SEA MINOR

Hey now, THIS this was fun! Nigel Bird (one of the nicest guys you'll ever come across) and I had a ton of fun with this quasi interview/short story/something. We just winged it and let go of the reins. By the way, when you're over there, check out Nigel's growing collection of books he's written. He's nice and talented as hell....I'd settle for being one of those.

Anyway, very fun and very thankful to Nigel putting it up over at his place, Sea Minor. And I mean wayyy over at his place.

Thanks again Nigel.

JW

Interview over at Noir Nation

Eddie Vega of NOIR NATION stopped by (okay, virtually -- this is the age of the Internet, after all) and asked me a few questions. I answered honestly, which of course shows my naivete...but hey.

[Yeah, I stole the 'but hey' from Jim but he's a great writer and it works, so hey.]

Back to the interview. It is focused on the release of Queen of Diamonds, the second book Jim and I wrote together. However, Vega asks some great questions and it was fun and thought-provoking to answer them.
For the interview, go here.

NOIR NATION, which features the tag line of "Crime fiction, film noir, and tattoos", is a cool place to hang out, and has been for a couple of years now. In addition to the blog that features news and interviews like mine, Vega publishes short fiction collections in a magazine format, and crime novels. With Vega's nose for good crime stories, your odds of hitting pay dirt on a title he endorses are pretty high.

So check out the interview and stay for the party!

~Frank

Story At The Big Adios

I'm awful proud to have a series up currently at The Big Adios. Many thanks to Ron for accepting my long short story Thin Shafts of Light. Parts One, Two and Three are up so far. Really like you to stop over there and check it out. Ron's done a great job with The Big Adios and the western stories and authors he's featuring make me feel lucky to be there. 

-JW

KWIK KRIMES

Well, if 81 short stories written by some of the very best authors out there sounds like good reading to you, then by all means click HERE.

I received my two free copies yesterday and I'm thrilled and honored to be in this one. And lucky. To even be there. There's a reason my story is last - besides the alphabetical order thing.

When you read the author list it's pretty damn impressive. Edited by Otto Penzler. Big names, big talent. Kindle price of $3.99! Talk about a bargain.

                                            -JW

New Interview

A new Short Sharp Interview is up over at Paul Brazill's great blog. He's a fantastic guy. A talented writer and a tireless supporter of crime fiction writers everywhere. Many thanks to him as always. The interview can be found here.

- JW

New Review

Chris Leek has written and posted a new review for Queen of Diamonds over at Out of the Gutter. Find the review here.

This means a helluva lot to me (and Frank). A talented writer that I admire greatly, taking the time to read and review my book, is not something to be taken for granted. I sure don't. Chris has stories everywhere as I'm sure you know. Read them and you'll be better for it. 

Thanks for the review and kind words Chris - glad you enjoyed the book.

-JW

Guest Post - Andrew Nette

We’re honored to be featuring a guest post today from a successful Australian writer that you know already from his terrific debut novel Ghost Money and his editor job at Crime Factory. He certainly needs no introduction, but I will anyway. It's my pleasure to welcome Andrew Nette to Hardboiled Partners in Crime. (Andrew finally accepted my desperate pleas to come help raise the damn respect level around this place.) I'm thrilled to have him and without further ado…

                    

I’m not sure what it’s like in the US, but some times it feels like the only type of crime fiction we like in Australia are police procedurals. We’re crazy for the stuff and nearly every second book seems to be one.

That’s not to say that there are not some good police procedurals out there but I find most of them fairly lackluster. I’m bored by the focus on police solving straight out crime, the lack of innovation in the plots, and the political correctness of some many of the protagonists.

One major exception is Charles’ Willeford’s character of Hoke Moseley.

I was reminded how good the Moseley books are when I was travelling recently. I’d finished the book I was reading a lot quicker than I thought I would. I didn’t have my Kindle or any other reading material with me and there was nothing in the house I was staying in.

So I had to go out and find a book. Quickly.

The place I was in was not exactly book lover’s paradise but it did have one or two okay second hand bookshops. In one of those I found a copy of Charles’ Willeford’s The Way We Die Now.

I love Willeford and I’ve read all the Hoke Moseley detective novels. So in that respect, I wasn’t stepping too far out of my comfort zone. But it’s been a long time since I’ve read them and I’d forgotten just how good they are.

Moseley is working cold cases for the Miami police when his commander gives him a special assignment, go to the south of Florida and find out who is murdering migrant Hispanic farm workers.

He’s living with his two daughters from his previous marriage and Ellita, his former Cuban female partner on the police force and her young baby. Moseley’s got to juggle cold case leads, with his special assignment and bringing up his two daughters. To top it off, a man he convicted for murder has got out of jail and moved in across the street from his house.

Willeford handling of all of this is masterful. He moves seamlessly between down and dirty action and Moseley’s ruminations on the changing nature of Miami. His writing has a classic fifties pulp feel fused with an off-beat hard boiled style.

Sure, Moseley is a cop trying to solve crimes, but he’s also a shabby, cheap skate, misanthropic, old school, right wing cop working in the increasingly multi-ethnic city of Miami in the eighties. He’s the perfect anecdote to so many of the politically correct police appearing in crime fiction these days. Indeed, after reading The Way We Die Now, I think the Moseley books should be used in writing courses on the subject of how not to do a boring police procedural.

 

My debut novel Ghost Money is by no means a procedural but the main character is a cop?If I’m so down on police characters, why did I do this?

Well, he’s an ex-cop to be precise, for reasons I won’t go into in detail here except that it has to do with botched job he was involved in in Bangkok. He’s also a Vietnamese Australian in denial about his character. He specializes in missing persons cases and is on the trail of a lost Australian gem salesman in the political tinderbox that was nineties Cambodia.

I chose Cambodia as the setting for Ghost Money because it was a country I know well, having worked there as a journalist on and off throughout the nineties and again for a year in 2008.

Cambodia fascinated me from the moment I first arrived. The people, the contrast between the anything goes, Wild West atmosphere of Phnom Penh and the hardscrabble but incredibly beautiful countryside.

History oozed from the cracks in the French colonial architecture and protruded from the rich red earth, sometimes quite literally in the case of the mass graves that litter the countryside. Things happened every day – terrible events and acts of heart breaking generosity you couldn’t make up if you tried.

I always thought Cambodia would be a good setting for a crime story. But I also wanted to capture some of the country’s tragic history, the sense of a nation in transition.

Setting the story in Cambodia also gave me a chance to play with some different things in terms of character. Top cite one example, for various reasons, which I explore in Ghost Money, the Vietnamese are intensely disliked by many ordinary Cambodians, something I wanted to use to create an even greater sense of tension.

Ghost Money is a crime story, but it’s also about the broken country that was Cambodia in the nineties, about what happens to people who are trapped in the cracks between two periods of history, the choice they make, what they have to do to survive.

Hopefully, you’ll also think it’s got a very different type of policeman as a main character.

**Andrew Nette is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the editors of the on-line magazine Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). His short fiction has appeared in a number of print and on-line publications. His debut novel Ghost Money, is published by Snubnose Press. He explores crime film and literature at his site www.pulpcurry.com

 

99 CENT SALE

To celebrate their anniversary, Snubnose Press has announced a big .99 e-book sale on all of it's titles including our new release; Queen of Diamonds  .


The Amazon sale will last the rest of this month. Give Queen of Diamonds and Blood on Blood a try today as well as all the other great books under the Snubnose banner.

-JW

Rough Edges

James Reasoner has been kind enough to post a short review of  Blood on Blood - and a mention of our new book Queen of Diamonds.  

We're lucky to have a master writer and reviewer like James gives us a write-up and very appreciative of it. Let's put it this way, if I get to the end of my writing days and achieve even half of what he's accomplished, I'll be thrilled.

Try a book by James Reasoner if you haven't already. There is a bookcase full of great ones to choose from. Terrific writer. In addition, his blog, Rough Edges, is truly entertaining and I visit it about two or three times a week. Our short review is found here.

Thanks again James.

- JW

Queen of Diamonds Live

We have lift-off!

Queen of Diamonds, our second book in the 3 book series, is now live and available at Amazon right here. and B&N, other outlets. Spread the word if you don't mind.

Like everyone else, we want to jump out there big time and get off to a good start. Will you help us do that? Maybe you liked Blood on Blood, or this will be the first book you've picked up by Frank and I - either way, we would sure appreciate the support. The new price for Queen of Diamonds will be a low $2.99. Give us a try, we're pretty sure you won't regret it. We always need reviewers on Amazon, so step up if you feel like it.  

Being a co-author with Frank on this project has been a tremendous learning experience for me. The bonus being that this new book was just as much fun to write as the first. We're both very pleased with the final product and hope you feel the same.

Snubnose Press has been great too, as always. Supportive, flexible and creative. The top shelf quality of work that Eric Beetner puts out is again on display, with our cover and back design. Just an excellent job. 

Thanks again and get Queen of Diamonds today! - JW

 

Front to Back

 

 

Alright now, ain't she pretty? Here's the final front & back cover of Queen of Diamonds, the sequel to Blood on Blood. It's the artful handiwork of the one and only Eric Beetner. A very talented guy as just about everyone knows. Frank and I are so pumped about the launch of this new book we can hardly stand still, so pardon the push here...As always, a big thanks goes out to Brian and everyone at Snubnose for allowing us the vehicle to ride this out with.

 

We're looking at only a few days now, as in next week, for this baby being available as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes, etc. It'll be 99 cents for the ebook, just like Blood on Blood. It will also be available in paperback and an audio version as well.We really hope you try it when it goes live and if you haven't read Blood on Blood yet, well now is the perfect time for a one two punch. 

 

-JW

 

QUEEN OF DIAMONDS Coming Soon!

Cover Design by Eric Beetner

That's right, folks...Blood on Blood has a sequel of sorts coming your way very soon from Snubnose Press. It's called Queen of Diamonds. What's it about?


Well...when Ania Kozak hits Vegas, she’s only looking for a place to relax and lay low with her stolen cash and diamonds. But Sin City has other plans for “Annie.”

Cord Needham is a poker circuit champion with an eye for the ladies and a dark secret in his past. Casey Brunnell is a former baseball player fighting the cards and running up debts to a local mobster. When Annie decides to play a dangerous game with both of them, the stakes go through the roof. Everyone scrambles to beat the odds and get out of town with the money…and their lives.

Queen of Diamonds is a sequel to the Zafiro/Wilsky novel, Blood on Blood, which also featured the beautiful, mysterious, and conniving Ania. A third book in this series is coming next year.

Jim and I wrote this book with the same dual first person narrative as Blood on Blood. This gives the reader a chance to get close to the narrating characters, but have a broader perspective than your typical first person novel.

Look for this ebook and paperback to be available sometime in May! An audio book version will follow.

See you at the tables!

Short Story at Shotgun Honey

My short story, Hell's Belle Pell Mell is up over at Shotgun Honey. SH is one of the very best homes a crime short story can find and I'm honored to have it up over there. Thanks so much to Ron and the whole crew there. Please head over there and check things out, there is a treasure chest full of stories from some great writers.

This is a sequel, or Part 2 if you will, of my earlier short titled Hell's Belle that also appeared on Shotgun Honey. The story just wasn't done I guess, especially for ol' Luke.

 

-JW

  

 

May Surprise You

Big stuff here folks. For the entire month of May, Snubnose Press titles will be the featured Publisher at the world famous BookPeople Bookstore in Austin, Texas. When I say world famous, that isn't blowing smoke. This is one of the finest brick and mortar independent bookstores you'll find anywhere. If you haven't heard of it or haven't been there, it is what they say it is. Truly a destination for book lovers. Top shelf authors, celebrities and entertainers have walked through their doors. If you're ever in Austin, you have to check it out.

Paperback copies of many of the Snubnose Press titles are being featured, displayed and sold this month, including our own Blood on Blood and we're very proud to be involved. To be a part of the collection of fine writers and great books under the Snubnose Press banner is something Frank and I value highly. 

There will be reviews and short stories posted all month long as well. BookPeople website is here.   

-JW  

New Review - Available In Any Colour

Christopher Black has seen fit to write a review of Blood on Blood for us over at his great blog Available In Any Colour. While I don't know him well, I owe him a beer or two if we ever get to meet. His kind words and positive comments about the book are much appreciated.

Please go check it out and if you haven't given Blood on Blood a read yet, why not give it a try? I'll bet you the ebook cost of 99 cents, you'll find it entertaining. Go here to read Christopher's review and check out his blog while you're there.

Thanks again Christopher!

-JW      

New Story At BTAP

David Cranmer has posted a new short story of mine titled Yusan over at Beat To A Pulp. Grateful and honored? You bet. I've always considered David's e-zine to be one of the very best there is around. If I'm lucky enough to get something accepted there, then it's a damn red letter day for me. 

This story is something a little different. A little stretch for me and I enjoyed the hell out of writing it. I hope you go over there and give it a read. While you're there, check out the vast archives of terrific past stories that David has built up. A superb collection, written by the most talented writers anywhere. Once again, I'm honored and excited to be there again. Yusan can be found here.   

JW  

Story at The Big Adios

If you're an old fart like me, there's a good chance you grew up watching westerns like Gunsmoke with Matt, Kitty, Doc and Festus or another of my absolute favorites; Steve McQueen as just about the coolest damn Bounty Hunter that ever lived. I was fortunate to grow up during the golden age of western cinemas too. Then as I read more and more - there were always western and cowboy books on my bedroom bookshelves. My favorite author wrote some damn good westerns and I have every book ever written by Larry McMurtry, western or not, and under his pen name too. Hell, I still love a good western and western stories to this day. More recently books and movies like Lonesome Dove, Open Range, Broken Trail have sure helped keep things going. They've been authentic and well done, with great stories and characters.

So, when Ron Earl Phillips from Shotgun Honey fame decided to start up a new site at the beginning of this year, I thought it was tremendous news. Good Western stories need good homes and the market for western sites and magazines is a tough, tough go. Ron’s new place has a great name, it’s called The Big Adios and he has a couple of well known desperados riding with him too. Ryan Sayles and Aldo Calcagno have thrown in with him.

The Big Adios is off to one helluva start with spectacular stories posted by David Cranmer, Bill Baber, Chuck Caruso and Chris Leek. When Ron told me last week that my submission was accepted, I was thrilled - but there’s no way I’m going to fill the boots of these guys that have already gone up before me so I’m just trying to hold my own with this outfit! I hope to keep sprinkling in some westerns every once in a while, having several already that I've never submitted anywhere as well as some new stories. 

My story, One More Spring is up this morning over there. Please go check the The Big Adios out!

-JW

 

YAWN

Lets face it folks, February is a damn dud. Emotionally and energy wise, for me anyway, it’s a month where I just have to put my head down and push through it. If you like sports - it’s a pretty damn flat time. If you like good weather – it’s pretty damn iffy. If you like selling anything (like, ohhhh maybe a book) – it’s pretty damn slow. Well, I want to fight the February blues a little with a small promotion on our book, Blood on Blood .

From right now until 10:00pm (cst) tomorrow night, I’ll make the following offer to the first five responders who have not yet bought a copy of Blood on Blood:

*The first five new readers that purchase a 99 cent download of Blood on Blood will be able to gift someone else a copy of Blood on Blood for free (on me). In other words it’s a Buy 1 / Get 1 Free offer.

*Just be in the group of the first five to reply to this post. Only thing I’ll need is for you to send me your new order confirmation and the name of someone else that you would like me to send a gift copy to as a surprise.

This is certainly not meant to be a Valentine’s Day promotion. Hey, I can’t compete with chocolate covered strawberries and a dozen roses - plus Blood on Blood isn’t exactly a romance huh?….just trying kick it up a little, something to pick things up in the middle of February. No huge deal I know, we're not giving away an all exense paid vacation to the Virgin Islands....but anything in February is something right?

By the way, Frank has a February deal of his own going on right now or very, very soon. Go here to check that out.

-JW  

New ADR Anthology

Hey Now. Check out this terrific Anthology! The writer line-up is chock full of the biggest and best talent in crime fiction. I'm really honored and lucky to be in this one. 
Chris Rhatigan at All Due Respect has put together one helluva collection here. Oh, and how about that cover by none other than Eric Beetner, who did Blood on Blood for us. Available right now....right here

Blood on Blood Review

We have a new review posted for Blood on Blood over at Dead End Follies, Ben Lelievre's tremendous blog. Of course we're thrilled and proud, so please go check it out!

Just as important, for those of you might not frequent there please check DEF out. Ben consistently posts top shelf, entertaining and interesting written reviews on Movies, Music and of course books. Everyone reading this most likely already frequents his place as he has a huge following. Rightly so. He's a gifted fiction writer as well.

-JW

Book Retails Announcement

Brian at Snubnose Press announced this morning that the retail format for all Snubnose titles could, or could not change. Different books might be positioned at different retail levels. We'll have to see where that all falls out. More on that later!

From what we undertsand, until later in the day, the 99 cent retail remains on all Snubnose Titles. A tremendous value for the quality books that are out there under the SN banner. If you haven't taken advantage of this promotion that was in place for the month of December, NOW is the time.

-JW

2013

2013. I wonder how many times I'll write 2012 before I finally get with the program.

Anyway, coming early this year, are two publications I can't wait for. Yes, I'm lucky enough to have a short story in each. Honestly though, I'm more anxious to read the stories of everyone else included in these anthologies. You talk about heavy hitter line-ups. The collection of talent is unbelievable. Think of the authors you like to read the most, the ones you admire the most and they're in these two collections.

Here they are, watch for these coming blockbusters...buy them...devour them.

Chris Rhatigan's           ALL DUE RESPECT ANTHOLOGY

Otto Penzler's               KWIK KRIMES


-JW