Digging graves and books with Beau and Eric

Beau Johnson takes a look at Eric Beetner's DIG TWO GRAVES.

Dig Two Graves is a novella-length piece about Val, an ex-con who thinks he has figured out the trick to continuing his bank robbing life without ever getting caught. Except then he gets caught.

It’s not his plan that backfires, oh no. There’s a rat somewhere and Val is pretty damn sure who it is – Ernesto, his prison lover who has joined him on the outside as his partner in bank robbery.

Val stalks the city night on the hunt for Ernesto to exact revenge for breaking the ultimate criminal code: you don’t rat out a partner.

Along the way Val wrestles with his feelings for another man. Was it a prison infatuation born out of necessity? Or is it something more? And which makes the betrayal sting worse?

Populated by small time losers and petty crooks, Dig Two Graves is tough and stripped down like a fight without gloves. The humor is strictly from the gallows and the pace is relentless, plowing through one furious night like burning hate coursing through veins.

"Dig Two Graves" is the product of a diseased mind, and I mean that in the very best way. If you like stories about revenge and criminals fucking up their own shit, this one's for you." -- Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest and The Adjustment

Virtual Lunch: Eric & Holly's 2016 Book Wrap-Up

by Holly West & Eric Beetner

When I lived in L.A., Eric Beetner and I would occasionally have lunch together, during which we'd talk about books, gripe about publishing and shoot the shit about life in general. I've missed those lunches since I've moved, so when Eric suggested we get together to write a post about our favorite reads of 2016, I happily agreed.

During these meals, I learned, among other things, that he doesn't eat french fries. Not because he doesn't like them, but because, HEALTH. While this isn't an entirely foreign concept to me, it is one of the key ways Eric and I differ. When given the option, I take the fries.

Eric is, in all things, a more disciplined person than I, but if that's obvious from our food choices, it's even more so in our reading and writing output. Eric reads at least six books and probably writes more than ten to my one. I could probably figure the exact numbers but math is hard and I've got this blog to post.

So here they are, in all their glory, our favorite books of 2016:

HW: I'm gonna start with the last book I read, IQ by Joe Ide. It's a unique take on the modern P.I. novel--Isaiah Quintabe (known as IQ) is an East Long Beach-based high school drop-out and former criminal whose intelligence and observational skills would make Sherlock Holmes stand up and take notice. IQ solves neighborhood crimes, charging his clients whatever they can afford, but to pay his bills, he has to take on higher profile cases.

Calvin Wright is a drug-addled rap superstar, who, much to the consternation of record company execs, can't seem to get his latest album recorded. Someone puts a contract out on his life, hiring a lunatic hitman whose first attempt at murdering Calvin involves a monstrous attack dog. Definitely haven't seen that before, and to be honest, the dog-breeding stuff in the book is an interesting side-topic. As for who hired this guy, there's no shortage of suspects, from a bitter ex-wife to two former bandmates turned glorified assistants/lackeys.

IQ is a mystery novel that doesn't read as a typical who-dun-it. It's urban setting sounds and feels authentic, which isn't an easy thing to pull off without falling on stereotypical language and attitudes. I loved the book and thought it was a fresh take on a sometimes tired genre.

EB: I've heard good things about IQ. Glad you liked it. I had a good year of reading. I read 83 books and I'll probably get to 85-86 by year's end. Not my best year, not my worst.

I'll go back to the start of my year and a book called MONTANA 1948 by Larry Watson. It's older - from 1993 - and  honestly I don't know what compelled me to pick it up at a Goodwill, but something about the time and place spoke to me so I tried it for a dollar. Man, I really loved it. It has a crime in it but it's not a crime or mystery novel, really. I seldom read straight up literary books, but this one really did the trick for me. Watson's writing is so simple and direct that I really got deep into the narration. There are secrets being kept, societal proprieties that must be met, a coming of age and a solid family in a trying time. All of this wrapped in a story with a deep sense of time and place.
I loved it so much I ended up reading four Larry Watson books this year. AMERICAN BOY was another standout.

HW: This is where I admit I haven't read a printed book in well over a year, although I do still occasionally buy interesting out-of-print books when I find them. Most recently, I purchased several "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" volumes at a local antique store.

But since you've gone old(er) school with your first pick, I'll do the same. Published in 1973, THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT by Sidney Sheldon is an over-the-top potboiler, but nevertheless, a page turner and thoroughly entertaining. Sheldon was never an author I aspired to read, but this book was mentioned as an example in a non-fiction writing book I'd agreed to review and since I was looking for mainstream, popular fiction to read at the time (for research purposes, mostly), it seemed a good choice. I won't argue it's literary merits, but the story, which focuses on lives of Catherine Alexander and Noelle Page, takes place before, during and after WWII. Beyond calling it pop fiction, it's hard to nail down its genre--it's not a love story exactly and there's certainly crime and suspense, revenge and death. The Noelle Page character is particularly interesting since she's basically a sociopath who achieves worldwide success as an actress just so she can gain revenge on a lover who jilted her. As you do.

EB: Ah, Sidney Sheldon. One of those writers forever classified as a guilty pleasure. I've never read him, I'll admit. This year I tracked down one of those writers I'd heard of but never got around to buying the book, and I'm glad I went for it. Steph Post is a current writer and her debut, A TREE BORN IN CROOKED, was great. Southern noir done right. Backwoods crime, family drama, great action. I dug it and when I was able to get an advance copy of Post's next book, LIGHTWOOD, due out in January, I ended up liking it even better. LIGHTWOOD is going to be on several best of lists next year, mark my words. Definitely in my top five for this year, and next year as well.

I'll admit, part of what I liked is that it seemed so much like a book I would write. Not sure what that says about me, but Steph ended up reading my book RUMRUNNERS and felt the same thing. We have very similar sensibilities and I keep telling myself it's not narcissistic to feel that way about a book.

I will take this moment to mention that this was the year women went dark. Maybe it was just happenstance but several books I read by women authors were much darker and more in the noir vein than ever. Neliza Drew in ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING, Marietta Miles with ROUTE 12,  Sarah M. Chen with CLEANING UP FINN. I've struggled in the past to find books by women to recommend on the hardboiled or noir spectrum, but after this year I have several.

Did you read anything from outside of America?


HW: You beat me to the punch in mentioning Neliza Drew's ALL THE BRIDGES BURNING. It was one of the best debuts I read this year, particularly because I love her protagonist, Davis Groves. She's a woman with a troubled past (to put it mildly) whose managed to make a life for herself but is forced to confront said past when the little sister she's always felt guilty for abandoning is accused of murder. Sure, we've seen that sort of storyline before, but it's been awhile since I've read such a compelling character and Drew's take on the subject matter is absolutely unique as a result. I'm looking forward to seeing where she takes the series. Beyond that, Drew is a terrific writer who, if I'm being frank, can write circles around me.

Since you asked, I did read one book from outside America: BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty, set in Australia. In spite of Moriarty's bestselling author status, I'd never heard of her until a friend recommended it when we were discussing the pettiness and competition among parents that sometimes crops up in school communities. In BIG LITTLE LIES, this dynamic takes an exceedingly dark turn, which intrigued me, though not having kids myself, I've never actually experienced it. Turned out, I loved the book and I'm now looking forward to the HBO series based on it.

EB: One of the best books I read this year was also from Australia. GUNSHINE STATE by Andrew Nette is a crime thriller which launches from a story about a classic heist crew - always a welcome plot to me - and then veers off into a chase story and a revenge story. My favorite quality on a book is a narrative that moves forward constantly and GUNSHINE STATE did that. Expect unexpected turns and a main character who will appeal to fans of Parker and other anti-hero mainstays. And it was just foreign enough to be very intriguing and give the sense of being in a different place while remaining relatable.

NOTHING SHORT OF DYING by Erik Storey was another one that hits the ground running and never lets up. Pure thriller territory. Despite Storey having a tragic misspelling of his first name, this series appears to have legs, as they say.

I'll also mention two books that fall into the category of batshit crazy thrillers that I'll admit are not for everyone. IF YOU'RE NOT ONE PERCENT by Todd Morr and GENUINELY DANGEROUS by Mike McCrary are both gonzo, over the top crime novels I wouldn't recommend to your mother. Bloody, tense and relentless in pace, both books satisfied my inner Tarantino.

HW: I like how you wouldn't recommend these books to my mom, but you will recommend them to Do Some Damage readers. You know our audience.

My next pick is non-fiction. REACHER SAID NOTHING: LEE CHILD AND THE MAKING OF MAKE ME by Andy Martin. I've long been interested in learning about other writers' processes, even better if it's a best-selling author like Lee Child (plus, I just like the guy). I think it's because I'm forever looking for the magic formula which will make writing easier and me more prolific. I know the only real solution is to simply get to work, but I'll keep looking because certainly there's some trick somewhere that will suddenly transform me into someone more disciplined in practicing my craft.

REACHER SAID NOTHING gives a narrow look at Child's life and habits (a copious amount of cigarette smoking is involved) while he writes MAKE ME, the twentieth novel in the Jack Reacher series. Ironically, I've only read the first Reacher book and while I liked it well enough, I never made it any further. But this book about writing a book is enticing because it provides a glimpse of a life I think I'd like to lead--that of a successful crime fiction writer who takes summers off to travel and relax, who lives in Manhattan but also globally and seems to enjoy the existence he's built for himself. Lee Child's life isn't glamorous--he's nothing if not a "working" writer--but it does afford him opportunities that seem appealing, if only from a distance. Never mind the fact that in my old age I've become increasingly intolerant of my neighbors' noises (so that Manhattan apartment is out) and I'd much rather stay home, petting my dogs, than to, say, take a trip to Paris.

I just hope it's not the cigarette smoking that's the key to Mr. Child's discipline and success because, well, my ultimate take away from the book was to be concerned about his health.

EB: From what I understand it's not only cigarettes he smokes while he works.

You ever have those books where they hit your radar but you don't get around to them for years? Then when you do you're like, "Why did I wait so long!???!" That book for me this year was COLD QUIET COUNTRY by Clayton Lindemuth. I was aware of it since it's debut in 2012 and I think it sat on my Amazon wishlist since then. I finally went for it this year and holy hell did I love it. Definitely my favorite narrative structure is the 360 degree view of a crime. Writers like Urban Waite do this so well. Sam Gailey in DEEP WINTER, Peter Farris in LAST CALL FOR THE LIVING, David Joy in WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO.

COLD QUIET COUNTRY is one of those stories that keeps dragging you deeper. Loyalties shift as you root for the anti-hero and end up rooting against the cop on his trail. Although, the way Sheriff Bittersmith is introduced is one of the best I-know-all-I-Need-to-know character intros I've ever read. He's a first class son of a bitch and you even shift gears on him. I was just so engrossed in the story and the setting (1970 Wyoming in the winter) that I wanted that book to go on for longer, and let me be clear – I NEVER feel a book is too short. The fact it was a debut novel is almost infuriating. I'm amazed Lindemuth hasn't conquered the (publishing) world since then. But you and I are not bestsellers either so clearly people have no taste.

I'll also throw in another debut I just read recently that I adored – THE LONG FALL by Lynn Kostoff. Another debut that is such pure net-noir that it sat squarely in my wheelhouse. It's everything you want in a blood and bitterness-soaked noir tale. I've read others by Kostoff but this was my favorite by far.

HW: I'll admit you've convinced me I should read a few of your recommendations--both of Steph Post's books and COLD QUIET COUNTRY by Lindermuth are now on my list. So good job.

Early this year, I read THE PASSENGER and HOW TO START A FIRE, both by Lisa Lutz. I loved them both but THE PASSENGER stands out among all the books I read in 2016. Tanya Dubois is an unreliable narrator from the minute she drives away from the house where her husband's body lies in the basement and she doesn't get any more trustworthy when she demands a new identity from a mysterious colleague. But over the course of the novel we realize that Tanya isn't a murderer so much as she's a victim of her past whose never known what it's like to feel secure in any identity. With the help of an equally questionable bartender named Blue, she navigates a world where it's near impossible to live off the grid. But they both have the guts--and desperation--to try.

EB: I've talked a lot about books that are older that I'm just getting around to, so let me mention some current reads that I loved this year. Two novels that are quintessentially L.A. are ALL INVOLVED by Ryan Gattis and A BETTER GOODBYE by John Schulian.

ALL INVOLVED is a multi-narrator account of the L.A. riots but it approaches it from the fringe and shows us a slice of life during that time of chaos and some of the criminals who took advantage of the lawlessness. It's about the voices. I listened to this on audio and I think it enhanced my enjoyment of the narration. In distinct first-person sections you get such a great sense of the lives swirling around the desperation in east L.A. and the sudden freedom of a 48-hour free pass from the law. It's frightening how savage these people become when given free reign, but it was a deeply involving read.

A BETTER GOODBYE is pure L.A. noir. A down-on-his-luck Everyman, a woman with some secrets, a desperate longing for connections in a city that too often separates people by its vast geography. This was a simple tale, elegantly told and one that drew me in like a modern POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. It's a love letter to Los Angeles, too, albeit the seedier side of L.A.

HW: Every year, I do a lot of "professional" reading to prepare for panels and interviews. In 2016 I was fortunate to read more than a few good ones. Stand outs were LAKE OF FIRE by Mark Stevens (the body of a reclusive environmentalist is found during a Colorado wildfire and hunting guide Allison Coil is thrust into the mystery), CORRUPTED MEMORY by Ray Daniel (Boston computer hacker Tucker finds a body outside his front door and learns it's the half-brother he didn't know existed), CITY OF MIRRORS by Melodie Johnson Howe (Aging actress Diana Poole is trying to make a comeback when her tempramental co-star is murdered), DOWN & OUT IN BEVERLY HEELS by Kathryn Leigh Scott (former actress Meg Barnes finds herself homeless thanks to a con man husband) and DESIGN FOR DYING by Renee Patrick (Legendary costume designer Edith Head as an amateur sleuth? Why didn't I think of that?)

EB: One last book that blew me away this year was HOUSE OF BLAZES by Dietrich Kalteis. It's the language in this one, a unique vibe almost like a fever dream telling of a tall tale involving the great quake of San Francisco and some stolen treasure and a whole cast of rogues, scoundrels and salty dames. Even the cops are corrupt. This one transported me and drew me into a sordid tale that is based loosely in fact, which I learned when I did a few reading events with Dietrich this year. I really loved this book even if it's hard to describe why.

Thanks, Holly for sharing your picks. And thanks for having me here to share some of mine.

HW: That was fun! We'll have lunch the next time I'm in town, but until then, I'll let you pick up this check.

***

That's me out until next year, folks. Have a great holiday and I'll see you in 2017.

--Holly

The Story Behind My UNLOADED Story

Guest Post by S.W. Lauden

Here’s a question I’ve been asked by several people who’ve read my debut novel, BAD CITIZEN CORPORATION: Was the police shooting of a teenager ripped directly from the headlines of the past couple of years?

It caught me off guard the first few times because I'm not an overtly political person. Sure, I follow the news and I have strong opinions about certain issues, but you won't usually see me posting tirades on Facebook or getting on my soapbox at a dinner party.

So while the answer I want to give might be a definitive “Hell yes!”—because that seems like a pretty badass thing to write about—the truth is probably something a little more complicated.

I first sat down to write “BCC” five years ago. At the time, I knew the protagonist, Greg Salem, was going to be a beach cities punk singer who had grown up to become a police officer. I also knew that he would lose his badge, but I wasn’t exactly sure how.

It was probably a year later, and deep into the first draft, when I finally decided to make his fall from grace an on-duty shooting involving a kid. This wasn’t specifically in response to anything I’d seen in the news, but because it seemed like a good metaphor for his relationship with his own troubled youth.

Sadly, police shootings are not a new phenomenon, but in this case I used it more for dramatic effect. The political implications of choosing that kind of tragic event were not lost on me, but it wasn’t the focal point. That’s just not how I approach my writing.

So I had to think about whether or not to submit a story to Eric Beetner's anthology, UNLOADED: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns. I dug the idea and I loved that the proceeds from sales would benefit a worthy cause (ceasefireusa.org). I just wasn't sure that I was the kind of writer to participate for all the reasons stated above.

My knee-jerk response was that it would be much easier to move on and put my energy into another writing project, but that didn’t sit well with me either. Then it dawned on me: Gun violence isn't really a political issue for me, it's a moral one.

Somehow that made it easier for me to wrap my head around the opportunity. From that point forward I focused on the interesting challenge of writing a compelling crime story without using guns.

The result is “Itchy Feet,” the story of a suburban family that’s hosting a yard sale while their lives fall apart. You can cut the dysfunction with a knife, but everybody is pretty much holding it together until a psychotic clown turns up. That’s when the wheels fall off the circus wagon.

“Itchy Feet” is the latest version of a short story I first started three years ago. The inspiration came to me while I hosted a yard sale of my own. I watched the strangers dig through piles of my old stuff while making up stories for them in my head—because that’s what I do.

  

Whether this anthology will make any difference in the greater debate is beside the point. For now I applaud Eric Beetner and Down & Out Books for putting this anthology together, and thank them for letting me be part of it. I know for sure that there’s a least one person that was challenged by the concept.

***

S.W. Lauden’s debut novel, BAD CITIZEN CORPORATION, is available now from Rare Bird Books. The second Greg Salem novel, GRIZZLY SEASON, will be published in September 2016. His standalone novella, CROSSWISE, is available now from Down & Out Books.

Unloading

Guest Post by Eric Beetner

Holly's note: I'm proud to be a part UNLOADED (Down & Out Books) and thankful to editor Eric Beetner for asking me to contribute. I'll be writing a post about the origins of my own story, "Peep Show," next week, but this week I wanted to give Eric a chance to tell us about the origins of the anthology itself. UNLOADED is available for pre-order now and officially drops April 18.

I first got the crazy idea for an anthology of crime stories without any guns back in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting. I was outraged, as many Americans were, by both the inexplicable violence and also by the circling of the wagons by the NRA and other pro-gun groups to immediately make it about them and their rights to gun ownership. The idea that maybe this nut case shouldn’t have had such easy access to the weapons he used was a non-starter.

I put aside the idea, thinking that it wouldn’t make any difference to make a book and by consequence, make a statement. Then there were more shootings – at movie theaters, military bases, workplaces, shopping malls. And I realized that the argument against even doing something small played right into their hands. The argument I so vociferously disagreed with was the same argument I was telling myself. If it doesn’t stop all violence, then why bother at all? I wanted to bother.

Violence has always been with us. Gun violence has been around since the invention of the firearm. It won’t stop. I know that. Our little book won’t stop it, won’t move the dial in Washington, most likely. But to do nothing just wasn’t tenable any more.

And I noticed that other writers felt the same way. And we all felt helpless. We’d rant on Twitter, post links on Facebook. I felt we needed to do more. UNLOADED was born.

Two important things:

1) I don’t want to take away all your guns. I believe strongly in limits, in more rigorous background checks, in closing loopholes, in making guns harder to use for anyone not the owner, for more training, and for restrictions on guns clearly manufactured for military use.

2) I know a collection of short stories without any guns in them is a small gesture.

The thing is, myself and the other writers included in Unloaded began to worry that we were a part of the problem. That we glorified guns in our writing. That we added to a culture obsessed with guns. We wanted to speak out and say we know the difference between fantasy and reality, and we want reality to look a little less like the violence-filled fantasies in our stories.

The writers I reached out to came on board the project enthusiastically and without hesitation. We represent gun owners and non-owners, Democrats and Republicans. We represent the overwhelming majority of Americans who feel that some greater level of gun control is needed and that the mass shootings that occur far too regularly are a product, yes, of mental illness, but also of a culture that accepts guns and gun violence as a cost of our freedom. And we feel that our current gun culture is not anywhere near what the founders intended – a direct repudiation of the NRA position that the home stockpiles of weapons and the ease by which we can get guns would make the founders proud somehow.

We want to reduce the amount of suicides by gun, the amount of tragic accidents by guns, the amount of deaths of children by guns.

And we used the greatest weapon at our disposal – our words.

This collection is intended to thrill and excite. My intention was always for the readers not to even notice the absence of guns, and maybe in some small way, to open a dialogue that if we tried to reduce the prevalence of guns in our everyday life the way we have all done in our fiction, even for a brief time, then maybe we could see another way.

And though I know it’s small, the old arguments ring hollow to me now. Because if we can save even one tragic accident, one mass shooting, one disgruntled ex-employee, one suicidal teen…then one is enough. Even saving one is better than staying silent, because staying silent is the same as seeing someone load a gun and saying nothing.

We’ll all continue to write about guns, we’ll all continue to wonder about our own roles in the gun culture in America. But at least now we are on record and we’ve tried to inspire a rational, reasoned and civil conversation.

Unloaded is out April 18th and it contains original stories, and two reprints, from some of today’s top crime and mystery writers. All writers donated their stories and all profits will go to benefit the non-profit States United To Prevent Gun Violence (www.ceasefireusa.org)

The writers include: Joe R. Lansdale, Reed Farrel Coleman, Joyce Carol Oates, Grant Jerkins, Hilary Davidson, Keith Rawson, Rob Hart, Kelli Stanley, Alison Gaylin, Alec Cizak, Joe Clifford, Ryan Sayles, Angel Colon, Kent Gowran, Tom Pitts, Tim O’Mara, Thomas Pluck, Holly West, Trey R. Barker, Jeffery Hess, S.W. Lauden, J.L. Abramo, Patricia Abbott, Paul J. Garth and Eric Beetner.

The ebook is up for preorders on Amazon and eagle-eyed readers may notice the print version is already available early.

***

Eric Beetner is the author of more than a dozen novels including RUMRUNNERS, THE DEVIL DOESN’T WANT ME, DIG TWO GRAVES, WHITE HOT PISTOL and THE YEAR I DIED SEVEN TIMES. He is co-author (with JB Kohl) of ONE TOO MANY BLOWS TO THE HEAD, BORROWED TROUBLE and OVER THEIR HEADS and co-wrote THE BACKLIST with author Frank Zafiro. He lives in Los Angeles where he co-hosts the Noir At The Bar reading series. For more visit ericbeetner.com.

Guest Post: The Life Cycle of the Small Fish in the Big Pond

Housekeeping:
Don't miss our chat with LATE RAIN author, Lynn Kostoff here


Guest Post

By Eric Beetner and JB Kohl co-authors of Borrowed Trouble

Eric: We have a publisher, Second Wind. They are, contrary to most stories of the publishing industry, the nicest bunch of gentle southern folk you’d ever care to meet. So none of this is a complaint. We’re published and we’re grateful. There are quite a few great mystery books on our imprint. You should check them out.

Here’s the thing though – you gotta go find them. If I don’t tell you about them, or our books, you’d never find them. There’s a reason the publisher’s motto is “The best authors you haven’t read, yet!” Welcome to the world of independent publishing. 

Again, not a complaint, just the facts of the biz when you swim in the kiddie pool. We’re not self-published – that scarlet letter of the book world that, if you ask me, is quickly losing its kryptonite power over book sales – but there are times when it feels like we do so much on our own that we’re self-everything else.

Indie publishing is a tough racket. You have to be a writer, publicist, art director, new media consultant and car salesman. Quite often Writer falls to the back of the line.

It becomes doubly hard when you don’t particularly like shilling your wares like a snake oil salesman to all who will listen. I truly believe in our books, both of them One Too Many Blows To The Head and the brand new one, Borrowed Trouble. (Snake oil sales tip – mention the product often) I’ve put myself out there more than I’m comfortable with simply because I truly think I’m selling a quality product here. And meeting readers and other writers while being out and about at conferences and such is pretty damn cool, I will say. I’m just lousy at closing the sale. I’m much more likely to tell someone about the new Victor Gischler book or, “Hey did you see Dope is back in print,” than to shove our own book on someone’s hand.

I’ll say this, it makes every single sale very special when you meet the readers who are buying your books or hear of a bookseller who recommended your book to someone in Italy (as happened to us once).

Jennifer: Gotta go find them is right. I remember doing the queries for One Too Many Blows To The Head and when I found these guys I wasn't sure if we should even submit. Our book seemed a little to edgy for this particular publishing house. The one who reviewed our book indicated in his comments that this wasn't the sort of book he'd ever read, but he felt there was an audience out there for it. 

Okay, great . . . so how does a writer published with a small indie press go about getting an audience? I agree with you, Eric, it's hard. A lot of it is by peddling on the internet . . . web site, blog, e-mail. As a writer you don't want to be out there to the point of nauseating your potential readers, but you also want to let them know there's a new book out and it's one worth reading. 

I used to spend a lot of time on MySpace, back when it was still a viable use of my time, and there were writers on there that plugged their stuff to the point of irritation. It got to be so I viewed any e-mail from them in the same way I viewed a telemarketing call during dinner. It was annoying. I no longer cared if they had anything worth reading because I just wanted them to go away. Forever. 

But take a blog, or a book signing, or a web site – someplace I can voluntarily go to check things out and I'm there. I want to know what's been written and where and when I can get it. I love to read blogs by other writers because they usually write about what they're reading and so many recommendations come to me through word of mouth. I buy my books based on reviews and recommendations from family and friends. But that brings up still another issue: how do family and friends find out about a book if there's no way for them to find out it's there. 

And while we're on the subject, what's the sound of one hand clapping?

EB: Well, that gets to the heart of why being on a bestseller list is a perpetual motion machine. People who don’t know what to read next go look at the NYT top ten and pick from that and look no further. I don’t blame them. Most people don’t have time to find out about the thousands of books that come out each year. 

The thing that has been fascinating for me in our experience has been how being on a small press lets us do more to have control over our book. For example, we’ve done our own covers for both books. I sucked a friend into painting the One Too Many Blows To The Head cover which we added all the type and layout to, then I sent you, what, five different designs to choose from for Borrowed Trouble and we created that entirely ourselves (plus one tiny image I pilfered from an old pulp magazine from the 40s.) Would St. Martin’s Minotaur let us do that? I doubt it. The good news is we’ve gotten many compliments on the artwork which is nice because bad cover art is a dead giveaway for a small press. 

We created our own book trailers, which I could do for free since I am a TV editor by trade. If we had to pay for one I wouldn’t do it. I think they can be a waste of time and money and there are more bad trailers out there than bad covers. I like ours thought.

This stop off at Do Some Damage is just one of many we are doing in our “blog tour”, surely a phrase that didn’t exist even two or three years ago. But it’s all about finding as many ways to get out there as you can. 

One surprising thing I have found is that most authors I talk to, even those on the big boys, are always wanting more promotion. They do the same tricks we do to get noticed. This is not an indie press vs. large press problem anymore. If you want your book to get noticed you have to be out there actively promoting it. 

I agree with you though that you don’t want it to seem like that’s all you do. Hopefully we can get away with it for this month since it is our book release month. I’ll go back to Facebook updates about my kids on March 1st, I promise.

One thing I feel a little dirty about flogging is our “story” of having never met. I will say, though, that I see it as a marketing tool in our toolbox. If we can get a little human interest that gets people to notice the book it sure beats moving to Sweden and dying just to push the old Amazon sales ranking. 

And your question about one hand clapping? That’s the sound of an author with no support system. I feel so grateful that we seem to have a cascading applause of goodwill out there. Part of it is based on good writing, part of it based on being good people and dealing with good people which the crime fiction community is full of. The crime/mystery community is the absolute best place for small press authors, I think. No one looks down on us because we’re not in hardcover at every Walmart in America.

Jennifer: One of my favorite things about our publisher, Second Wind, is that they have a brick and mortar bookstore in Winston-Salem (called Barnhill's) where they carry titles from small presses. The store is located in what I'd classify an art district in the center of the city, filled with eclectic shops run by local artists. There's such an appreciation of one another's work down there--whether the artist is a painter, a writer, a clothier, a sculptor, or a collector searching for something new. And I have to confess, when I travel, I always look for bookstores, and I always look for the ones off the beaten path, run by people who do it because they love it and not because it's a paycheck. It's these little places that carry obscure titles printed in limited runs where you can actually meet some of the great authors who appreciate what it is to have an audience. As a writer I'm always looking for inspiration but as a reader I'm always looking for a good book. Unfortunately, independent bookstores are few and far between and you really have to be looking for one in order to find it. 

I guess that leads me to another thought--and that is that the writing world, when you get down to it, is sort of small. We tend to brush up against one another in cyberspace periodically and read each other's blogs and work, etc. It's the voices of other writers I tend to listen to when I'm wondering what I should read next. Of course I listen to readers too. . . I mean of course I read the reviews on Amazon . . . but seriously, I'd much rather know what people who write the same sort of stuff I write are reading. I think that's a seriously viable form of publicity in and of itself. If you can impress your peers then you've got talent regardless of whether or not you're on NYT bestsellers list. And that has to be worth a little something. 

Eric: At Bouchercon this past year Eddie Muller said to me that it was, “Writers selling to other writers.” And it’s true that the most avid readers I know (aside from my sister) are other authors. 

In the end I doubt there is a writer in the world who is satisfied with his or her book sales or profile in the literary world. Being entirely responsible for your own marketing and promotion is a daunting task that can suck some of the fun out of writing. It only takes one positive Amazon review or one mention on a blog to boost me back up though. Having people drive out of their way to come to a signing is incredible. Having booksellers I respect give me the time out of their busy schedules is amazing. It’s what we have to do – dive into the deep end and keep treading water until you can hopefully start to ride a current of word of mouth and good reviews to bigger sales numbers. 

I’m going to go ahead a beat the metaphor to death here and say that I’m more than happy to be swimming alongside so many writers I like and respect and who I consider friends. I’ll do my best to be out there shilling your works alongside my own. For us small press folks we are our own best allies – sometimes the only ones we get.

So here’s to the independents. The no-promo-budget, not-in-stock-at-Borders, scraping-for-each-Twitter-mention among us. We do it because we love books, we love words and we love writers. We won’t stop just because it’s hard. 

We encourage you to check out our book Borrowed Trouble, even urge you to start with the first book, One Too Many Blows To The Head. Trust us. The snake oil we’re selling really works.

Tonight's Episode: Murder-In-Law

By Eric Beetner

Times are tough, friends. As I’m sure you’ve heard, desperate times call for desperate measures. So you know where I’m comin’ from, my father-in-law is an asshole of the highest order. So there you got the lay of the land.

He’s never liked me and I never liked him. Fact that I love his daughter doesn’t mean shit under the shadow that I knocked her up before we got married. He’s looked down on me like shit on the bottom of his shoes ever since.

Needless to say, but I will, holidays at his house are no picnic. We don’t exactly sit around singing carols and roasting chestnuts. More like we grit our teeth while humming murder ballads in our heads and he busts my nuts all weekend long.

This year, though, I arrived with a plan. My wife, Janine, decided five minutes into the damn door to announce I’d lost my job. He looked at me like a Klansman seeing a black man sleeping in his bed. I swear I could hear his sphincter cinching up.

Janine’s Mom is no Miss Manners either. She makes no show of hiding her contempt for me but I rarely feel like she’s going to wallop me like I do with Janine’s Dad. Jesus Christ, one time I had to go chop firewood with him, I swear he was picturing my throat every time he brought that axe down on a chunk of wood. I thought he was gonna throw a disc in his back he was swinging so hard. No, Doris is more of a quiet shake of the head and walk away kind of passive-aggressive type. Something I see a little too much of in Janine, but I’m never allowed to say.

There was that one time carving the turkey when Doris had a slight slip of the knife and I nearly lost three fingers. That came right on the heels of a spirited discussion of Sarah Palin’s qualifications to become president. I’m on the retarded monkey could do a better job side of the fence. They still think she can see Russia from her porch.

Like I said, though, this time I had a plan.

Bob, that’s his name, although I know for a fact he’d prefer if I called him sir. Neither one of us wants me to call him Dad. He’d feel more comfortable if I asked to see his dick. Anyway, Bob has no real money to speak of. Nothing worth stealing anyway. But I figured out a way to have the old Father-in-law help us out in our time of need.

See, Janine told me about his stash in the attic. World War II Nazi memorabilia. Tons of the stuff. Oh, did I not mention he’s a raging anti-semite? Yeah, a real charmer, Bob.

Janine told me about his Dad’s old footlocker full of flags, plates, arm bands, a bayonet, a helmet, some telegrams with codes and stuff on them. The big ticket item is a copy of Mein Kampf signed by Adolf himself. All junk his Dad brought back from Berlin. All junk Bob hasn’t looked at in years. Seems even Doris knows the etiquette of displaying your swastika covered knickknacks for guests to see.

That shit goes for big bucks to collectors. Other sick bastards who probably think Hitler had some good ideas. And if Bob hasn’t seen it since Reagan was president (the best one ever if you ask Bob) then he won’t miss it.

So, fuck it, I’ll take it. Sell it off and keep his daughter with a roof over her head. How could he argue with that?

The plan was simple enough, wait until everyone fell asleep and go up into the attic and get it. I figure I could take a few items down each night and by the end of the torturously long weekend, I’d have a cache worth a few grand at least. I already made space in the back of the SUV so Janine wouldn’t notice we’d taken on extra cargo. And really, wouldn’t you want your Dad to get rid of his Nazi stuff?

Nights one and two went off without a hitch. I grabbed the book, a flag, a Hitler youth knife. I’d barely made a dent in that old foot locker. Night three was Christmas Eve. What’s a little racket in the attic? Fun for the kids, right? “Hear that noise? It’s just Santa. Why does Santa have a Nazi flag and a luger? Ummm . . .”

I loaded my arms with another haul, doing the math in my head of how much this crap would net me, and when I turned – there was Bob.

He must have been watching me climb off the little ladder that pulls down from the ceiling. He stood patiently as I raised it as slowly as I could. No matter what I did those damn springs still groaned like a porn actress.

Bob held a shotgun out in front of him. I knew he owned it and I half expected to see it come out on my wedding day.

We stood in silence. I couldn’t help smiling when I noticed a twig of mistletoe hanging over the doorway in which he stood. I knew he wouldn’t kiss me, unless it was one of those Godfather, “I know it was you, Fredo” kind of kisses.

I tried to come up with a plan but instead I saw his mind whirling twice as fast. We had some sort of weird mind meld and I swear I could read his thoughts. He was thinking how he would explain that he heard a noise, thought it was a prowler looking to steal some gifts on Christmas Eve and he shot first before seeing who it was.

My Father-in-law was running the odds of getting away with my murder.

I swallowed hard, listened to the wind outside and waited for him to decide.

***

Eric Beetner is the co-author (with JB Kohl) of One Too Many Blows To The Head and the upcoming sequel Borrowed Trouble (available in Feb 2011). His award-winning short stories have been featured in the anthologiesDiscount Noir and Murder in the Wind and in Needle magazine, Crimefactory, A Twist of Noir, Thuglit, Thrillers Killers n' Chillers, Darkest Before Dawn, Pulp Pusher and many others. More info at ericbeener.blogspot.com