Blatant Promotion — The Rebirth and Design of the Deets Shanahan Series

The first Deets Shanahan novel, the Stone Veil, had a great launch back in 1990. The New York Times said the “pragmatic investigator makes a good first impression.” The book was a finalist in a national best first novel competition and was nominated for a Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America. The hardback went into a second printing and was optioned for a movie.

Yet, the Stone Veil was never released in paperback, never hit the mass market.

Time went on. So did Shanahan though the series — after a considerable sabbatical after Book Four — switched from a New York publisher to one in London for Book Five. That same publisher, Severn House, has published the Shanahans since then, including Bullet Beach, the tenth in the series, earlier this year. The publication of the hardback was followed by trade paperback and e-book editions. But what about the beginning? What about those early Shanahans? A couple of them had paperback incarnations — one in Italian. That one made me a millionaire (in lire). But they have been out-of-print for years.

Working with designers Dennis Gallagher and John Sullivan at Visual Strategies in their studio in San Francisco’s legendary North Beach, we decided to get not just the first book back in print and on e-book, we decided to reissue the first four cases, which includes Steel Web, Iron Glove and Concrete Pillow, none available in e-book until now. To do this I formed a new publishing company, Life Death and Fog Books, and the designers recreated these books inside and out. As we did, we decided to go against conventional publishing wisdom and not only release all four of the early Shanahans at once, but number them.

The modest marketing campaign will emphasize the notion of reading the Shanahan series “from the beginning.” The reason, frustrating to readers, that publishers prefer not to let you in on which books came first, second, and so on, is that if book three is the only one on the shelf, the reader might pass it up in order to read them in order. They do this even though usually, as is the case with the Shanahans, one can read them and enjoy them out of order. What a reader might miss, though, are subtle changes in the backstory. However, with much of the ordering coming off the Internet one way or another, all the books are always available? Why not let the readers control what they read and when? So we made it easy.

We’re also sending Deets Shanahan out into the broader reader public by making the books available and affordable in both print and electronic formats. Start with Book One, the Stone Veil, a book Publishers Weekly called, “Intricate, lusty, funny, moving adventure about believably vulnerable characters,” and read all four of the early Shanahans, from the beginning.

Update: At this moment, ebooks are available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, which has the trade paperback as well. Soon to be available from iBook.

Film Pairing— Wall Street, Not All Crimes Are First Degree Murder

As the current crop of folks who want to be president talk about how we have too many regulations, we must try to remember that some of the most brutal crimes are not committed at night in alley behind a cheap bar on skid row or in the shower of a sleazy motel. Some of the biggest crimes —the ones with the most victims — are committed by guys in suits on their Blackberries.

Two relatively current documentaries examine what many would like us to forget — the bullying by some members of the rich and powerful class and how their actions are destroying the middle class and leveling more punishment for the working poor.

The first film is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Before Bernie Madoff took the crown for high-stakes, extremely damaging criminal business behavior there was frequent Bush White House visitor Kenneth Lay and his crew at Enron. Lower-level employees were encouraged by management to sink their retirement into Enron investments. Shareholders were told lies about the worth of the company, and continued to support a house of cards. And the incredibly cynical behavior of some of the company’s top executives (they even played with the energy grid, causing blackouts, in order to increase profit) was enough to put long-trusted accounting and auditing firms out of business and force congress to pass laws to protect the public from this kind of avarice. But memories are short — and so-called conservatives are climbing over each other to rescind those regulations. (Apparently those damned rules inhibit creative accounting.) The movie was released in 2005 and should be a cautionary tale about greed and energy.

A few years later, lessons unlearned, the economy goes on the skids. Enron’s debacle, which should have been a serious warning, was merely a blip when placed in a global economic perspective. U.S. banks and other financial institutions engaged in some monumental hanky panky. Inside Job (2010), which won an Academy Award for best documentary feature, sets the broader stage by a explaining the period of deregulation that began in the 1980s, filling us in on how bad (and predatory) mortgage loans were made, bundled, bought and sold. It seems quite clear that the foxes were hired to guard the henhouses.

I’d love to lay all the blame for Wall Street and K-Street corruption on the Republicans. Certainly they have had the heaviest hands in the transactions and remain among the most vehemently opposed to oversight of our financial and investment institutions. However, it is not possible to overlook the fact that many of the same Wall Street characters played and are still playing significant cabinet, czar and consultant roles in Clinton’s and Obama’s administrations as well. And, in fact, the old-boy quid pro quo goes back to Reagan and Nixon. Now, with the endorsement of the U.S. Supreme Court — the Citizens United decision specifically — high public office will continue to accept what is little more than bribes to do Wall Street’s bidding.

In any event, there is a surprising amount of drama and suspense in these documentaries. They are worth watching. It’s all right to drink Scotch while you watch these two crime movies. Scotch may be the capitalist’s drink of choice. The thing is: it’s all right to be a capitalist. It’s just not all right to be a criminal. Kind of makes you want to Occupy some place.

Caption: Inside Job, starring Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner.

Opinion — "Self-Publishing," Still A Dirty Word

I sent an inquiry email to a small public relations firm specializing in book promotion. Judging by the client list (which included an Irish bar, a good sign I thought) on the company’s web site, the firm appeared pretty strong in the genre. I explained that I was seeking their help for books I was reissuing — books originally published by St. Martin’s Press, but now out of print. I explained there would be a modest advertising campaign to support the rollout and that I might seek support later for my other books published through traditional channels.

I received a prompt reply. They were “unable” to represent “self-published” work. They were able to represent a local bar, however. I tried to make sense of supporting an Irish bar and rejecting a series whose main character is named “Shanahan” written by a man named “Tierney.” What was the difference, I wondered. Just as the bar owner, I had a licensed business, Life Death and Fog Books. And my product was certainly more attuned to their core clients. It was, I know, the dirty word, “self-published.”

I have a great deal of sympathy for nonprofit author organizations and book reviewers that tow a discriminatory line in this regard. They face a terrible gate-keeping problem if they let the floodgates open. They haven’t the resources — staff and time — to make judgments on each, individual book and must rely on the preliminary work of others to qualify or disqualify. Most would probably be among the first to admit that this system does allow for drivel to advance and good work to flounder. But there may be no other way for the moment. The prejudice will go away, I’m convinced. But for now the world hasn’t fully adjusted to the tremendous and ongoing shakeup in the publishing world.

However, if I can be indulged a mixed metaphor, “self-publishing” remains a dirty word in the eyes of many. Even independent bookstores, businesses that should understand more than most what it means to be a mouse in a house full of cats, approach self-published books with trepidation. In addition to the shelf-space issue, there is the problem of separate accounting, not to mention dealing with author egos. Even traditional (or legacy) publishers have problems with that, which is a major reason why agents exist. I understand the wariness.

I admit I was angry when I received the email. It wasn’t so much the dismissal (writers get used to that) as the wording of it. “Unable.” Can’t be true. “Unwilling,” perhaps. But the company is a public relations firm. It is practicing its craft. “Unable” likely seemed a kinder word. It was as if representing self-publishers was beyond their physical capability or maybe against the law. How could you be mad at them? It wasn’t their fault.

The truth is, of course, they have a perfect right to establish their own business model. And I maybe I’m just parsing the word “unable” a little too closely. More than anything, besides venting, I wanted to let writers know that many doors remain closed to us if we step outside the system. No big surprise, I guess. At least this firm was kind enough to reply.

San Francisco Bookstores — Borderlands, Other Worldly on Valencia

This is part of a series about San Francisco’s independent bookstores and the neighborhoods they serve. For previous articles please click here.

If only we crime writers had a local San Francisco bookstore specializing in the kinds of books we write. I hope that writers of fantasy, science fiction and horror appreciate the jewel of a store that is Borderlands Books on Valencia.

The day I visited, the staff was setting up for an author event. There was a sense of enthusiasm in the room — people with good cheer, enjoying their work. I wandered through the aisles of bookshelves, gazing at the collection of new and used books. These were for serious readers of the genres. The shelves were neatly kept, the categories clearly identified. This isn’t a place deeply engaged in pop-culture — no super-sized superhero character cut-outs or Star Trek memorabilia, just books and more books. However, one of the big draws is Ripley, a sweet mild-mannered, and lovely, hairless felinean from the planet Sphynx.

I’ve written about the Mission neighborhood before. It may be the city arts and letters central. There are a number of bookstores and galleries in the area. Valencia Street, in particular, continues its dynamic growth — with shops selling mid-century furniture, stuffed antelope, vintage clothing as well as restaurants (trendy high-end to deliciously low-end) springing up near its start at Market Street and stretching almost all the way to Cesar Chavez. This is the neighborhood of around the block lines waiting for Bi-Rite ice cream and mile-high meringue on Banana pie. This is a great walk or bike ride that includes a couple of alleys with spectacular murals.

While its doubtful you could call Borderlands Books trendy (they sell books on paper, after all), they are doing what great independent bookstores are supposed to do. They have a staff that knows the subject matter. They hold many author and other book-related events and participate in a thriving, creative community. They also make you feel welcome.

Maybe they should add a mystery annex.

866 Valencia Street, (415) 824-8203, www.borderlands-books.com

Opinion and (Subliminal) Promotion — Noir and Me Revisited: Urban Noir, Rural Noir, '50s Noir, Pre-School Noir, Glee Club Noir

“Good God Man!” exclaimed the colonel as he nearly stumbled over the corpse. He handed his glass of sherry to the butler and straightened his blazer. “Have you no shame?” The man on the floor with the knife in his back didn’t answer.

Or

She looked out of her swollen, soulless, drunken eyes. “You don’t even know you’re a bottom-feeder, do you, pal? You knew you were about to take a trip, but you didn’t know where.” She coughed. The empty hypodermic slipped from the bruised, blue and yellow flesh of her arm and her eyes began to roll back. “Well, sucker, you’re five minutes from the tropic of Hell. Hope you brought your shorts.”

That was fun. I don’t know if it was helpful, let alone publishable, but I wanted to make a point. The extremes may be clear, but within the genre many of the lines are fuzzy. Cozy, soft-boiled, suspense, thrillers, hard-boiled, noir are genres or subgenres or maybe sub-subgenres. Noir is a subgenre of crime novels — at least that’s my understanding. But then there are books described as urban noir, rural noir, ‘50’s noir, neo noir. Can you say “neo noir” five times really fast? Are these sub-subgenres? The problem for me is that I’m not really sure what I write. (Don’t take advantage of that straight line in the comment section. Too easy.)

None of my books are cozies. That much is clear. And because any sense of doom is dealt with before the last page, I’m not writing noir. With the exception of the standalone Good to the Last Kiss, there’s not a whole lot of nihilism going on in anything I write. Well maybe a little. In the end though, I’d even have trouble convincing anyone that the Shanahan mysteries are hardboiled. Shanahan is no Mickey Spillane or Jack Reacher. He can’t take out 15 guys in a bar all by himself. And he doesn’t relish killing people, even people he dislikes. He likes to solve cases. He’s 70. He’s smart and determined. But he’s not likely to scare a room full of ex-cons.

“Wry,” the critics often say of the Shanahan books. He is often described as “curmudgeonly.” The stories aren’t soft-boiled either. Nor are they sunny-side up. More like over not too easy. So, if Agatha Christie’s books are poached eggs and, say Mickey Spillane’s are ready for the Easter basket, maybe my Shanahan novels are “scrambled with onions and mushrooms.” Add a little basil and you have my San Francisco series, Death in Pacific Heights and Death in North Beach. Because they take place in Northern California, we’ll add some wine as well and call them Pinot Noir.

But the news of the day is that the first four in the Shanahan series will be re-released in trade paperback and for the very first time in e-book. You should see the announcement here — along with new covers — in a couple of weeks.

Caption: Bullet Beach is the tenth and most recent Deets Shanahan mystery and is now available in hardback, trade paperback and e-book.

Film Pairing — Atlantic City and Key Largo, Dangerous Destinations

Last week I splurged on films, providing the sure-to-offend “top best” crime movies and TV lists. Both Atlantic City and Key Largo were honorable mentions, so I’ll trot them out again as a potential double feature for some rainy Friday night. What we have in this pairing are portraits of old gangsters. Lou Pascal, in Atlantic City is an aging gangster who remembers being a big-time gangster and Johnny Rocco, in Key Largo who thinks he still is. Both are wrong. An accompanying similarity is the fact that both movies use their geographical locations as key characters in the drama. One more thing they have in common — both are also based on plays by lauded American playwrights.

Atlantic City, the old Atlantic City that is, is withering away, with, as it turns out, symbolic appropriateness. Louis Malle’s sensitive and somewhat quirky film released in 1980 was based on a script by the highly regarded American playwright, John Guare. Burt Lancaster’s Lou Pascal was fading as fast as the old neighborhoods he inhabits, but he is given a chance to be the person he always thought he was. It is a poignant portrayal in a film that received Academy Award nominations in the top five categories — winning none. Viewers will get a chance to see the pre-Trump and legendary East Coast city that no longer exists as well as seeing an unusual and unusually good film that also stars Susan Sarandon.

For the second feature — how could you go wrong with tough guys Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart? Key Largo (1948) was the fifth time they performed together and apparently their star status (relative to each other) in film advertisements was settled by Bogart’s name being to the left on posters and Robinson’s occupying a higher position in the middle. In the film, Johnny Rocco and his equally nasty crew take over a small hotel in Florida’s Key Largo, where they are threatened by a rival gangster, the police, one of the hostages and a hurricane. Directed by John Huston and based on Maxwell Anderson’s play, the cast includes Edward G. Robinson (as Johnny Rocco), Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor. Trevor, called the Queen of Noir (says Wikipedia) was nominated three times for an Academy Award and won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rocco’s alcoholic and abused girlfriend.

The two fading gangsters couldn’t be more different. But we need some sort of tough-guy drink to accompany the double feature. Another question to consider: What should you drink during a hurricane? Rum may not be appropriate for New Jersey, but remember, you’ll be heading for the sultry Keys.

Opinion — Counter-Promotion, Noir and Me, or Is It Noir and I?

Most of my books have a slight uptick at the end. It’s as if I mean to say is that despite all the murder and mayhem, “all is not lost.” Generally speaking the bad guys pay. The main characters, including many supporting players, survive for another book. On the other hand, the stories have occasional bursts of violence and the general flow of the narrative may have a dark overlay. I don’t decide to write this way. It’s just the way it comes out.

If I’ve ever written a book that could be considered noir, it would be the most recent, Good to the Last Kiss. It belongs to neither of my ongoing series’. In Good to the Last Kiss, the world isn’t a nice place. The characters are having a terrible time convincing themselves there is a reason to go on. There is an end to the story. Everything is wrapped up. The reader knows who did what to whom. But there is a sense that the only thing that has changed is that a few more ounces of hope have been drained from their souls.

That ought to get you to go right out and buy it, right?

That’s the thing, isn’t it? Especially in mysteries, from noir to cozy, there are expectations. Some readers not only want things wrapped up but given some assurance that the world is all right again. A brave and honest cop, a clever private detective or a heroic vigilante eliminates evil. In best of noir, as I understand it (I might be oversimplifying the definition a bit), we are reassured everything is hopeless, perhaps the characters are punished for having hope in the first place, and when fate deals its final blow, we can just go on about our business, shaking our head at the futility of it all. That’s not quite what happens in Good to the Last Kiss, either.

As is the case with all my books, I ask a few people to read the manuscript before my final edit. These are friends who have read many of the near-to-last drafts and pretty much know what to expect. They generally like the books, some more than others. And generally they know what to expect. Comments may range from “she wouldn’t wear that perfume” or “too many lunches” (I have a tendency to write about what I know) or possibly so and so “should be a little tougher” or “you don’t walk ‘down’ that street, you walk ‘up’.” But Good to the Last Kiss was different. This time I got an intense reaction. A few hated the book. Some were shocked or even embarrassed by it. Still others thought it the best book I’ve written. What came out is an ending that probably doesn’t meet any of the usual expectations — pleasing neither one camp nor the other.

I think that’s good. But even if it isn’t, it is what came out and what felt real to me.

San Francisco Bookstore — KAYO, Pulp Fiction, Pulp Non-Fiction

Walk through the doors, the owners say and you will have a “glimpse of the lurid past of dime store novels, sleazy 1960s exploitation and 1970s pop culture.” It’s true. This small store in downtown San Francisco specializes in vintage mysteries, science fiction, westerns and erotica.

Not inappropriately, the KAYO Bookstore is located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin — an area often thought of as sleazy — drugs, prostitutes, massage parlors and strip joints. All of that is in the midst of transformation. The store is located at the base of Nob Hill. The streets here are gaining a new, more trendy status with real estate agents suggesting a new name, The Tendernob.

New name or not, KAYO visitors are not far from emerging galleries and only a few blocks from downtown shopping or from the Civic Center. There are an increasing number of interesting restaurants and bars populating the area. While the down and out character is disappearing, there is enough grittiness left to complement the great pulp novels, posters and vintage magazines in the store — a kind of pulp museum.

814 Post Street, (415) 749-0554, www.kayobooks.com

Incidentally, for those interested in great pulp covers — covers for the kind of books found at KAYO, check out Killer Covers.

Opinion — The Amazon Factor, E-Book & Self Publishing Revisited

Having my own publishing company, Life Death and Fog Books, came about because of a confluence of needs and events. Ebook technology, in particular, provided both a threat to and an opportunity for many of us who have been writing for a while. The threats were that we could no longer rest on our knowledge of publishing as only a print medium because that was no longer true, and we could not depend upon others to carry us along into the new world. The opportunity we had was to engage the medium as best we could.

So, it is a thrilling, but uneasy time. Many of the best-selling crime writers have the luxury of simply staying with what some are now calling “legacy” publishers — Houghton Mifflin, Random House, etc. They are moving, some might say at glacial speed into the new publishing mediums, but bring with them the traditional attitudes. Other writers are opting to publish their own work. Some are mixing and matching. Some writers are publishing their own but forming collectives or working with others in various ways to tackle the difficult task of marketing. There is something else now that is happening — and it is open to immense speculation.

Amazon, a giant buster when it came to the bookstore business and a boon to many of us who want to publish our own books as well as work with traditional publishers, has again “frightened the horses.” The company, an online rival for every business imaginable, has formed its own publishing subsidiaries. One of them is Thomas Mercer, an Amazon imprint that will publish mysteries and thrillers in all formats. They will sign the writers, allow them a great voice in the creation of the book, give them higher royalties and will promote them with all the resources of Amazon has at hand. This is good. Probably.

However, it may not all be good. What this reminds me of is Safeway or Whole Foods, or Costco. They buy and brand products, sell them for less and soon Safeway Select or Whole Foods 365 or Costco’s Kirkland begins to appear prominently on these mass merchandiser shelves with the predictable impact of nudging others off. Several writers have already signed up, even some who have previously made a big deal about standing up to the traditional publishers, promising to publish their own books. And I have to admit that at this point in my life, given the opportunity, I might sign on as well. I’m not sitting in moral judgment just in practical observation. However, practically speaking, this new twist in the game might not be great news for those of us who are trying to get on or stay the shelf while the horses are snorting and raring.

Let me end with a small bit of blatant promotion and a suggestion for further reading on the subject.

Life Death and Fog Books published Mascara, Death in the Tenderloin a few months ago. It is available with irony here. In November, the first four books in the “Deets” Shanahan series, published to great reviews in the early ‘90s, will be released in trade paperback and in various e-book formats.

If you want to understand more about the Amazon factor, there is a great, honest explanation and discussion between self-publisher extraordinaire Joe Konrath and new Thomas Mercer author Barry Eisler here (Scroll down to interview with Joe Konrath). The New York Times has today's story here.

Opinion — My Own Version of Nine, Nine, Nine

A couple of weeks ago, at Murderati, writer David Corbett revisited a scholarly panel discussion held at the recent St. Louis Bouchercon. The topic was best crime films of all time. At the Tipping My Fedora blog, there are the results of a huge undertaking: A list of the “Top 101 Film and TV Mysteries.” Both are well worth reading. As you might expect there isn’t 100 percent agreement. I’ve been playing with various “top” lists over the years and thought I’d throw my lists into the mix.

With apologies to Herman Cain, I’ve come up with three lists of nine. But first, some caveats. My list is biased. It is based on my relatively late in-life-arrival on the crime fiction scene, a general lack of awareness of foreign crime films, and an inexplicable disinterest in movies made before 1940. The other point to be made is that this is a list of what I think are the “best” crime movies, not necessarily a list of “my favorite” films. And while best and favorite are still only opinions, I believe there is a difference. If it were a list of my favorites, the list would look a little different. For me “best” means that they are something beyond just damned good. They break new ground or exemplify a complete and perhaps overwhelming mastery of the form they chose. I love the American-made Alfred Hitchcock movies, for example, but, in my opinion, many of the ones I really like, are seriously flawed, which brings me to this: I know making lists like these is no way to make friends. Here they are, anyway.