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The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Black Dahlia is a fictionalized account of the investigation into the real life torture, mutilation, and murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947. It is appropriately dark and deeply disturbing. On balance, I thought it was quite well done. It was consistently engaging and sufficiently challenging throughout. It is not loads of fun unless you really embrace the darkness. Continue reading
The Book Review: Bane or Boon?I’ve been looking for book bloggers and reviewers to give me objective reviews of A Cup of Pending. Reviews are a numbers game for indie authors like me – the more reviews and ratings we get, the more readers we are likely to attract. It’s a snowball effect. It’s the on-line equivalent of word of mouth recommendations.
To this end, I have been trolling review groups on Goodreads. You’d think this would be a fairly straightforward process: find a post by a potential reviewer looking for books to read, reach out, and, if they’re interested, send them a book. There’s more to this than meets the eye, however. For example, you probably don’t want to send your military action adventure story to a millennial fan of paranormal romance. You are not likely to find an open mind in such an exchange. Of course, the reverse is also true.
With this in mind, I try to vet potential reviewers before I approach them. It just makes sense to get a sense of the kind of treatment I can expect before I put the future of my life’s work into someone else’s hands. Frankly, I have been stymied by this process. Continue reading
Socially Responsible Themes in A Cup of Pending.I have rather a lot to say about poverty and homelessness in Cuppa. Some would probably say, too much, while others, not enough. Depends where they fall on the spectrum of wealth distribution.
Fun Fact: most of us are a lot lower on the scale than we imagine.
I know that I personally am a lot lower than I used to be, and the precipitous slide has prompted me to give up my Voldemort Republicanism for something more egalitarian and charitable. That’s just me, though, everyone reacts according to their own particular sensibilities and beliefs. Continue reading
A Cup of Pending treats homelessness with an air of mirth. This is because I am a funny man with a highly developed sense of humor and too much irreverence to serve most sensitive political issues.
I realize, though, that homelessness is not funny. This is why I have tried to shed some light, however airily, on the problem in my book. I relied on several sources for the information I included. One was an excellent article by Malcolm Gladwell that appeared in the New Yorker in 2006 titled Million Dollar Murray. I recommend it to your attention. Continue reading
Paperback WriterJust received a dozen copies of Cuppa from Create Space – the on-demand print arm of Amazon. This is the first time I’ve held my new baby, and I have to say it’s a very satisfying experience. Glad I changed up the cover. There’s something lovely and ethereal about the colors and the slick feel of the cover. I keep picking one up and carrying it around the house.
I can’t bring myself to look inside because: 1. I already know what’s in there, and 2. I don’t want to crack the spines. OCD? Maybe. Now that I’m an author, I feel the need to be a little eccentric. It’s not like I’ve changed. I just have a bit of an excuse now.
BTW, if you want one of these beauties signed by me, I’m happy to do that. Just let me know through the contact form on the last tab, and I’ll respond with details.
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It’s a laugh-stoked romp through Miami Beach, featuring a host of quirky characters. Reality TV that’s not quite real, Prosperous Christians circling the wagons to keep the poor at bay, high-profile charities that do more for their patrons than they do for the needy, the politics of growth and austerity, romance novels that pander to our baser instincts, South Beach sophistication where swaying palm trees shade unseemly goings on—all these and more are fair game in this wickedly funny second novel by Jonah Gibson.
Cliff Trask and his friend, Tommy, an unlikely pair of vagrants with some unusual resources, run afoul of a hedge-fund manager in an upscale coffee shop. Continue reading
We All Judge a Book by Its Cover!I’m fooling around with a new cover concept for A Cup of Pending. I don’t see any other authors doing this for books they’ve already released, but I figure if it needs fixing, it needs fixing. I’m not sure that mine does need fixing actually, but I’m at that awkward stage where I second guess every decision regarding the book because that’s just my nature. Writing is a lonely occupation, fraught with peril for those lacking supreme confidence or a fully developed sense of entitlement.
I’ve heard that something like 67% of readers buy books based on the cover. They do this in spite of the ancient advice against it. It seems to be a natural inclination. I figure most of the rest of the people buying books are personal friends and family of the author. It pays, in other words, to have the best cover imaginable at any given time. Continue reading
Do Long-suffering Bastards Write Better than Happy Schmucks?I don’t write or post much about the craft of writing for several reasons:
The Last PolicemanI knew just a few pages into the first chapter that I was going to give this gem 5 stars. It has everything I like in a book. It is unassuming but self-assured, well crafted but without artifice, engaging but not easy. It gets categorized as science fiction, and I suppose it qualifies on a superficial level. There is some science, but it is not set in a futuristic or post apocalyptic universe full of imagined technological wonders. Nothing in it is unfamiliar. It takes place in contemporary New England. The only thing that sets it apart from the world we know is that the world in the book is about to end from impact with a large asteroid.
Concord Police Detective, Henry Palace, catches a new case: an apparent suicide in a MacDonald’s restaurant men’s room. The crime scene doesn’t add up for Palace, but he’s new at his job. The more experienced detectives and the prosecutor’s office all want to call it suicide and get back to worrying about the approaching cataclysm. Palace plods doggedly through the evidence in a world gone mad over its shortened future. The work, the puzzle, the mystery of it, keep him sane, at least until it seems rather to be making him a little crazy. Continue reading
There is a rhythm to the affairs of the universe. It has a beat. You can’t really dance to it because it is very, very slow. One beat takes two lifetimes. This is why the closest anyone has gotten to the sound of the universe is ‘om.‘ They could only register one lifetime’s worth before they shuffled off this mortal coil, and one lifetime’s worth is only half a beat. The sound of one complete beat, which takes two lifetimes, sounds more like ‘nom nom,’ which is the sound of the Universe chewing you up. Is it any wonder that most people don’t listen very closely?
All the other rhythms—the ones you can dance to—syncopate to this fundamental rhythm in wondrous, poetic ways. If you get out of step with these non-essential rhythms, you can assume that you are also out of step with the universe. It’s important to hear the beats all around you, and dance to the ones that have meaning in your life. Continue reading
