. I think I know something about entering the mind of such a person as I think evidenced by my own character, Truman Ferris Pinter, but Bassoff makes me feel somewhat inferior of my effort with the brilliance he brings to the task of showing us a demented soul. Benton Faulk is indeed, a monster, but Bassoff does what one of my advisers during my stay at Vermont College, Sharon Sheehe Stark, advised us to do when writing a truly despicable character. Instead of that oft-repeated writing “wisdom” others deliver—that “make your villain like kittens”—to gain the reader’s sympathy—she advised the opposite. Don’t do that, Sharon always said, but rather: “Paint your character as black as you possibly can. The light will shine through the cracks.” And this is precisely what Bassoff has done. That light Sharon spoke of, does, indeed, shine through. And not through some blinding beacon but truly “through the cracks.”

I won’t go into the plot—others are much better at delivering plot synopses than I ever will be. I simply urge you to grab onto this novel as soon as you can. If you like truth in your fiction, this is the place to find it. If you believe that in the worst of us a spark of humanity still resides, this is the place to prove that belief. If you simply want to read literature with a capital L, this is where you’ll find it. If you want to read a book that is what Jean Paulhan spoke of in the preface to the infamous STORY OF O, when he said: “Dangerous books are those that restore us to our natural state of danger,” this again, is that book.

Exactly so.

Blue skies,
Les

UPDATE! CORROSION is to be a film! Details at http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/70620/jack-reher-penning-feature-film-adaptation-novel-corrosion