Opinion & Blatant Promotion — Creating The San Francisco Series And Other Windmill Tilting

The books for which I’m best known, or to put it another way, the least unknown, are those in the Deets Shanahan series.  The lead character in the ten books that currently comprise the series is a septuagenarian, semi-retired private detective in Indianapolis.  He has a lovely, funny, tough girlfriend, two aging animals and a couple of good friends.  There are other regulars as well. 

I like these people.  And while I may not be done with their antics, writers, like everyone else, yearn after awhile for a little variety in the company we keep or imagine.  I’ve written a couple of stand-alone novels and a few years ago I began a new series set in San Francisco where I’ve lived 16 years this time around.  Unbeknownst to me, the new series began with a standalone novella called Mascara, which introduced a very private eye named Noah Lang and his accidental and originally unwanted friend, a multi-talented, gender-shifting immigrant called Thanh.  Because it was novella length and therefore deemed unmarketable by my agent at the time, the book sat in my computer as both a story and a screenplay.  It did so quietly and no doubt, like a fine wine, aged appropriately. (That’s what I tell myself, anyway.)

When I approached the idea of a new series, I picked the book up again and decided to use this as an inspiration for a full-length book in a new series using those characters. The only change I made was to add a female private eye to the crew.  This was premeditated act, I admit.  I did so for three reasons.  One, I had discovered with the Shanahan series that many of the readers liked Shanahan’s girlfriend, Maureen, so well that there were subtle suggestions I should knock off the old man and set her up as the main character.  That indicated to me that I might be capable of writing a believable female character.  Two, I introduced a female private eye because it was clear that more than half the mystery readers in this world are women. Third, I often write books that have two plots going at the same time.  Having a woman P.I. would give me another angle and greater creative latitude.

Because Noah was already established as unambitious, willing to take short cuts and operating on, oddly enough, his intuition, it seemed like I needed a more professional, principled and logical counterpoint.  Carly Paladino was born.  Cool, cautious and professional, she struck out on her own having reached a glass ceiling at a prestigious security firm.  Both are strongly independent characters. They bring out the best and worst in each other.

Carly Paladino ends up at this down-and-out investigation firm because Noah needed help with the rent.  And she needed an inexpensive office for her start-up business.  It’s a partnership made in a kind of humorous purgatory.

Severn House published the first two in the new series — Death in Pacific Heights and Death in North Beach, both to generally very positive reviews. But these weren’t the books loyal Shanahan readers and underfunded libraries wanted.  Severn House declined a third. The thing is I wanted to see the series continue.  My novella, Mascara, was renamed Mascara, Death in the Tenderloin and published as a prequel novella to the series featuring Noah and Thanh.  I published it myself. 

Penguin picked up the second novella, Death in the Haight, (now available in all e-book formats) as part of their re-launch of Dutton’s Guilt-Edged mysteries.  It focused on a more hard-boiled Noah Lang mystery — prostitutes, rogue cops and baseball.  Much of it takes place at AT&T Park during a Giants-Dodgers game.  I’m also polishing a novella with Carly as the lead.  Death on the Great Highway has to do with big oil, private armies and the murder of a lieutenant governor. I tilt at windmills, often ones that I build myself.

Meanwhile, I have written the first draft of my memoirs.  I can hear you now. What? You are writing your memoirs?  How pretentious can you get?  It’s tentatively titled Albion and New Augusta, Confessions of a Midlist Writer.  And of course I’m exaggerating a little.  I may be somewhat lower than “Midlist.”  No revelations of celebrity secrets.  I know no celebrities.  Nothing of historic importance.  Just summing things up.  I’ll be putting excerpts on this blog from time to time.

If you want to check out the new series — or the Shanahans, for that matter — please go here.  Many are available in trade paperback and on various forms of e-book.  The newest, Death in the Haight, though not on paper, can be found in nearly every existing e-book format for $2.99.

One semi-final note.  I have to admit that I think that Asphalt Moon is one of my better books.  But I was surprised to learn that a used “big print” copy was listed on Amazon for $9,999.00.  Look out, Dickens. Obviously a misprint, but I’d be happy to sell you a couple of copies for half of that.

On the final note, if you’d like to receive these posts automatically (usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday), they can be sent to you automatically by putting your email address in the box on the right, labeled “Follow By Email.” Your address will not be published or used for anything else.

Opinion — Self Analysis, Self Promotion and Background for Death in the Haight

Most of the readers who know my work probably follow the Indianapolis-based Deets Shanahan series. It’s been around awhile and it’s been popular in the libraries. The newer series is set in San Francisco and features an eclectic group of investigators in an office South of Market Street. 

There are 10 Shanahans. The last six have been published by the UK’s Severn House, a quality publisher for many high-quality writers.  Severn House also introduced the first two in the Carly Paladino/Noah Lang San Francisco mysteries at a time when the publishing industry was in the first throes of horrendous disruption.  I say first throes because there appears to be continuing throes or, at least a bunch of after shocks of the e-book explosion.  So, not inappropriately considering San Francisco’s familiarity with quaking disruptions and eruptions as well as finding a way to survive them, the San Francisco series adapted to the changing environment. The series is still alive and delivering fresh stories.  But let’s start at the beginning.

The San Francisco Mysteries

Death in Pacific Heights — This double-barreled mystery wasn’t my first book outside the Shanahan series.  But it is the first of a second series.  I wanted to use my 20 years in San Francisco as a backdrop for some new stories and new characters. Private eyes Carly Paladino and Noah Lang meet for the first time and have to relate to each other’s very different approaches to the investigation business.  Carly is from a prestige security firm and Noah picked up his knowledge from life on the streets.  In this book there are two different murders, two different P.I.s, two different stories — yet somehow the two main characters must learn to get along.  This is a full-length novel that takes place in the wealthiest San Francisco neighborhoods.  It was published as a hardback to good reviews.  The trade paperback version sold out quickly.  Unfortunately, e-book versions aren’t available at this time. This first in the series was published by Severn House in 2009 and is currently available in hardback.

Death in North Beach — This was Carly’s and Noah’s second adventure.  It’s a little quirky.  My attempt at a light-hearted homage to the kind of ending that gathered all the suspects in the parlor was meant to be fun. While a number of reviewers liked the book, some found the end unsatisfying.  I was also chastised by a fellow panelist at a national mystery conference in front of hundreds of attendees because Carly slept with a gigolo. The public takedown wasn’t as good as being banned in Boston, but it was interesting just the same. The panel discussion was about the place of women protagonists in mysteries.  Are there different standards for male detectives and women detectives? How tough can a woman P.I. be?  How many womanizing heroes are there in the P.I. genre?  How many “manizing” women?  Much like all the books in the series, there is a strong sense of place. In this case, the legendary North Beach is a prominent character. Readers who only know the standard tourist spots in the City by the Bay will learn a little more about this exciting world destination. Death in North Beach was published by Severn House in 2010 and is available in hardback, paperback and ebook.

Mascara, Death in the Tenderloin — This was actually the first book I’d written featuring Noah Lang.  Because it was released later, it acts as a prequel.  Tenderloin goes back a few years. This is Noah’s story. It’s also about how he met his good friend Thanh and made an enemy of a tough San Francisco homicide inspector.  Long out of work, the P.I. gets two cases at the same time, both life threatening. The setting is one of the toughest neighborhoods in San Francisco, but moves throughout the city. Because few publishing houses wanted mysteries in novella-length forms at the time and because I had always wanted to be a publisher I took advantage of the new, relatively inexpensive technology and my background in communications to publish it myself.  I formed a small publishing company, worked with talented designers and used this as the first book of five, so far, from Life Death & Fog Books. Death in the Tenderloin was published late last year.  It is available in trade paperback at $13.99 and in ebook formats at $3.99.  Even though this book came out third, if I were choosing a first book to sink my teeth into, this would be the one.

Death in the Haight — The edge can be taken off the thrill of self-publishing when one discovers that marketing your own work is a challenge.  There are many benefits of having a publisher where there is a full staff of talented people to support your efforts. Because my brush with the mystery novella was exhilarating even if I had to do it myself, I was thrilled to learn that the novella was born again among traditional publishers. They see the need to be flexible and some of the old firms are indeed limbering up.  Penguin Group announced they were reviving Dutton’s Guilt Edged Mysteries — a fine, vintage label from the ‘40s and ‘50s — and that they were looking for short stories and novellas in particular. I sent them Death in the Haight and they wanted it as the third book under their new imprint.  This is also a Noah Lang mystery. I hope to follow up with a novella focusing on Carly next time around. Meanwhile, Death in the Haight has just been released (2012) in all ebook formats at $2.99. 

If you like San Francisco and private-eye novels, take a look at one of these.  Start small, if you like.  Small is good.

Opinion — More Blatant Promotion, Get To Know The Players

We’re still a couple of weeks from the release of Death in the Haight from Penguin's new Dutton Guilt Edged (DGE) Mysteries as they release their first books with this revived imprint. 

If you are at all interested in the idea of getting to know the characters who appear in Death in the Haight, there is a prequel — Mascara, Death in the Tenderloin.  In it, we meet private eyes Noah Lang and his gender-bending, shape-shifting friend Thanh.  And while you can get it in trade paperback, it is also available at $3.99 on Kindle or Nook.

Here’s the cover copy:

“From the very beginning, things just aren’t what they seem. On a late, lonely night, San Francisco private investigator Noah Lang’s eyes deceive him. He makes a mistake. But what should have been simply an embarrassing moment becomes a deadly walk on the wild side. Unfortunately for Lang, before this nightmare is over, he puts his life on the line a second time for a new client who may or may not have a missing husband, who might or might not live on a boat in Tiburon and who seems to have an odd way to settle the bill for services rendered.”

There are also two Carly Paladino and Noah Lang mysteries available from UK publisher Severn House.  Unfortunately Death in Pacific Heights is out of print except for some hard-back books.  The trade paper backs have sold out and they’ve yet to be released in e-book formats. The second in the series, Death in North Beach, is available as an e-book through the usual suspects.

And don’t forget to check the DGE mysteries at their web site as more and more books are released.