WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Author and Filmmaker, Richard A. Lester

Richard A. Lester, Author
THE CHECK OUT

Richard A. Lester describes his new novel, THE CHECK OUT, as a "satirical thriller."  Set in a grocery store in a poor part of town, THE CHECK OUT follows a group of employees looking to score big through dishonest means. Film enthusiast Lester says his novel was influenced by film noir.

In addition to writing novels, Lester writes scripts and short stories; and he has directed an independent film. You might check out his blog
entitled A Reel Indication. As you can guess, he watches many movies.  And he writes and writes!

Q: Tell us about THE CHECK OUT. Do you consider it a “hardboiled crime novel”? Why?

Richard A. Lester: THECHECK OUT is a satirical thriller which finds a group of loathsome grocery store employees planning to heist $10,000 worth of prize money on the same night. They are each mired in their own dismal circumstances, and believe that the money will dig them out. None of them know about the others’ plans, so things get pretty crazy.

I wouldn’t say that it is a “hardboiled crime novel” in the sense that there is a crime that needs solving. There are definite references to the old Dashiell Hammett novels, and it is rooted in pulp fiction. However, I think there are other elements that push it out of that particular genre.

Q: I noticed that you refer to film noir as influential to your writing THE CHECK OUT. I truly enjoy film noir. Can you explain how your novel compares?

Richard A. Lester: I would say films like The Asphalt Jungle were a big influence on this book.  There is $10,000 worth of prize money, and a group of broken characters who are trying to get to it. Each of the characters is flawed, as is common in the film genre. Many of the people in THE CHECK OUT have shadowy pasts, or are engaged in illicit activities. There are also a number of images that are common to noir. I specifically reference Larry, the store manager, staring out of his window blinds. I also describe the broken city that stands around the store. The book is also inspired by Exploitation films of the 70’s, so there is also a lot of that imagery, as well.

Q: What makes a good villain? How important is a good villain to THE CHECK OUT?

Richard A. Lester:  In my mind, there are two types of bad guys. There are great archetype villains like Darth Vader, who personify evil itself. Then, there are those who don’t know that they are villains. I think there are both types in THE CHECK OUT. There is an escaped convict who plans on robbing the store. He is the straightforward bad guy. Other characters, though, really become villains without realizing it. I like the reader to slowly come to hate some of the people in my book.

Q: Why will readers care about your protagonist? 

Richard A. Lester:  THE CHECK OUT is really an ensemble piece, so there’s not a definite protagonist. There are a couple of characters that you feel empathy for, but they are complicated. Leonard Best comes closest to being a protagonist. He anchors the story in an emotional sense, and provides an avenue of redemption for other characters. I think readers care about him, because he is a real person with a devastating back story. He could be anyone’s grandfather. He is the only innocent in the entire book.

Q: How do you create suspense?

Richard A. Lester: First of all, I have to create characters that the reader will care about. Even though they are selfish, and engage in terrible activities, they all have parts of them that are human. I build future events on each character’s flaw, and try to cue the reader into what’s about to happen. The chapters are usually pretty short, so I also end each one on a bit of a cliffhanger. In one section of the book, when everyone’s story is coming to a head, I switch back and forth to each character. The rapid pacing really raises the stakes, and draws the reader in.

Q:  Did you write THE CHECK OUT to deliver a message – or primarily to entertain?

Richard A. Lester:  THE CHECK OUT is pure entertainment. I love messages in books and film, but I was really just trying to tell a fun story.

Q: How relevant is setting to telling your story?

Richard A. Lester:  The setting is another character in THECHECK OUT, as far as I’m concerned. It informs the reader about each of the people in the book. It can also foreshadow events, or build suspense. In this book, I describe a specific type of location, without trying to tie it down to an actual place. Every city has a bad part of town, with a crappy grocery store. I want the reader to see that part of their own city. I think it makes the story more relatable.

Q:  What’s next? Will you be writing more books like THE CHECK OUT?

Richard A. Lester: I am going to spend the next few months promoting THE CHECK OUT. During that time, I have a short story that will be sent to subscribers of my email list. It features characters that work at the same store that’s in the book, but it’s a separate adventure.

After that, I will begin writing my next novel. It will have one character from THECHECK OUT; however, it will be a totally different type of book. I aim to make it much darker and more literary.

Q:  Tell us about Richard Lester. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Richard A. Lester:  It feels like I am always writing! In addition to my novels, I also run a blog (Onthepageblog.com) dedicated to writing. I have a Facebook and Twitter account that I try to post on daily. I have also been running a movie review blog for two years or so now called A Reel Indication. I am a huge film buff, so I watch a lot of movies. I have a local DVD shop that specializes in the weird and wild, so I spend a lot of time there. I work on short films for other people, occasionally, as well.

About Richard A. Lester

Richard A. Lester is an American writer/filmmaker. He has written scripts, short stories, and one novel to date. He has also worked on several plays, and directed an independent film. His writing is usually gritty and satirical; focusing on outlandish characters and the wild situations that they embed themselves in. He is heavily influenced by film; namely exploitation movies of the 1970′s and noir titles of the 1930′s and 1940′s.  His literary influences include Carl Hiaasen, Christopher Moore, and Donald Ray Pollock. His other interests include history, science, and education. He also runs a film review blog entitled A Reel Indication.

About THE CHECKOUT

Failing grocery store manager Larry Prescott just wants a quickie. With a frigid wife waiting at home, Larry decides to have some extramarital fun with an employee named Maxine Watkins. Though he has no way of knowing it, Larry is sowing the seeds for a crime spree that will be dubbed “The MegaSaver Massacre.“

THE CHECK OUT is a satirical thriller that will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore. It is the story of a $10,000 giveaway, and the employees who independently decide to heist the money on the same night. An ensemble piece, each chapter focuses on the motivations and actions of a different main character. Larry Prescott is an arrogant drunk whose affair quickly spirals towards danger. Maxine Watkins is a scheming liar, determined to claw her way out of indigence. Terrence Claybrook, the assistant manager, is an escaped convict trying to keep his past from catching up to him. Roland Tillman, a blood thirsty fugitive, reunites with his former cellmate during the MegaSaver robbery. Brad, an addiction ridden stocker, tries to turn his life around while picking up the pieces of a broken marriage. They each see the prize money as their only lifeline, and are determined to do everything necessary to grab it.

Links

Amazon

Facebook

http://twitter.com/ralesterauthor

On the Page Blog

Web page for THE CHECK OUT

Goodreads

FunFamily Tips: Writing Exercises for Family Entertainment

Joyce T. Strand, Author
ON MESSAGE & OPEN MEETINGS
Jillian Hillcrest Mysteries

If you follow this blog, you are familiar with my FunFamily writing exercises based on the theory that writing can be fun and even therapeutic. To top that—you can have fun with the family doing brief exercises that will help develop writing skills. 

Following are suggestions for some new FunFamily writing exercises. You can check out FunFamily exercises in previous articles here and here. Enjoy!

·      You are on vacation with some down time between events—and your bored kids who believe they should be constantly on the move. To fill some time, ask each family member to write a paragraph describing a favorite smell so far on vacation—without naming it. Other family members are to identify it. You can substitute favorite noise, sight, person, animal, parent, child, etc. Give a prize—an extra dessert at dinner, for example—for the one who correctly identifies the most subjects.

·      Write a page or two of dialogue spoken by two action heroes without telling who they are. Family members are to identify them.

·      Each family member is to describe a character in a book—preferably one you’ve read. Try to incorporate how the character appears, smells, talks, walks, listens, rather than use words such as hero or villain. The other members are to identify the character.  This exercise can be repeated with other characters in other books.

·      Write a paragraph describing a happy moment you've experienced, such as, the first day of school (just kidding), meeting a best friend, getting a new pet, greeting a family member whose been gone for an extended period of time, opening a special gift. Tell why it made you happy. Read your paragraph to your family. You might be surprised at their reactions.

·      Write a paragraph describing how it feels to have the wind blow against your face; or the sun shine on it; or bitter cold hit it; or rain. Remember to include each part of your face—your nose, eyes, mouth, cheeks, forehead, hair. And remember to include all the senses—smell, sound, sight, touch. Reward the author of the paragraph who includes the most senses and parts of the face.

·      Write a paragraph describing a restaurant and what you ordered—without identifying either the restaurant or the food. Tell how the restaurant and your food smelled (pungent), appeared (filled the plate), sounded (sizzling), and tasted (spicy, sweet). See if your family can guess which restaurant and what food you ordered.

I hope you enjoy these latest suggestions for FunFamily writing exercises. 

WHAT THE EXERTS SAY: Author, George Snyder

George Snyder, Author
BAJA BULLETS
THE FAREWELL HEIST

Award-winning and prolific author, George Snyder, has written more than 30 fiction and non-fiction books.  One of his popular hardboiled crime novel series features sailor Baylor –most call him just “Bay”- Rumble, who typically meets “good cops, bad cops, mob hit men, and long-legged beauties.”  Most recently he has authored a stand alone hardboiled crime novel, THE FAREWELL HEIST, that takes place in an entirely fictional city—River Beach, in coastal Northern California, which is planned for release soon. It involves a heist to grab funds used by politicians for offshore drilling.

George himself is an avid sailor, in addition to being a prolific writer. He is currently working on a new series character: Logan Sand is a former boxer, Shore Patrol, SEAL, Naval Intelligence, boxer; now a private detective connected with the Lady Eye Detective Agency as the token male. When he is not writing or sailing, George likes to ride motorcycles and has owned more than twenty and ridden more than 300,000 miles.

Q: You are a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and have produced the Baylor Rumble hardboiled crime novel series, with the latest, BAJA BULLETS.  What made you decide to write about Baylor Rumble and how did you create his name?

George Snyder: Thirty-plus books so far with eleven still available on Amazon and other outlets. The idea for the Baylor Rumble series came to me back in the nineties; about a guy who designed and built an ocean sailing catamaran who would sail to different parts of the world. This was shortly after I had designed and built a cruising catamaran that I sailed to Alaska and back from Seattle. At the time, I intended to do the same, maybe go around the world. The cat was stolen and destroyed and that ended my dream. But what if this guy actually did it, sailing from port to port, and finding treachery and killing wherever he sailed?  That was the germ for the idea.

I created a biography for Bay. He was abandoned as a newborn and found in a dumpster. The orphanage named him—Baylor because when found he had the lid of a Baylor Bean can imbedded in his forehead. Rumble because as a baby he never cried, just made this rumbling sound from his throat. Nobody in the books calls him Baylor, he’s just Bay   

Q:  What are the attributes of “a hardboiled crime novel”?

George Snyder: The dictionary defines “hardboiled” as: harsh, unsympathetic, unsentimental; tough and callous by virtue of experience; hard-bitten, emotionally hardened. Nobody writes that pure a definition today, if they ever did. Softened to apply to crime genre writing, it shows an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence and sex. Carol John Daly started the genre in the 1920’s; then it was honed by Dashiell Hammett and further by Raymond Chandler, and those who came later: Mickey Spillane, John D. McDonald, Richard Prather, to the guys working at it today, Dennis Lehane, Ken Bruen, Robert Crais, James Crumely, and many others.

With each generation of writers, the meaning grows softer. Now we have Private Eyes with a feminine side, elderly parents in a nursing home, taking their kids to school and with child visitation.

Into the twenty-first century, one character epitomized the true meaning best—Parker. Parker is without emotion or sentiment. He is a craftsman devoted to his work. His work is stealing. What he hates most is chaos. Some men, like some dogs need to be shot—that sort of thing. The creation of Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark, Parker will no longer be as he once was. Donald Westlake is gone. Whoever takes over will fall short. Those who write in the genre today are more complicated with cluttered lives. Lee Child’s, Jack Reacher comes close but his background is too military and he doesn’t quite hit the purity of the genre.

My original intent with Baylor Rumble was to make him somewhere between Parker and Spenser and Travis McGee. But since I’m too soft, he’s too soft so maybe I didn’t make it.      

Q: How do you encourage readers to care about Baylor?

George Snyder: Bay cares, maybe too much. In each book there are two types of women, a tough selfish bitch and a damsel in distress. Bay must conflict with one to rescue the other. Most of the men he confronts just want him dead and work hard to get that done. He does have a few buddies. His loyalty is unwavering.

Q: BAJA BULLETS is set on a sailboat headed for Mexico. How important is setting for telling your story? How do you select a setting?

George Snyder: As stated the original intent was to have him sail from port to port. He lives on his catamaran. I started him local: BAD GIRL DEAD is in Long Beach, California; BLEEDING SISTERS in San Pedro. Because of what happened to him in that book, he vows never to return to California. After CATALINA KILLERS I had to get him out of the country.

In 1993-1994, I had solo-sailed my small sloop down Baja and spent a year cruising Mexico. I spent four months living in La Paz and used that as a base for BAJA BULLETS. As hinted at during the ending, the next book will be about the international slave trade and will take place on and around a Pacific island. The book will be awhile coming.

 But my stand alone hardboiled crime novel, THE FAREWELL HEIST, takes place in an entirely fictional city—River Beach, in coastal Northern California, population about 60,000. I sure liked doing that and will again. No walking the mean streets, drinking in tough dives, no maps, able to steal little quirks from many real cities. Good, easy stuff.

Q: What makes an effective villain?

George Snyder:  I chair a critique group at Barnes and Noble in Long Beach. Those who live a suburban life often don’t like that crime novel people can be so mean. It’s understandable, most suburb types have not had a gun pointed at them or been threatened with a knife, and for the guys, their last fist fight was in high school.

In my genre, a villain has to be as vile and evil as a “B” movie monster. As a twist he may have a slick line of patter and heartbreaking rugged good looks to mask his dark heart, and worse black soul. He is and does pure evil. One thing I love about Elmore Leonard, sometimes his villain is a cowboy or flashy dresser with the personality of a stand-up comedian onstage; one minute laughing and loving and a short time later killing. My villains are hissing bad. I love my villains. To be believable and operate on the same turf, the antihero must be only slightly less evil, the way Parker is.

Q: How do you create suspense?

George Snyder: Short chapters; cliffhanger chapter endings; plants. Raymond Chandler once wrote that when you’re stuck in a story, have a man walk in the room with a gun in his hand. If in a previous chapter somebody says, “Hey, a guy might come in here with a gun anytime tomorrow morning,” then the reader is in suspense.

My chapters run five to seven pages. Readers today are busy; they won’t wallow through twenty pages of narration without a break. But James Patterson (a tough read for me) or whoever writes his stuff these days goes apeshit with his one-page chapters.

To keep your reader you have to roll your story along with little introspection, philosophical meanderings or beautiful scene descriptions. You need lots of conflict and action.  

I try to end each chapter with a cliffhanger, maybe not a plot changer but something to add suspense, to make the reader want to get into the next chapter. You send your character to bed at the end of the chapter; the reader will go to bed too and maybe not pick up the book again. But end the chapter with the guy crawling in bed with a beautiful woman and just when he’s about to practice his lovemaking skills, she pushes the snout of a Glock 9mm against his throat, the reader might want to know what happens next. I love it when the book ends in a gigantic twist but my writing skill isn’t good enough for that.

Plants are important. They make the reader wonder, make him/her think: wait a minute, back in Chapter Six; I saw that black bowling bag with the white stripe in the clown’s closet. He’s the one who stole the money, the virginity, the jewelry and her Bible.    

Q: Do you write to deliver a message? Or for pure entertainment?

George Snyder:  The cliché is, as a Hollywood producer said, “Wanna send a message, use Western Union.” The hardboiled crime genre is not literature. It can be but usually isn’t. The books are for entertainment. And yet…at the end of each Sherlock Holmes novel, the sleuth makes a philosophical statement that might be taken as a message.

Ray Bradbury once said that his science fiction stories were based on: if these events are allowed to continue, this is what might happen. I used that for my one and only science fiction romance novel, BEYOND GENDER WARS. The premise being that if the battle of the sexes became a shooting war, this is what might happen.       

Despite that, in order to flesh out my characters, I might give them a philosophy stated in a sentence or two, their reaction regarding what is going on around them. And my latest books carry an undercurrent sub-theme with national or global ramifications. THE FAREWELL HEIST is about oil drilling platforms off the California coast AND crooked politicians. Yes, it’s a heist novel but the money was being used for political bribes to add more drilling platforms. It should be taken away from them, and my guy Ben Steele intends to do just that. The second book in my new Logan Sand series, PLUNDERED ANGELS covers child prostitution. I’m leaning more toward a small protest voice against injustice by the temporary force in power over regular folks. Evil takes many forms.

Q:  Your resume offers a list of jobs you’ve held in addition to writing. What was your favorite one?  

George Snyder: All my jobs were forgettable. Their only function was to pay rent and put food on the table so I could write. The day I got out of the Navy, I intended to write. If I made a lot of money at it, swell. Even if I only made a little money, I’d still write. Soon after the Navy, I had a wife and two small kids. I was sending out a story a week to men’s magazines and they were coming right back. I had to work. Many years were spent in aerospace assembly, I had no degree, and after I completed my apprenticeship as a machinist, I worked at that. Eventually I got into planning then engineering then tech writing, which was fill-in-the-blanks boilerplate, and editing. Aerospace had layoffs about every year so I’d go into something else.

The now ex-wife went off to live with somebody else and I was never interested enough to get another one. The kids are grown and living their own lives. I retired as Senior Editor of Technical Publications from Boeing. With retirement, I can write full time if I live frugal. And I do.

Since my creative efforts were used for writing, I didn’t want a job that required me to think too much. I liked working with my hands. Building four liveaboard sailing vessels during lay-offs felt good after hours of writing. I’m uneducated and I’ve never had a career. 

Q:  What’s next? Do you plan to continue with the Baylor Rumble series? Others?

George Snyder:  The next Baylor Rumble book will be awhile coming. I’m excited about my new series character, Logan Sand; former boxer, Shore Patrol, SEAL, Naval Intelligence, boxer; now a private detective connected with the Lady Eye Detective Agency as the token male. First draft of THE CALCUTTA DRAGON is done and cooling off while I complete the second book, PLUNDERED ANGELS. I’m trying to make Logan tougher than Bay but I know I’ll never get him as tough as Parker. I’ve never had an agent so my books are brought out by small publishers, too small to be eligible for prizes.

THE FAREWELL HEIST did receive an award from the Southwest Writers Conference. I’ve written some screenplays but I only write them based on my own novels so nothing has happened. As mentioned, BAJA BULLETS does have a film option, whatever that means.

Q: Who is George Snyder? What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

George Snyder: Sail, with cruises along the coast and to Catalina Island. Scuba diving with dives in the Channel Islands, Sea of Cortez, Puget Sound and the Gulf of Thailand, although I snorkel more these days. Motorcycles, I’ve owned more than twenty and ridden more than 300,000 miles through Canada, Mexico, the five western states; even rented them in Japan. I have an old dual purpose on/off road machine now. A memoir about motorcycles is out there: ROAR AND THUNDER, motorcycle journeys. Although I’ve seen most of the Far East, I plan a six-month backpack trek across Europe soon. Gold panning is my new passion, although I use metal detectors more. Even found some color. Of course I read, constantly. And I like movies, good and bad. I also camp, and ocean fish from my boat. I do have a blog about writing: http://onewriterconnection.blogspot.com

But mostly, I write. My books can be seen on my web site:

www.georgesnydersbooks.com

I’m on Facebook-Twitter-LinkedIn-Smashwords-Google-Goodbooks-Goodreads

About George Snyder

George Snyder started by publishing short stories in men’s magazines; one to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. His first novel, ‘The Surfer Killers’ was published as ‘Surfside Sex’ by Playtime Books (part of Neva Paperbacks) in the early sixties. With Merit and Award books and through promoter Lyle Kenyon Engel, he wrote seven Nick Carter spy/adventure “scres and kill” books. One book, ‘The Defector’ went into three printings and was translated into French and Japanese.  As Patrick Morgan, he wrote ten spy/thrillers in the Operation Hang Ten series with titles like, ‘Hang Dead Hawaiian Style’ (translated into French and Japanese), ‘Cute and Deadly Surf Twins’, ‘Deadly Group Down Under’ ‘Too Many Murders’ etc. As Ray Stanley, he wrote ‘The Mini Cult Murders,’ loosely based on Charles Manson.

Breaking loose on his own in the late seventies, Snyder wrote a sci-fi Romance ‘Beyond Gender Wars,’ eventually published as an eBook by Extasy Publishing in 2010. He self-published three books in the Baylor Rumble series, BAD GIRL DEAD, BLEEDING SISTERS,  CATALINA KILLERS, as well as a non-fiction book, ‘Making it on Social Security’ and two memoirs, ‘The $900 Honda’ and ROAR AND THUNDER. In 2011 he connected with BooksForABuck Publishing that published ‘SATIN SHORTS, and 2012 THE CROSSFIRE DIAMONDS. Also in 2012 he received an award from the Southwestern Writers Conference, Albuquerque in the mystery/detective/thriller category for his crime novel, THE FAREWELL HEIST, published by BooksForABuck in July 2013. Solstice Publishing brought out the eBook of #4 in the Baylor Rumble crime novel series, BAJA BULLETS and in 2013 the printed version.

In 2013 he launched his new Logan Sand hardboiled crime series. The first novel, ‘The Calcutta Dragon’ is complete. He is working on the second, ‘Plundered Angels.’ In May 2013 he signed a contract with television media production company Villavision for a 24 month film option on BAJA BULLETS   

About the Books

THE FAREWELL HEIST – Coming soon!

Benjamin Steele (Ben) is having an affair with Aubrey Blair; whose husband Jason has an $18 thousand poker debt owed to Ryan Silky, River Beach club owner. Silky hired PI Kurt Noland to forcefully collect from a list of heavy debtors, Jason at the top. Steele's long time friend, Seth Tanker, wants Steele to head a heist of two million from oil exec, Price Sydney, retired judge, Aldrich Thorne, and Senator Mansfield Monroe. The money is being used to buy senator votes for added offshore drilling platforms. Demonstrators clutter downtown River Beach. The same night Steele breaks it off with Aubrey, Jason is killed in a foggy alley. Police suspect Ben Steele.

BAJA BULLETS

Sailing on a Mexican treasure hunt for buried gold with his two-girl lesbian crew, Bay finds drugs, is attacked by the cartel, and loses all he owns as he is dumped in the desert and left to die. Rescued by shrimp captain, Carlos and his daughter, Consuela, who is lusted after by the evil Pierre Dante, Bay gets involved with a movie star diva, wealthy Mexicans, a cartel war, the CIA, drug territory takeovers, and cops and robbers as he dodges Baja bullets in an attempt to rescue Consuela and get his revenge.

BAD GIRL DEAD 

In this first of the Baylor Rumble sailing/adventure/mystery series, Bay is hired by a mobster widow to find a missing diary belonging to the long-legged beauty blown away right in front of him. Delving into the beauty's history, he learns she was a bad girl, and not the only bad girl he encounters. He meets good cops, bad cops, mob hit men, another long-legged beauty with a killer husband, an ex-stud gone to seed, a lovely willing country girl, and other delightful killers.

BLEEDING SISTERS 

They tortured her. They cut her throat and bled her.

Then they hung her from the rigging of Baylor Rumble's self-designed, self-built sailing catamaran home, Baye Rumb. Her three sisters want Bay to find out who did it. Wading through more murder, mayhem, and marauding women, Bay finds his wisecracking, noisy, disrupting personality fighting terrorists with a plan torn right out of today's headlines, drug smugglers, government agents, exploding boats, sea chases, loving and evil sisters, even some of his own demons to deal with. Finally, Bay is himself tortured and sliced, and not even sure if he can wrap up and tie off this caper.

CATALINA KILLERS 

Sailing to Hawaii, Bay finds an encrusted dinghy with a dead young woman inside. Ordered to Catalina Island by police, he is detained, attacked, robbed, seduced and teased as he unwillingly tangles with movie stars, a film diva, a dirty cop, pedophiles, hookers, a drunken stage mom, a molested teenage actress, an overbearing director, killers and thieves. Forced at gunpoint to take part in the drug deal during a raging gale, Bay, in his third sailing/adventure/mystery caper tangles with them all to find the -- CATALINA KILLERS

 CROSSFIRE DIAMONDS

Millions of diamonds are enough to tempt even the virtuous into crime and Colt Fallon has never been especially virtuous. While cleaning up a botched kidnapping, Fallon learns of the diamonds and the bank where they're being held. He won't be able to get them on his own, but Fallon has a way of attracting the right wrong people--starting with the woman who once betrayed him and who, Fallon is sure, will betray him again. Unfortunately, Fallon isn't the only person after the diamonds. A Chinese syndicate known as "The Principles" has targeted the jewels and Fallon, putting their top assassin on the job.

ROAR AND THUNDER   

From Cushman motor scooters to four-cylinder Hondas, Roar and Thunder is a personal lifetime journey of owning and riding motorcycles. Solo or two-up it tells of riding adventure through five Western states and Mexico, what was going on in the world at the time, and the changes in motorcycles and attitudes about them. There are twisty open roads, mud trails, quick boring freeways, traffic jams, high desert winds, pouring rain and blinding blizzards. The big motorcycle rides of the past are there - Death Valley Run, Indio, Lone Pine, Yuma Prison Run, Sunday poker runs, and just rides for burger and beers. Absent are Harley Davidson only events.

SATIN SHORTS 

After two years in prison, Eddie O'Rourke is thinking payback for Nick the Book, the man who backstabbed Eddie after they ran a jewel heist, stole Eddie's wife, and talked her into shooting Eddie. Nick adds a twist to Eddie's plans when he calls and offers Eddie a chance to help out on a bank robbery. Nick has coordinated a daring multi-bank holdup and arranged an exchange in a money laundry. All Eddie will have to do is receive the money from the robbers, drive it across the border into Canada, and hook up with Nick who'll be waiting for him. For that, Eddie gets a couple hundred thousand dollars and, as a bonus, Nick sends Nadine, a "semi-retired hooker" to keep Eddie company.

Links

Web: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

Blog: http://onewriterconnection.blogapot.com

        

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Making Alienating Characters Likeable by Catherine Astolfo

Catherine Astolfo, Author
SWEET KAROLINE

Mystery author Catherine Astolfo has just launched her newest novel, SWEET KAROLINE. In her newest thriller, she challenges herself to create an alienating character that readers will care about. Catherine has written many award-winning short stories and novels. I encountered her first when I read the Emily Taylor mystery, THE BRIDGEMAN, that kept me up all night to finish.

In the following guest post, she ponders how to make an alienating character—likeable.

Making Alienating Characters Likeable

By Catherine Astolfo

How on earth could I make my character likeable when the first sentence of SWEET KAROLINE goes like this: “I met Ethan on the day that I killed Karoline”?

It’s okay for Dexter; they hired a good-looking, charming actor to captivate the audience. Although my character is beautiful, she’s inside a book, not smiling at you in high definition. Would readers like my Anne?

One of a writer’s primary goals is to ensure that the main character is someone readers can care about. If you don’t give a hoot whether the protagonist lives, dies, achieves her goals, or solves the puzzle, you won’t keep reading. Even if the character is an anti-hero like Dexter, he must appeal to you in some way.

I began to think about all the times in my life when I heard someone say, “I could just kill…him/her.” I knew they didn’t mean it—most of the time. Ending a fellow human being’s life is abhorrent to most of us. When we’re angry, we sometimes want to inflict the worst thing ever on the object of our distress. The worst thing ever would be murdering that person. People who are forced to kill in war, for instance, very often suffer posttraumatic stress disorder.

What would happen if I said in anger, “Oh go drown yourself in the lake” and my target did exactly that? How would I feel? Would I consider myself a murderer? Would I have a mental breakdown like Anne does in the first couple of chapters? PSTD perhaps, even if I only imagined the accident?

What would happen if I dreamt of someone’s untimely death? Let’s say I had a particularly horrible boss so my subconscious conjured up a bungee jumping incident. Next staff bonding event involves a bungee…

Unless, of course, the character is a psychopath. That certainly puts a different stamp on things. We would probably agree that Dexter hasn’t got much of a conscience. My Anne is smart, charming, and has been terribly hurt. She suffers enormously from the “incident”, to the point of an emotional collapse, even though Karoline’s death was ruled a suicide. Perhaps Anne is upset, traumatized and feeling guilty because she didn’t prevent it. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be quite so devastated.

Right?

I think I might have accomplished my goal, though: here’s what Mel Bradshaw, author of Fire on the Runway, says about Sweet Karoline: “Never have I encountered a narrative voice that alternates more deftly between alienating and enticing."

For all things about author Catherine Astolfo, and to buy her books, visit her at www.catherineastolfo.com

About Catherine Astolfo

Catherine is a past President of Crime Writers of Canada and a Derrick Murdoch Award winner (2012). She was a Zonta Club 2012 Nominee for Women in Achievement.

Writing is Catherine’s passion. She can recall inventing fantasy stories for her classmates in Grade Three. Her short stories and poems have been published in a number of literary Canadian presses. In 2005, she won a Brampton Arts Award. Her short stories won the Bloody Words Short Story Award (second and first) in 2009 and 2010. She won the prestigious Arthur Ellis Best Short Crime Story Award in 2012.

Catherine’s novel series, The Emily Taylor Mysteries, are published by Imajin Books and are optioned for film by Sisbro & Co. Inc. SWEET KAROLINE was released on July 14, 2013.

Purchase Catherine’s books at www.catherineastolfo.com

About SWEET KAROLINE

If I knew what I know now, would I have searched so hard for the truth?

Anne Williams says she killed her best friend, Karoline. But did she? Or is there more to Karoline's mysterious death than meets the eye?

Anne embarks on a compelling journey to discover her past and exposes an unusual history, horrific crimes and appalling betrayals. Through unexpected turns and revelations, Anne learns about love, family and who she really is. Can she survive the truth?

Links

Amazon

Webpage
Twitter @cathyastolfo

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Author April Voytko Kempler

April Voytko Kempler, Author
THE ALTERED I, A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR
Memoir of Joseph Kempler
as told to April Voytko Kempler

April Voytko Kempler brings us her father-in-law’s story about survival in six concentration camps as a teenager during the holocaust and what that experience did to him. She tells THE ALTERED I, A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR in the first person after listening to him relate his story on PBS and on other platforms.   

Currently a Reno resident, April started her life in Southern California. As with many writers, she has been an avid reader since childhood. She is patiently waiting the publication of  THE ALTERED I in between helping out with the business she and her husband operate.

Q:  Tell us about THE ALTERED I, A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR. Is it fiction or non-fiction?

April Voytko Kempler: It is non-fiction told as a first person narrative.

Q:  What led you to write THE ALTERED I, A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR?

April Voytko Kempler: I've always had a deep interest in the Holocaust, but never thought I would write a book about it until I met my future father-in-law, Joseph Kempler. I was significantly touched by his story. I heard him speak publicly about his ordeal, but never delved into the particulars with him. Then in the early 2000s he was asked to be part of a PBS sponsored documentary entitled Knocking. That was my true inspiration for wanting to write the book. After seeing Joe's experiences in the context of the documentary my curiosity about him was piqued more than ever. I also saw that people were drawn to him and wanted to know more about him too. I had hoped he would write his memoirs, but it was clear he needed someone to jump-start him and that ultimately became me. It was a great honor to be the one to write his story for him. 

Q:  What is the significance of the title THE ALTERED I?

April Voytko Kempler: I don’t read poetry as a rule; however, The Mental Traveler by William Blake grabbed my attention. Especially one short line in parenthetical's: “(For the eye altering, alters all)” and that just blew me away. I knew somehow this was going to be the book’s title. It fit so perfectly with Joe’s life. His "eye" had altered, not by his choice or will, but his life course was so changed that everything else had changed as well. His focus, his goals, and even his spirituality changed direction. The title The Altered I is such a powerful sentiment for the theme of Joe's story.

Q:  What did you learn from writing THE ALTERED I?

April Voytko Kempler: First, I learned I could write a book! I learned a lot about the publishing world from a business perspective, I learned I can market myself. But, most importantly, I learned patience. I learned to be patient with myself and others. I learned if I stretched myself out of my comfort zone I would be OK. And I learned that there is a lot of support and camaraderie among the writer world. Writers really do want to support other writers and see them succeed. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

Q:  Do you plan to write other holocaust books?

April Voytko Kempler: I definitely would like to try my hand at writing a fictionalized account of the Holocaust. Fiction is really the direction I would like to go with my writing career, unless of course another fantastic true story presents itself to me. But, I will say non-fiction is challenging. I had to research a lot of the historic facts and make sure what I was writing was accurate, especially with something as sensitive a topic as the Holocaust. 

Q:  Why are you a writer

April Voytko Kempler: I love a good story like anyone else, plus I have an overactive imagination. When I read a riveting book I can’t help but think can I do this too? Can I make people lose themselves in a world I create? Also, writing is enjoyable to me. I very often express my thoughts better with the written word than speaking face to face. There’s no delete, or back-space button in real life. I like the self-editing factor of writing.

Q: How do you make your readers care about your book?

April Voytko Kempler: I have a character, although he is a real person, who people can relate to. He is far from perfect, he makes all kinds of mistakes, he is flawed as a human but people can sympathize and emphasize with him and his plight. Strangely enough I had one gentleman come up to me and say the opening chapter reminded him of his own father. People can relate to the story even if their background and personal history is different, it resonates. And I only have four sample chapters available right now and people keep asking when can we read more? That is what every author loves to hear. There is more, I finished the book, but it hasn’t been scheduled for release yet, so I ask for a little more patience on the part of the readers (I’m trying to be patient too!)

Q: What do you consider the most important elements of any good writing?

April Voytko Kempler: A little bit of mystery, a little bit of romance, some action, and a happy ending. I really like happy endings.

Q: Who are your target readers? Who do you think will most benefit from reading your story?

April Voytko Kempler: I wish I could say one specific group of people, but honestly everyone I talk to young, old, parent, child, teacher, spiritual leader, they are all so interested in reading and learning more about the Holocaust. I especially think it is important for young, school-age children because the generation that went through WWII and the Holocaust is diminishing and so are their stories. I don’t want to see this subject end up as ancient history. As a people we are still affected by all that happened during that time. The damage still trickles down through the generations. I don’t want the important lessons of that time to be forgotten.

Q:  What’s next?

April Voytko Kempler: More writing of course and hopefully more books published!

Q:  Tell us about you. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

April Voytko Kempler: I’m usually reading. I fool around on the internet too much! I also volunteer for my church and my local historic society. I assist my husband in our window covering business and I’m a busy wife! My husband and I love to travel so when we get a chance we are planning our next getaway.

About April Voytko Kempler

Born in Southern California, April Kempler currently resides in her "adopted" city of Reno, Nevada. She lives with her husband, who doubles as her editor-in-chief. April's first book entitled The Altered I, a Holocaust Memoir, is a first-person narrative about the Holocaust. 

April loves reading, a habit she picked up as a child. Instead of playing with the other kids, she could be found with her nose in a book.  She reads a variety of genres, but is especially drawn to historical fiction.

When April is not writing or reading, she assists her husband in their window treatment design business answering the telephone, making appointments and helping to install gorgeous draperies on naked windows.

About THE ALTERED I, A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR

Joseph Kempler is eleven years old in 1939, when World War II begins. German soldiers have invaded his hometown of Krakow, Poland. Forced with his family to leave their home, business and belongings, Joseph embarks upon an adventure that will change his life forever. Joseph survives six concentration camps, some of them death camps, from the ages of fourteen to seventeen.

Along the way he abandons family and faith. He curses God for allowing the Holocaust to happen and becomes an atheist. When he arrives at the concentration camp Melk, he encounters, from a distance, an unusual brand of Christian. He is told they are called Bibelforscher, Bible Students. He is astounded to see these Aryans imprisoned in the same concentration camp as Jews and is shocked to learn that they can leave the camp anytime, all they have to do is renounce their faith, but they won't do it.

This leaves an indelible impression on young Joseph's mind. Many years later, after emigrating to America, Joseph miraculously encounters this group again when they knock on his door. Always curious about their faith he questions them, and ultimately he converts to Christianity. THE ALTERED I chronicles Joseph's life and the circumstances leading to his life altering decision, while shining new light on an untold story of the Holocaust.

Links

Link to introduction to prologue and sample chapters:

Link 1 

Link 2

LeRue Press website to purchase pre-order: see the tab Pre-Order Books on far right side of page.

Blog 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprilkempler

 Facebook 

 Pinterest 

Goodreads author: Soon!

Amazon: Soon!

Barnes & Noble: Soon!

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY: Historical Thriller Author Carl R. Brush

Carl R. Brush, Author
THE MAXWELL VENDETTA
THE SECOND VENDETTA

Carl R. Brush writes historical thrillers set in the San Francisco area – a location I truly appreciate. (My own books are set in the modern-day San Francisco area). He has just published THE MAXWELL VENDETTA, a prequel to THE SECONDVENDETTA, one of my favorite historical thrillers. We fans enjoy his really bad villain, reluctant hero, characters drawn from real historical figures, and themes still relevant in today’s world, like bigotry, corruption, and large companies exploiting little guys.

Carl is a retired English/Drama teacher and school administrator who rediscovered his alto saxophone and has been playing in a senior jazz ensemble they’ve named the geezer band.  He is working on his third historical thriller in the series set in the San Francisco area in the mid-nineteenth century. 

This is Carl’s second contribution to this blog. You can read his earlier guest post “Turning Real People into Characters” here. 

Q: Why did you decide to publish a prequel, THE MAXWELL VENDETTA to THE SECOND VENDETTA?

Carl R. Brush: Sounds kind of backward, doesn’t it, to publish the prequel after the sequel? That’s how my life often goes. I wrote THE MAXWELL VENDETTA first, started shopping it around, and garnered a nice collection of “So sorry,” notices. In the meantime, I tried a couple of other projects which generated little enthusiasm either at home or abroad, so I went ahead with the sequel, which I’d planned to do “sometime.” That became THE SECOND VENDETTA. When Solstice Publishing accepted it, I reworked THE MAXWELL VENDETTA, applying suggestions that Solstice Editor-in-Chief, Nik Morton, had made regarding THE SECOND VENDETTA, which brings us up to today. Not the way I designed the process, but I guess someone else in the great somewhere redesigns the original design, and not always intelligently, if you ask me. But she doesn’t ask.

Q: How do you make events from the early 20^th century relevant to today’s world?

Carl R. Brush: Easy. All the central conflicts in both THE MAXWELL VENDETTA and THE SECOND VENDETTA could be ripped right from today’s headlines—Individual and institutional racism; corporations brutalizing us commoners; political corruption; media manipulation; romance, requited and un-. Sound familiar? The thing is, you set these issues down in a historical context, and they suddenly look different and somehow fresh. Many of my readers have commented about how interesting and surprising it was to think that folks in long skirts and high collars struggled with our same uglies. Interesting, yes. And both discouraging and exhilarating to think how little we’ve solved or changed.

Q:  I admit I’m biased. I enjoy exploring history through characters and their experiences. How do you build your characters in an historical setting so that they appeal to readers?  Are they based on real people?

Carl R. Brush: I think the process of building characters is pretty much the same for any genre of fiction. For your main people, you imagine folks who interest you, set them down in nasty situations, and see how they react. Do they turn tail and run? Attempt to fight their way out? If so, do they fight fair? Do they succeed or fail? How do they handle the results either way?

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got (Credit: author Les Edgerton) was to put your characters, especially your protagonists, in fixes from which you have no idea how to extricate them. You learn a lot about both the characters and about yourself working through those. To me, writing your way in and out of these crises, is much more valuable than an outline for deciding how the story goes. And a lot more fun. I know one great example from a book you might recognize, Joyce, called ON MESSAGE, in which a certain lady finds herself in big trouble and makes ingenious use of an undergarment. I won’t give anything else away, because if they haven’t already, I advise your readers to dive right into that terrific novel and find out what she does with what.

As for the idea of basing characters on real people, some of my characters, especially in THE SECOND VENDETTA, are not only based on real people, but were actual historical figures. Ambrose Bierce, for example, really was a prominent writer of the period. Hiram Johnson did win the 1910 CA governorship. However, I admit I made only a moderate effort to research and recreate their personalities. This is fiction, after all, not biography.

I make no conscious attempt to base my fictional characters on real people. After the fact, however, I see resemblances between my protagonist, Andy Maxwell, and myself; and there are strong parallels between his mother, Carolyn Maxwell, and my own mother: Strong, decisive, often narrow and opinionated, compassionate when it counts.

Q: One of your reviewers described Yellow Squirrel as “one of the most delicious villains I've seen in a long time.” I concur. They don’t come any “badder.” How did you create such a villain?

Carl R. Brush: I wanted a guy who had a strong and believable motive for getting even and who wouldn’t give up on it. As I wrote, though, I realized I needed another dimension if the notion that this guy would keep his resentment alive for decades was to be believable. After all, other people in his family had suffered the same injustice he had, but had moved on. I dove into his psyche and realized that he is someone who lives to intimidate and destroy. It’s his fulfillment in life. Whether it’s as inconsequential as forcing people off a sidewalk on a downtown stroll or as felonious as slaughtering a whole family, domination and destruction are his raison d’etre.

That idea of fulfillment through annihilation, I think, gives a positive (in his mind) base to his evil actions and makes him more interesting than your melodramatic mustache-twirling villain who’s bad just because. On a more philosophical level, I see Yellow Squirrel as a personification of evil itself. Many folks have said of Milton’s Paradise Lost that the Devil is the most interesting character. Where would storytelling be, after all, if we had only angels to talk about?

Q: How important is the concept of a villain to creating suspense and, for that matter, to defining a hero?

Carl R. Brush: As I’ve said elsewhere, there are many wonderful novels that have no central bad guy. Wendell Berry’s fine works have no such characters as far as I know. Kate Atkinson’s latest, Life After Life, is the most recent example I can point to. As for me, though, I need my bad guys front and center.

Yellow Squirrel (I hope) creates dramatic tension in both my Maxwell novels whether he’s in a particular scene or not. I give him his own chapters, but even outside them, his threatening and intimidating interactions with characters other than those he intends to destroy mean that those characters carry his presence with them everywhere. Thus, danger, in the seen or unseen presence of Yellow Squirrel, lurks behind every page the reader turns. At least that’s what I intended.

As to Yellow Squirrel’s effect on our hero, he’s the foil, the forge, the crucible that defines Andy. Andy’s a reluctant hero, drawn into a role for which he considers himself unfit, but a role no one else can fill. And it’s a role crucial to the survival of his family and many others besides. The story is about how he learns to build and develop a part of himself he didn’t know existed. Without Yellow Squirrel, he’d have never discovered that element of his character at all.

Q: Did you write these novels to entertain or to enlighten readers about the history of the period?

Carl R. Brush: Both. Sam Johnson said literature should edify and delight. That impulse comes from being a teacher all those years, I guess. Or maybe becoming a teacher came from the desire to edify and delight.  I do hope readers will pick up some of my love of the time and place as well as some knowledge about it. It’s why I love reading historical fiction myself.

Q: How did you become interested in San Francisco/California history?

Carl R. Brush: That seems to be just part of my DNA. My great grandparents came to Northern CA via 1864 wagon train. My natural inclinations and abilities were always literary and verbal rather than mathematical and scientific. When I was growing up in a rural part of the Sacramento Valley, San Francisco was my city on the hill, my escape goal from small-town monotony. My interest has never flagged, so here I am.

Q: What’s next?

Carl R. Brush: I’ve just finished drafting a third novel in this group. The working title is Bonita, and I’m working backwards again. It’s set in a San Francisco of the even more distant past, a time when the town was still called Yerba Buena.  Unlike the other two, this covers a dozen years (1842-54) instead of a couple of months. The Maxwell part of it comes in the form of a cameo appearance by the patriarch of the other two books, Carter Maxwell, who’s referred to but never actually comes to life in either work. The working title for this one is BONITA, which is the name of the heroine, a 12-year-old (when the book opens) who discovers that she’s not, after all, the niece of her guardian uncle, a prominent figure in the area, but a waif he’s treated as nearly a daughter since she was an infant. It’s quite a switch of protagonists for me, and it’s a wonderful adventure. My beta people think she’s a neat character, so I’m encouraged. I believe BONITA is even better than the Vendetta’s, but I also believe you should believe that your best creation is the one you’re working on now.

Q: Tell us something about Carl Brush. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Carl R. Brush: I’m a lucky guy. A retired English/Drama teacher and school administrator, I live in Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, with my wife, Susanne, who blessed me with three stepchildren, who, in turn, blessed us with six grandchildren. Four of them live within a mile of us, ranging from 3-14 in age, so we do a lot of taxiing and babysitting.

I had a rural upbringing by a dad who was raised on a small farm, and an uncle who was a foreman on a couple of ranches. The family spent many vacations hiking and fishing around the Sierra. Thus, though I can make no claims to some of the skills my characters possess, I have some acquaintance and experience with those who do. On the other hand who among us has personal experience with the centuries past about which we choose to write?

A few years ago I picked up my long-neglected alto sax and joined a senior jazz ensemble we call the geezer band.

Susanne and I do a fair amount of traveling, and we plan to keep at it as long as our health allows us to endure airports and long plane rides. We’re headed for the UK next month.

Publishing my own novels was a lifelong goal, so holding that first paperback in my hands was and is a super thrill, and I’m grateful to you for this opportunity to talk about how it got there. Thanks for the insightful individualized questions.

About Carl R. Brush

Carl Brush has been writing since he could write, which is quite a long time now. He grew up and lives in Northern California, close to the roots of the people and action of his historical thrillers, the recently-released The Maxwell Vendetta, and its sequel, The Second Vendetta. A third volume of the trilogy, set in pre-gold-rush San Francisco is nearing completion. Its working title: Bonita.

You can find Carl living with his wife in Oakland, California, where he enjoys the blessings of nearby children and grandchildren.

Journals in which his work has appeared include The Summerset Review, Right Hand Pointing, Blazevox, Storyglossia, Feathertale, and The Kiss Machine.  He has participated in the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop.

About THE MAXWELL VENDETTA

Early California, 1908. Andy Maxwell sets out to solve the mystery surrounding the stabbing death of his younger brother outside a San Francisco bar.  He’s certain the murder is part of a vendetta against his family, but frustration and suspense mount as he fails to convince authorities that the killing is anything more than the sad consequence of a brawl between a pair of drunks. The police, the U.S. Army, even his mother refuse to entertain the possibility that the killer, Michael Yellow Squirrel, is one of a clan who intends to wipe out the Maxwells and their California Sierra Nevada ranch.

Andy’s quest for the motives and perpetrators behind the scheme carries him from California to Wyoming and deep into his family’s pioneer past and psyche, where he unearths disturbing secrets about, among other matters, his own racial heritage. It also plunges him into a romantic dilemma involving a blonde debutante and an Arapaho princess. Although Andy’s initial purpose is to foil a conspiracy against his family, his journey eventually leads him to question not only his own values, but also those of the frontier that spawned and nourished them.

This historical thriller, the prequel to another gripping historical novel, THE SECOND VENDETTA, is set nearly one hundred years in the past, yet THE MAXWELL VENDETTA embodies themes as contemporary as racism, political corruption, and sexual exploitation. In short, contemporary America mirrored in a novel of early California.

About THE SECOND VENDETTA

Not again.

It’s taken Andy Maxwell two years—1908-1910—to help his family recover from the vendetta that nearly killed his mother, burned their Sierra Nevada ranch house, and exhumed some long-buried family secrets—including the fact that his father was black. At last, Andy thinks, he can return to University of California and pursue his history doctorate in peace.

Not so.

First of all, it turns out they don’t want a miscegenated mongrel in the Ph.D. program. Just when he’s enlisted the eminent San Francisco journalist, Ambrose Bierce, to help him attack that problem, it turns out that marauder who started all the trouble in the first place didn’t stay Shanghaied. Michael Yellow Squirrel is back for another try at eliminating every last Maxwell on earth. So much for school.

And then there’s the election.

Reform gubernatorial candidate Hiram Johnson wants him to run for the California legislature and help foil the railroad barons.

And then there are the women.

The debutante beauty and the Arapaho princess.

So, how is Andy Maxwell, going to deal with all these quandaries? The Second Vendetta answers that question and many more with a tale-telling style that pulls readers into the book and doesn’t let them go till they’ve turned the last page, wishing there were more yet to turn.

Links

Book Links

THE MAXWELL VENDETTA – a prequel to THE SECOND VENDETTA

Available in e-book and paperback at Solsticepublishing.com, Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/PXmxt8), and other outlets

THE SECOND VENDETTA 

from Solstice Publishing available on Amazon and at Solstice Publishing

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Twitter:  Carl R Brush @carlrbrush