Christa Faust's Blog, page 7

Raymond Chandler Bus Tour

Let someone else do the driving during Carmageddon! This coming weekend, SoCal MWA and OC SinC are co-sponsoring a very special edition of the famous Esotouric Raymond Chandler bus tour that includes live readings of his work in some of the locations where his fiction was set, behind the scenes gossip, true crime tidbits, rare photos and video clips. Here's the tour description from their website:



Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death.

This was Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, which resonated under deft and melancholy fits from his writer's bow.

Join us as we go down the mean streets that shaped his fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: The Los Angeles Athletic Club, Musso & Frank, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio's gates, and much, much more, including a Chandler-themed gelato stop at East Hollywood cult favorite Scoops.

Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, we trace Chandler's search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe's struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

Don't believe me, you can check out my photos of this unique tour here.

The deets:
When: Sunday, July 17
What time: Noon to 4 p.m.
Where: Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 Broadway, Downtown L.A. 90014 (Right near the Pershing Square Metro stop!)

Cost: $40 per person (OCSinC & MWA members and guests) $75 for non-members


A snack stop is included


Meet at Clifton's Cafeteria at 11:30 a.m. to board the bus. (Or come earlier if you'd like to have lunch before the tour.) Bus leaves promptly at noon. A tour guide will tell the tales and immerse you in Chandler's Los Angeles.


Seating is limited!
Reserve your seat by check or pay online at www.socalmwa.com


Every rider will get a discount good for $18 off an upcoming Esotouric
tour of their choice...
and the Birth of Noir (James Cain tour) is coming up in September!

Smashwords is Go!

At least it seems to be on my end...

As per reader request, my electronic garage sale has been extended to Smashwords. "Footjob" "All About Eden" and "Cutman" are now available for download in a variety of formats for all your new-fangled eReader needs.

Check them out and let me know what you think. Also, I'm dying to know how it looks on various readers and what (if any) formatting problems you may be having. This is kind of trial and error process for me, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Meanwhile, all three are still available through Amazon here, here and here. And if you've already read them, I hope you'll consider posting a review.

Thanks for being my experimental subjects. You all look so cute in those Bride of Frankenstein bandages.

Smashwords?

I've gotten several requests for my three stories "Cutman" "All About Eden" and "Footjob" to be made available in non-Kindle format. Several readers suggested Smashwords, so I checked it out. Seems simple enough. But as usual, there's one little fiddly bit that doesn't quite make sense.

So, question for the hivemind: If you've already published something on Amazon, you can't make it available in Kindle format on Smashwords, right? Seems logical, but when you publish there's a big warning beside the Kindle/mobi option that says (in all caps no less) DO NOT deselect the Kindle format.

What gives? Anyone else had to make this choice? Of course there's nothing about it in the FAQ, no tech support and I haven't gotten any response on the Facebook discussion page. I'm not planning to do the fancy premium catalog option, I just want to make these stories available to any readers who might want to check them out. You know, keep it simple.

Short and (not so) Sweet

So I thought I'd run a little experiment over the holiday weekend. A tiny toe-dip into the topsy turvy world of ePublishing. Nothing fancy, just a couple of short stories. Kind of like a Fourth of July fiction garage sale.

"Cutman" "All About Eden" and "Footjob" are now available for download on Kindle at the low low price of only 99 cents. This is the first time that I've ever tried to put anything up on my own, without a publisher to hold my hand. I'd love to hear what you think. Opinions? Criticism? Wild, orgasmic accolades? Flinging of virtual vegetables? Bring it. You guys are my unofficial focus group.

Vintage Curves

This silly-ass article claiming to blow the lid off the "myth of zaftig Marilyn" really bugged the hell out of me. For starters, Marylin WAS a size 12. VINTAGE size 12. As someone who wears a lot of vintage clothing, I can tell you that fake modern vanity sizing has nothing to do with vintage sizes. I wear a vintage 8 or 10, depending on the brand. It's an excepted rule of thumb that you need to subtract 6 from a vintage size to get the equivalent modern size. I'd say that number you subtract should be closer 8 or even 10 now. I wore a size 5 in high school (the smallest size available at the time) and now I wear a 0. I haven't lost weight. If anything I've gained 5 pounds! So you're already starting your article off on the wrong foot. Yes it's true that she was definitely not plus sized and would not have fit into a modern size 12, but she was still much curvier than modern stick-insect actresses.

Which brings me to the other thing that bugged me about that article. The crowing about waist size. You are measuring clothes that were worn in movies! Anyone who's ever seen a Marilyn Monroe film can see that she was girdled or corseted within an inch of her life in some of those films. That was the classic 50's hourglass silhouette. I'm willing to bet she didn't have a natural 22 inch waist. Especially considering that I have a 24 inch waist and can corset to 18 inches. It would make no sense to measure one of my extreme fetish outfits after I'm dead and try to claim I had an 18 inch waist. I also have a 32 inch bust, two inches smaller that Marilyn's "modest" 34 inches. Anybody want to claim I have a small chest?



Small ribs maybe. And how about hip size? I think Marilyn's hips might have been just a wee bit bigger than, say, Mary Kate Olsen's. Certainly bigger than mine.

Okay, end of rant. I now return you to your regularly scheduled morning.

Another NoirDog Update

Butch had another follow up at the opthamologist today. His one eye is still larger than the other, but it's looking like this is a permanent side effect from all the damage inflicted to the muscles around and behind his eyes during his mysterious near-death experience. He will have to be on anti-inflammatory meds for the rest of his life, but he's otherwise healthy and happy. Most importantly, he's still around to look mopey and tragic after enduring the horrors of the opthamologist.

Thanks again to everyone who pitched in to help pay for the expensive emergency treatment that saved his life. You guys rock.

Further Adventures: On Writing Novelizations and Media Tie-Ins

Ever wonder what it's like to play with other people's characters? From novel versions of popular movies to licensed original fiction featuring franchise characters from film, TV or even video games, media-related work-for-hire novels are the new 21st century pulp fiction.

Five veteran pulp slingers will discuss the drama, the deadlines and other unique challenges of this often misunderstood genre.

With Doug Lyle (Royal Pains), William Rabkin (Psych), Lee Goldberg (Monk) and Nathan Long (Warhammer), moderated by me, Christa (Snakes on a Plane) Faust.

June 18th 11:00 am to 2:00 pm

Sportsman's Lodge, 12833 Ventura Blvd.

Lunch: $20 for members, $25 for non-members.

For more info or to sign up online, click here.

Future Shock

A reader just asked me if I would update the technology in my first novel CONTROL FREAK if I were to release it as an eBook. I've given this a lot of thought. I thought about it back when the second edition was released in 2002. (Fuck me, was that really almost 10 years ago?) I went around and around with myself about it but ultimately decided not to.

It's not because it would be too much work. It's because the story takes place in the early 90s and it wouldn't feel true to that setting to go back in and insert 2011 technology. I guess I see it as an artifact of that specific time period, just like a pulp novel from the 50s is an artifact of its own decade. I can't picture Mike Hammer using a smartphone, and I feel the same way about the characters in FREAK.

The much bigger temptation would be to rewrite myself. Because, let's face it, that book just isn't as good as my more recent work. After all, it was my first time. We all kinda suck the first time. But I learned, and I'd like to think that I keep learning every day. The problem is, knowing what I know now, I know I'd want to use what I've learned to polish it up a little. Or a lot. But see, that way lies damnation. Because really, when do you stop? I'd like to think that I'm gonna keep on improving, keep getting sharper, getting better the older I get. So should I go back and "fix" MONEY SHOT in 10 years? Or 20?

No way. Can't do it. So if I ever do decide to put CONTROL FREAK out as an eBook, (and that's still a BIG if) I think it would be have to be as is. You know how you always have that one family member or old flame who keeps posting ugly-ass Junior Prom photos of you on Facebook? Well old books are kinda like old photos. Snapshots of who you used to be. But as much as you might regret your freewheeling teenage style choices, you wouldn't Photoshop an old photo to fix that terrible crooked mohawk you gave yourself right before graduation. (Yeah, I did, and no, I won't post a photo.) That's how I feel about rewriting old stories. Of course, it still gives me a little twinge of discomfort to think of re-releasing something that isn't up to my current standard of quality, just like it would make me uncomfortable to post an embarrassing, unflattering teenage photo. Which is why I still feel very conflicted about it.

What do you think? Writers, are you ever temped to go back later and fix or update old work? Ever give in? Readers, how do you feel about that kind of thing? Does it feel like getting a whole new book, or does it feel dishonest to the original?

Would you want to see CONTROL FREAK released as an eBook? Warts and all?

Hoodtown on Kindle

Listen up, Skins. My novel HOODTOWN is now available in eBook format. You think Angel Dare is tough? Wait till you meet X. Click here to download that bad bitch right now.

Here's a snippet of the publisher's press release, in case you still need convincing:

"Hoodtown, the genre-bending 'lucha-noir'novel from
the "First Lady of Hard Case Crime" Christa Faust (Money Shot, Choke Hold) is now
available in eBook format on the Amazon Kindle and on PCs, tablets and phones via the
Kindle App. The introductory price is $2.99, now available for immediate download.

Described by the author as "Casablanca with wrestling masks," Hoodtown is a fusion
of lucha libre (Mexican masked wrestling) and vintage pulp with a gritty hardboiled
sensibility, all centered on a tough female lead.

'X' is a disgraced wrestler living on the mean streets of an all masked wrestler
ghetto. When a serial killer leaves behind not only dead, but unmasked, bodies, she is
reluctantly drawn into not only the manhunt, but a conspiracy that threatens the very
sanctity of Hoodtown's masked culture."

This book is a personal favorite of mine, one that got very little exposure the first time around. I'm glad it's getting a second chance to find a wider audience. So check it out, and let me know what you think.

Choke Hold Charity Auction Update 6/5

The response to my auction has been astounding so far. I've already raised almost $500 to help fighters and other athletes suffering from post-concussive disorders (including my own personal donation.) But it's not over yet. There are still three days left on the auction.

Click here to place your bid.

I realize that the price of the auction may be too high for many people, but you can still be included in the fundraiser by making a direct donation to the Sports Legacy Institute. Be sure to mention my fundraiser when you submit your donation so they will know where it came from. And remember, no amount is too small to show these wounded warriors that we haven't forgotten about them.

Keep spreading the word.