DIS 72 Goes Home

Episode 72 of the Dark InSpectre is now online, in which our hero rushes home, but not to a warm welcome.

Here’s an excerpt:

I hadn’t realized it but I’d unconsciously stood, every muscle tensed like I was ready to throw down. The mere thought of that psycho near Mary and the kids was enough to make me want to vomit. The back of my head felt like it’d been split open, my skin was flame-licked and my lungs were raspy and fragile like glass. But I set my jaw and started moving. No way I’d let that crazy f$#* hurt the people I loved. Over my dead body. And of course that was the point, I knew.

Check the episode here: www.darkinspectre.com.

Just 4 Episodes Left!

Author Paging

Seeing as my first novel is going to come out later this year (still waiting on an exact date), my thoughts have been turning to the business of promotion, publicity, and other non-writerly aspects of authorship. So I have made author pages for myself on Goodreads and Amazon. This is all new to me, so hopefully I've set them up correctly, and I hope to start interacting with other readers and authors through them, especially around the time my book, Badge of Lies, comes out. The pages themselves were pretty easy to set up, though for three of the anthologies I'm on Amazon wasn't able to add them to my profile right away. I've had to email Amazon support and hopefully they'll push my requests through.

Next up will be identifying some blogs and review sites in my genre to contact and set up interviews, etc.

But whatever, I'm now an author presence! Feel my literary might! (yawn...)

The Last InSpectre

This morning I put the finishing touches on the final episode of the Dark InSpectre. It's episode 76, which means there are 5 to go for those of you who are following online (I know you're out there!).

It's been an unbelievable ride for a story that started out as a freakishly noir dream I had five years ago. It grew into something I consider to be a wicked cool story, and I hope my readers (however few of them there are) will agree.

I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen next. I know that the guy who's running the audio episodes I've narrated will continue to do so over his radio station, and I've got many, many episodes still to record. And I've pitched the whole series to the publisher who's putting out my hardboiled detective novel, so we'll see what happens there.

There's been a lot of ups and downs with the series, from building up a decent readership to having my web site unceremoniously deleted and my readership destroyed to slowly building it back up on a new web site. But the important thing is I never stopped, I knew all along that the story in my head had to be told, and I kept on writing it. And now it's done, the way I wanted to tell it. So whatever happens next, I did the vision in my head justice and kept the flame burning for Jack Garrett and company the whole way through. I hope I've done them proud.

DIS Episode 71!

Episode 71 of the Dark InSpectre is now online, in which our hero has to survive a trial by fire, literally.

Here’s an excerpt:

I hacked some more, my lungs spasming as they yearned for air. Everything started fading. Was it my imagination, or was there a deep voice in my head? Jack, where are you? Jack!

I was so sleepy, my body starting to float as my cares and worries drifted away. But the voice was persistent. Maybe if I told it what it wanted to know it would leave me alone. And then I could rest. Reluctantly, I answered. I’m in a closet, near the kitchen I think.

Sound and thought grew distant as I floated on ethereal wings. I was everywhere and nowhere as time slipped away.

Check the episode here.

The Final Final

I handed it in, the final, final draft of my pulp detective novel. My editor put all the chapter edits together and sent it back to me for one more read through. I spent the last three days doing that, punching up the language (MOAR cursing!) and making the few sex depictions more graphic (MOAR sexiness!). The beginning was also somewhat out of order, so I fixed that by moving some scenes around. As a result, I pretty much read the whole thing again. And you know what? I liked it. I liked my book, I liked what I wrote and how I wrote it. It's my first novel and I'm unbelievably excited to see it in print.

When's that going to happen? Not sure, I asked my editor. Sometime later this year but exactly when I don't know. The cover art also kicks ass and I can't wait to post a jpg of it. And we settled on a title: Badge of Lies.

So that's it, the book is in the can. Soon will come all the promotional stuff that I don't have any idea about but will nonetheless do. Even if I can't stand blowing my own horn.

It's been a long journey to this point, from writing on the weekends two summers ago while my wife kept my younger son busy, to my then publisher going belly up and leaving me high and dry, to finding a new, better home for my story after I just would not stop trying to find one.

I've learned a lot writing and re-writing Badge of Lies. I've learned that sometimes, you have to approach it like a job, writing even when you don't feel like it. I've learned that my wife is one of the harshest, fairest critics I have ever encountered (though I kind of knew that already). I've learned to trust my instincts and tell my story the way it needs to be told. I've learned that I am a writer.

Even now I hesitate before putting that down, always having been of the opinion that even though I've written countless short stories and an online series, I do not qualify according to the classic definition. In short, I didn't have a book published. No longer. This is happening, I'm a writer.

And soon, the Dark InSpectre will be done, as the series hurtles like a freight train on fire to it's exciting conclusion.  Maybe I just have some plans for that, too...

DIS Episode 70!

Episode 70 of the Dark InSpectre is now online, in which the big drug deal goes bust, thanks to our hero.

Here’s an excerpt:

At that moment, Haskell leaned over and whispered in Haggerty’s ear. My old Captain sighed ruefully before replying. “Don’t worry. We’ll put ol’ Jack out of his misery soon enough.” Then he turned back to Ames and Big Javi. “Now let’s get down to brass tacks, gentlemen.” 

It was the casual way he said it that sent a chill up my spine, washing away any remaining doubt I had about the man I once considered a father figure. 

Check the episode here.