Steven Tyler's Blog, page 4
March 25, 2015
The RRT Killer (Coming 2015)
by Steven Tyler
(No, not that Steven Tyler)
L. A. P. D. homicide detective Katelyn Selma Blair has a problem. Everyone who has ever made a pass at her is being murdered. The prime suspects are her three ex-boyfriends: the paramedic, the assistant district attorney, and the reporter. Things only get worse when two geeky guys show up with a nutty idea and a crazy device that just might work to catch the killer. The end is like something out of a movie with the heroine in danger and help galloping to her rescue. Will she survive? Who is the culprit? Who would have ever though that a Serial Killer thriller could be so funny?
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Searching For My Soul (Coming 2016)
Three lost people. Two of them are dead. One is alive. Ann Kelly is a writer. A ghost writer. One day one of the dead come to visit her and her life will never be the same.
Searching for My Soul is the story of an alcoholic writer living on the fringe of society while residing right in the middle of the second largest city in America. The tale of one woman whose life has been torn apart by life itself.
A six year old boy. A ghost delivers messages. Clues to the truth that will set two deceased lost souls free but will it be in time to save Ann’s soul or her life?
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The Hollywoodland Murder (Coming 2017)
Was it really suicide? Everyone says it was. The cops, the coroner, and the newspapers all say it had to be. There was even a note apologizing. Apologizing for all the harm she had caused.
There is one man who doubts. One man who does not believe. One man who wants to find the truth
The time was 1932. The place: Los Angeles. Her name was Lillian Hightower. She was an actress. They said she jumped. Jumped to her death. Leapt from the top of the “H” of the Hollywoodland sign. A real estate advertising sign that stands on a hill overlooking the City of Angeles.
Maurice Chavier is a movie producer. He knows nothing about investigating a murder but he knows someone who does. Francis Conor Declan is an ex-homicide cop from New York. Declan is a man with a demon. A demon that might make him take his own life. He is brought to the City of Angeles by Chavier to investigate whether this young actress really did take her life, or not.
Elizabeth Ridder is a lively, intelligent young woman who is a better shot than most men. She speaks five languages and can quote Shakespeare by heart. Mr. Chavier hires Elizabeth to escort Declan around Tinseltown while he navigates through lie after lie after lie. After all, this is Hollywood you know.
Together these two will solve “The Hollywoodland Murder.”
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Code Name Rumptelstilskin (Coming 2018)
The time is 1949. Europe is staggering to its feet after the most devastating war the planet has ever seen. Desmond O’Shaunnessey saw the war first hand as a Sargent in the American 101st Airborne. He returns to the battlegrounds he fought to liberate to fulfill the dying wish of an old friend. The wish: Find out what happened to an OSS agent who went missing at the end of the war. The OSS’s agent code name was Rumpelstiltskin.
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Book Swag
Bookreader Swag
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is coming in less than two weeks and I am preparing to be there for the first time as an author.
Saturday, April 11th, will see me in two booths signing books. One booth will be for the local chapter of Sisters in Crime and the other for the Mystery Ink Bookstore. Authors give away swag in an effort to promote their books. The most common swag item are bookmarkers. Today, I priced out common swag items such as coffee mugs, keychains, and pens. My desire was to have something other than bookmarkers. Personally, I accumulate lots of bookmarkers and was seeking something more unique.
Coffee mugs and keychains priced expensive. The cost of those swag items exceeds the royalties from the present number of books I’ve sold to date. I had previously ordered five pens from Vistaprint and did not like the result. The picture of the book cover was small and the amount of information such as website address was limited. Bookmarkers won out because of their low cost and amount of information that can be included on the item.
I am still seeking an eye catching, economical item for my next book signing. All suggestions are welcome.
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March 24, 2015
Book Review: Dead Between the Lines
“Dead Between the Lines” by Denise Swanson
What is a cozy? Answer: A light, enjoyable read, one that does not tax the mind, or a pleasant adventure, usually surrounding a murder, with characters you’d like to know and see again.
DBL feels more like a read geared to teenage girls than a trek designed for fans of murder most foul.
Denise Swanson’s heroine, Devereaux Sinclair, has two male suitors, the handsome doctor and the Hunkazoid Deputy U. S. Marshal. Every girl should have such troubles.
The murder of a local poet and gossip columnist in a small Missouri town sets Devereaux on a journey to find the murderer. Here though are some of the problems with this scenario:
*Why, or better yet, how is there so much dirty gossip in a town of two thousand that it warrants a column in the local weekly?
*How many writers or closet writers are there in this hamlet of two grand that no one can figure out who the gossiper is; especially, as it reveals he didn’t even have a nine-to-five job.
Dev questions person after person about their whereabouts at the time of the murder even after the police have already questioned the individual. Maybe it’s my big city attitude, but if Dev asked me where I was between such and such time on the night of the murder, I would have told her to take a hike and leave the job of police investigations to, oh, I don’t know, maybe,,,the police!
The poet slash gossiper is not the only item that is dead in “Dead Between the Lines.” Wit has also been murdered, or is at least gone fishin’.
There are a few attempts at humor, many regarding Dev’s grandmother’s watching marathons of the TV show Bonanza or casino gambling. These fall flat like Hosh’s attempt at dieting or winning at roulette. Another effort at comedic distraction includes the elderly old woman as a sexual partner. My gosh we’ve never seen that before…uh, yeah, we have. It’s not knew. It’s dull. It’s amateurish.
Christy Fifield’s cozy has a dead uncle reincarnated within a parrot that swears worse than a high school kid. It used to be “worse than a sailor”, but that’s not knew; it’s dull, it’s amateurish, and only high school kids can curse now-a-days. Stopping them infringes on their freedom of speech where vulgarity in an adult is seen as…I don’t know…childish. At least Bluebeard is funny when he swears. There’s nothing funny or interesting in “Dead Between the Lines.” It’s dead before you even open the cover.
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March 20, 2015
Faces on Mt. Rushmore.
The Book-on-the-Night Stand podcast asked if were to replace the faces on Mt. Rushmore with four literary writers who would they be?
Here are my choices:
Victor Hugo: “Les Miserables” if definitely my favorite book.
Natsuo Kirino: Her book “Grotesque” is the best book I have read except for “Les Miserables.”
Jane Austen: I love all her books.
Alexandre Dumas: I’m French and we have to stick together. Besides, You can’t beat “the Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
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March 16, 2015
The Queen of the City of Angels
One of my favorite things to do is to walk the city as it rises from its sleep.
I walked the back streets and beach of Santa Monica last Saturday morning. My destination was Marion Davies’, William Randolph Hearst’s main squeeze, former residence. It was a seventy minute walk from start till I found the abode.
A spectacular, white, three story affair on the Santa Monica beach with a westerly view of Santa Monica Bay. Built in the Georgian style it consisted of thirty-four bedrooms and was designed by one of the first female architects in America, Julia Morgan.
The house is gone. All that remains today is the guest house. In itself a not to shabby affair for the time in which it was build, the 1920’s.
I took the side streets back to my car climbing two sets of four story staircases and enjoying modern architecture mixed in with the homes built long ago when flowers and figurines where chiseled into the outside plaster that encompasses windows and doorways.
My journey took three hours. It was wonderful to see the city but I did receive too much of southern California’s fabulous sun. The walk and sun made my return to slumber that night as easy a wave breaking onto the Santa Monica sand where the ghost of Ms. Davies walks remembering the time she was the queen of the City of Angels.
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March 12, 2015
The Poisonwood Bible
There is a website where you answer seven questions and website tells you what book you are. The website told me I was Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible.” I’ve read the book and liked it but don’t know why that’s the book that I am.
I don’t know what book I’d like to be. My preference is that it would be witty and well written. It would have to be a simple story because I’m a simple man. No fabulous adventures. No travel to exotic lands. No life filled with many lovers.
Every allows talks about “The Catcher in the Rye.” I’ve read the book, twice. Never found it interesting. Guess I’m no Holden Caulfield.
Right now I’m reading a biography on Errol Flynn. It’s called “Errol Flynn, The Untold Story.” The untold part is about his efforts to aid the Nazis. Errol Flynn is exactly the man I would not want to be. Mean, vicious, two-timer, scoundrel, hard-to-work with, self-centered, and a Nazi.
Maybe one day I’ll read the book I want to be. Maybe one day I’ll write the book I want to be.
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March 6, 2015
Writing versus Marketing
My fifteen plus years working on screenplays taught me that writing was the easy part and marketing was the hard side of the equation. Many writers like myself are more comfortable with a pen or book in our hands than on the phone attempting to pitch our product to reviewers, bookstores, or agents. Marketing is work where writing is fun.
The business of writing is that of being a business. Even established writers like Cara Black and Karin Slaughter need to promote themselves at book lovers conventions and be speakers on panels. This year I will be at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books for two hours signing books in the Sisters-in-Crime booth. Me! Singing my book! Wow!
I sure hope all the would-be book lovers don’t come to the booth looking for that other Steven Tyler. The singer guy. They’ll be very disappointed. However, if they pick up a copy of One Little Lie they’ll go home happy. It’s a good book.
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