September 5, 2022

Happy Birthday Anthony!🎁🎉

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Author's Note
New Releases (That I'm Excited About)! 
Two Writers You Should Read
Events
It's Contest Time!
Other Writing
 

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Technically, the title for this newsletter should be "Happy Birthday, Anthony," since today is MY birthday and, come to think of it, I don't even know anyone named Anthony. Plus. come on, do you really think I'd celebrate SOMEONE ELSE'S BIRTHDAY? Gross. This day is about me, people.

But I went with that title because I thought it was a cute play on words, since today is my birthday and this weekend I'm up for an Anthony award for Best Short Story. My choose-your-own-adventure-styled story, "The Search for Eric Garcia," was nominated, and this story had the lovely honor of being singled out by the New York Times in their review of the collection in which it was published (Midnight Hour). Of course, you wouldn't know about the NYT thing because I'm very modest, unless you happened to notice the small plane that I paid to fly over my house with a banner and the quote for an entire month.

Listen, man...awards are a weird thing.

Get a writer drunk at a conference (NOT HARD) and they'll tell you that awards are complete bullshit and don't help sales and are basically popularity contests and bring out the worst in everybody.

Some of that is probably true.

But I'll also say that I've rarely come across a slate of nominees who didn't deserve to have their work honored. It's rare that I've read every book in every category (and I read a lot) but, more often than not, the ones I've read are noteworthy for a reason. For all the talk about popularity and politics, good books just don't happen. The years of work that a writer puts behind them are impossible to measure and the process is, frankly, wildly impractical to even begin.

Sometimes I think about the time I've spent writing, and how much money I've made hourly, and I do not recommend doing this.

And, look, I don't think anyone starts writing with the goal of making money. I certainly didn't. I started writing because I loved reading and writing and I loved books, and the idea of having my own story between covers was the greatest thing I could imagine (and still is). And there comes a point as a writer, when you seek publication, that the money is a necessary component. After all, people have begun to believe in you. And with that belief, they have also begun to depend on you - your agent, your editor, the publisher. Frankly, the readers. Your art is a business, and this is something you have to embrace. Not doing so is actually hurting your art.

I use this newsletter as a way to explore my thoughts about writing, and to detail my journey through the business of books. For most writers, even successful writers, it's not a business that provides a fair financial compensation. I started writing seriously, by which I mean a couple of hours every day, in 1997. I wasn't published until the mid 2010s, and didn't earn a thing until that point.

And there's almost nothing I'd change about my journey.

Wildly impractical

And what does this have to do with that drunk writer at a conference, bitterly complaining about the artificial importance of awards? He or she (probably he) is missing the point. We need these moments, these times of celebration, the realization that (as I often say) our heroes have become our peers. An award probably isn't going to change a career and, aside from a line in a biography, it won't be long remembered by anyone other than the recipient.

But, wow, do we need these moments. In a business that is often confusing and can be cruel, writers need the embrace of our community. We need to celebrate each other, and the work that we managed to produce, often without the guarantee that anyone else will read it.

Never shy away from love.

Happy Birthday, Anthony.

EA

As I said above, "The Search for Eric Garcia" was published in the Midnight Hour collection, which was full of stories by members of Crime Writers of Color. You can read my short story and check out the entire collection HERE.

Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation. One thing is certain: even if Mario makes it out alive, he won’t return the same.

Lifelong New Yorker Ronnie Khan never thought she’d leave Queens. She’s not an “aim high, dream big” person—until she meets socialite wellness guru Marley Dewhurst.

Marley isn’t just a visionary; she’s a revelation. Seduced by the fever dream of finding her best self, Ronnie makes for the desert mountains of Sedona, Arizona.

Healing yoga, transcendent hikes, epic juice cleanses…Ronnie consumes her new bougie existence like a fine wine. But is it, really? Or is this whole self-care business a little sour?

When the glam gurus around town start turning up gruesomely murdered, Ronnie has her answer: all is not well in wellness town. As Marley’s blind ambition veers into madness, Ronnie fears for her life.

Summer 1940: In German-occupied Paris, Inspector Henri Lefort has been given just five days to solve the murder of a German major that took place in the Louvre Museum. Blocked from the crime scene but given a list of suspects, Henri encounters a group of artists, including Pablo Picasso, who know more than they're willing to share.

With the clock ticking, Henri must uncover a web of lies while overcoming impossible odds to save his own life and prove his loyalty to his country. Will he rise to the task or become another tragic story of a tragic time?

Trooper Jim Duncan’s first day with the Criminal Investigation Division starts off with a bang when he is called to a murder scene with a badly decomposed body. After he finds an abused greyhound in the victim’s garage, the simple homicide becomes more complicated. Why would anyone want an unreliable racetrack employee dead, especially when greyhound racing is illegal in Pennsylvania?

Assistant public defender Sally Castle is facing her own career change. When she accepts a position with an old law school friend, her first case seems to be one that is exactly what she wants to do. Then she learns the greyhound adoption group her client may have embezzled from has ties to the shooting victim. What else is her client hiding?

Jim and Sally work their respective investigations, which may or may not be related. Along the way, they learn important lessons about themselves, those they work with, and the people they protect. But can they complete their tasks without falling prey to a killer?

One day after the end of Heat, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) is holed up in Koreatown, wounded, half delirious, and desperately trying to escape LA. Hunting him is LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). Hours earlier, Hanna killed Shiherlis’s brother in arms Neil McCauley (De Niro) in a gunfight under the strobe lights at the foot of an LAX runway. Now Hanna’s determined to capture or kill Shiherlis, the last survivor of McCauley’s crew, before he ghosts out of the city.

In 1988, seven years earlier, McCauley, Shiherlis, and their highline crew are taking scores on the West Coast, the US-Mexican border, and now in Chicago. Driven, daring, they’re pulling in money and living vivid lives. And Chicago homicide detective Vincent Hanna—a man unreconciled with his history—is following his calling, the pursuit of armed and dangerous men into the dark and wild places, hunting an ultraviolent gang of home invaders.

Meanwhile, the fallout from McCauley’s scores and Hanna’s pursuit cause unexpected repercussions in a parallel narrative, driving through the years following Heat.

Kevin, Meg's cyber-savvy nephew who lives in the basement, comes to her with a problem. He's become involved as the techie for a true-crime podcast, one that focuses on Virginia cold cases and unsolved crimes. And he thinks their podcast has hit a nerve with someone . . . one of the podcast team has had a brush with death that Kevin thinks was an attempted murder, not an accident.

Kevin rather sheepishly asks for Meg's help in checking out the people involved in a couple of the cases. "Given your ability to find out stuff online, why do you need MY help?" she asks. "Um . . . because I've already done everything I can online. This'll take going around and TALKING to people," he exclaims, with visible horror. "In person!" Not his thing. And no, it can't wait until after the wedding, because he's afraid whoever's after them might take advantage of the chaos of the wedding at Trinity or the reception at Meg and Michael's house to strike again.

So on top of everything she's doing to round up vendors and supplies and take care of demanding out-of-town guests, Meg must hunt down the surviving suspects from three relatively local cold cases so she can figure out if they have it in for the podcasters. Could there be a connection to a musician on the brink of stardom who disappeared two decades ago and hasn't been seen since?

When Amaya is invited to Kaavi’s over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she is surprised and a little hurt to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she is consumed by a single thought: She must stop the wedding from happening, no matter the cost. But as the week of wedding celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya’s past begin to swirl, she can’t help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. However, nothing is as it seems as Jayatissa expertly unravels that each wedding guest has their own dark secret and agenda, and Amaya may not be the only one with a plan to keep the bride from getting her happily ever after…

Deria is the psychotic woman who prefers to work with a guy who’s good in bed. Vern is her violent ex, who let her go because he thought she lived too dangerously. Russ is the new guy, new to Deria, new to whatever hell he’s gotten himself into.

Can they keep the money from the psychotics who want it?

Are they more psychotic?

Or will they break down from the acts they must commit?

It's springtime in Washington, D.C. and congressional staffer Kit Marshall has more on her plate than she can handle. With her boss campaigning for an open U.S. Senate seat, Kit is left to run the office in her absence and manage a new week long American history extravaganza filled with high-profile events, lectures, and receptions.

When the Director of the Capitol Visitor's Center ends up dead, Kit springs into action to clear a longtime friend, who becomes the prime suspect in the murder. With her best pal Meg pressuring her to solve the mystery quickly, Kit must figure out how to navigate her closest relationships while keeping an eye out for the diabolical killer.

The investigation takes Kit across the city to famous locations, including Georgetown University, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the White House.

When the killer strikes a second time, the pressure to solve the crimes intensifies. Has our favorite Capitol Hill sleuth finally met her match? In the end, Kit learns the hard way that history tends to repeat itself, often with deadly consequences.

On a winding mountain road into the small town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape.

Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, Alison Mills, who waitressed with Dina at a local hotel. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked. Josie was too late to save Dina, but she won’t rest until Alison is home safe.

Hitting a dead-end with interviews, Josie thinks she’s on to something when a photo surfaces suggesting Alison was romantically involved with one of the hotel staff. But when Josie arrives at the man’s house to find a bullet in his head, and the house ransacked, the case comes crashing down.

Evidence of frantic searching at both crime scenes has Josie convinced a twisted killer is on a hunt for something very personal and precious. And that they won’t stop until they find it. But how many innocent lives will be destroyed before Josie can uncover the missing piece at the heart of this deadly puzzle? And what sacrifices will she have to make to find Alison alive?

Imani Banks lives in a posh Brooklyn Heights neighborhood that has just been rocked to its core. An acclaimed movie director has been murdered, and his blond trophy wife—Imani’s closest friend—is missing. Their neighbors, along with the media, jump to the conclusion that Melissa Walker has killed her husband in a fit of rage and is on the run.

Fortunately for the missing actress, Imani is a psychiatrist as well as a steadfast friend. She will never give up her search and is determined to prove Melissa’s innocence. It shouldn’t take a degree in human behavior to know that Melissa would never leave her daughter behind.

Recently, Imani and her chef husband rented some extra rooms in their house to a struggling waitress from his restaurant. Tonya Sayre has moved in with her teen daughter and the convenient timing and her suspicious behavior soon lead Imani to suspect that the true killer is living right under her own roof. Now all she has to do is prove it.

Mark Pryor is far from a secret in crime fiction - his beloved, highly praised Hugo Marston series ensured that long ago. I just loved those books - they brought such intimate familiarity to their characters and their Parisian setting, and they were always coupled with lingering prose and compelling plots. His next mystery, Die Around Sundown, is a departure from Hugo, but clearly not a departure from everything Mark brought to those stories. The New York Times recently noted: "For those who miss the gallows humor and righteous anger of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther mysteries, 'Die Around Sundown' credibly fills the void, and augurs well for future installment."

And a writer Mark Pryor recommends?

I am picking Heather Levy as a (new) writer people should be reading. Her debut novel, WALKING THROUGH NEEDLES, took my breath away. It's so much more than a murder mystery, it's a deep and brave look at human nature, sexuality, and the damage and secrets we hold on to for dear life. And sometimes to death. For a first book, I can only describe this with a giant Wow!

To learn more about these authors, click on the photos above.

Crime Writers of Color Reception

I write a lot about Crime Writers of Color and how much the group has meant to me and crime fiction as a whole, and I'm delighted to be reading at their reception at Bouchercon this weekend. If you're in town for the conference, come check us out! It's going to be a good time, and I'll buy every single person there a drink.

As always, offer void upon reading this exact sentence. But still, come see us.

Noir at the Bookstoire

It's been a while since DC Noir at the Bar has happened, due to circumstances...look, I've been busy, OKAY? But I'm happy that we're returning for an in-person, live event on September 30th at Poltics and Prose! If you're in the DC/MD/VA region, make sure you come out and check out this fantastic lineup! You can find out more information about this event HERE.

It's contest time! The monthly contest winner wins copies of the books listed in my "Two Writers You Should Read" segment. And, for the next months, I'm including an ARC of my next thriller (coming February 2023), No Home for Killers. And the winner is...
 

m_nn@icloud.com

Then again...you know what? It's my birthday and I'm feeling generous. Two more contest winners get to pick a copy of whatever book they want from the "New Releases I'm Excited About" section.

ju_ps@gmail.com

nina_r@netzero.net

Congrats to all of you, and keep your eye out for a separate e-mail from me!

I had the chance to interview three fantastic authors for the Washington Independent Review of Books - Jennifer Hillier, May Cobb, and Katie Gutierrez - about women writing women. It's no secret that I read a lot of women writers, way more than I read men, and this essay gave me a chance to explore what about their fiction I find so compelling. You can check it out HERE.

Until next time, much love and happy reading!

EA