Scott Semegran's Blog, page 5

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby is a book of crime fiction that reads like a thriller with social commentary. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah's white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek's father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father's criminal record. Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change - and maybe even redemption.”

Razorblade Tears was released in July 2021 and it had been on my TBR list for quite some time. I’m glad I finally got around to reading this blisteringly emotional crime thriller. As the book description states, Ike and Buddy Lee are fathers whose sons were married to each other, yet Ike and Buddy Lee were estranged from their boys. Ike and Buddy Lee didn’t meet each other until their sons’ funerals, after being ruthlessly murdered for unknown reasons. The fathers were reluctant to speak to each other at first. But when Buddy Lee spots a tattoo on Ike’s arm, he realizes they both have a shared past of incarceration. Buddy Lee finds Ike around town and suggest they look for their sons’ killer. Ike hesitates at first, but when the police seemingly do nothing as far as investigating, both fathers come together with the common goal of bringing their sons justice.

Cosby excels at pushing the crime narrative along, the chapters are short and packed with action, bristling with clever metaphors and similes. But where Cosby really shines is his ability to mine the deep emotional trauma and regret from both fathers who realize their shortcomings as parents and husbands and men. Both Ike and Buddy Lee were easily lured into a life of crime when they were young men, both regretting choices they made and the absence in their sons’ lives while being incarcerated. They both also regret not taking the time to understand their sons and their sexuality, knowing that it’s too late to reconcile this with their deceased sons.

MY PURPLE WRITER BRAIN: September 2023 Edition

Seems the latest things that folks in the writing and publishing communities are complaining about is book blurbs. You know, the glowing recommendations from Stephen King or Margaret Atwood or whoever that declares, “This book is immaculate! Luminous! A page turner!” Two excellent articles in Esquire and The Atlantic talk in-depth about this: the blurb fiasco, the broken system, the publishing industry plague. And in some cases, the authors of these articles are right. In other cases, they are off base. Look, I feel blurbs are important; many people feel they don’t matter at all. But if they weren’t important, then they wouldn’t be highly sought after. They wouldn’t be put on books at all if they didn’t matter. In the weird calculus of what makes a book attractive to a potential reader / buyer, an excellent blurb along with a beautiful cover and a compelling book description can move books to the cash register or shopping cart. So why are people crapping on book blurbs? Because the system can be rigged.

Where the argument in these two articles seems to make sense is at the big publisher level where big corporations with lots of money to gamble on big sales do seem to have the system rigged. When books like American Dirt come out with glowing reviews from all the top authors and review outlets, then it seems like this book is the greatest thing since who-knows-what, until it isn't. Many felt this novel appropriated Mexican culture by a white author, and that’s when all the authors who blurbed this novel backpedaled, many even claiming that they didn’t even read the novel in the first place. The curtain was quickly pulled back. Many screamed that the system was rigged and that blurbs were suspect. In this case, they were absolutely right.

But in my experience, this isn’t the case at all. I have almost no connections in the traditional publishing world. I don’t have an MFA. Until this year, I had only self-published my books. I did have a few publishing credits with literary journals under my belt. I had been a published cartoonist. But I didn’t get my first book contract with a traditional publisher until the spring of 2022. I didn’t sign with a literary agent until the fall of 2022. I’m 52 years old now and have been writing fiction for over thirty years. So, when I reached out to my favorite authors for book blurbs for my new novel, it wasn’t some “Hell Mary” pass. I had read their books and felt a deep connection to them and their work as it was reflected in my own new novel. I had interviewed some of them for my show Austin Liti Limits or met them through writers groups I belonged to. I didn’t have an agent at the time when I requested these blurbs or a publicist or an editor with deep industry connections. I made these “author friendships” on my own and asked nicely. I explained the connection I saw with them and my novel. I gladly agreed to wait for up to six months for them to read my novel and write a blurb as most of them were very busy with their own writing careers or day jobs like teaching or editing. And once the blurbs came back to me, these authors explained in detail what they liked about my book and really wanted to stand behind it and me, show their support, so I knew that they read it and enjoyed it. And I’m so very appreciative of that. Their blurbs gave me a real boost because I admire them and their work. My hope is that their blurbs will be part of the overall package of publishing my book, giving it validation to readers who may not know me, but know the authors who’ve blurb my book. If that is the ultimate reason they plunk down money for my book, then I will be forever grateful.

Read the rest on Substack. Please subscribe to my newsletter there to receive my latest posts directly in your email inbox.

MY PURPLE WRITER BRAIN: September 2023 Edition

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel is a book of literary science fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core. Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.”

Sea of Tranquility is the latest book of literary science fiction—more literary than scientific—from Emily St. John Mandel about time travel that crosses many centuries from the early twentieth century to five hundred years later. We follow an exiled young socialite on his journey to Canada from England, an author from a moon colony on her book tour down on Earth, and a detective as they each witness a vision of a violinist in an airport terminal, an experience disconcerting to all of them as it’s out of context to their life experience. What is this aural glitch? That’s the heart of the narrative to this compelling and beautifully written novel.

Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak

Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak is a book of 1970s hick-flick crime-spree fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Join a heart-racing road trip across 1970s America as two cousins make the heist of their lives and must avoid the cops and criminals hot on their tails. It's the summer of '74. Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives - if they can make it out alive. With Lowdown Road, he cements his reputation for pedal-to-the-metal storytelling that also makes you think about just who we are and where our darker roads might lead us.”

Lowdown Road is the latest crime novel from Scott Von Doviak, full of action and high jinks. Cousins Chuck and Dean are like a more salacious version of Bo and Luke Duke from the 1970s – 80s television series The Dukes of Hazzard, even the back of the book declaring ‘Just two good old boys. Never meaning no harm.’ This novel would make an excellent season to that TV show, but with more violence and sex so it could appear on Cinemax. Chuck and Dean hatch a plan to steal two hundred and fifty pounds of weed and sell it at an Evel Knievel event in Idaho, but they’ve pissed off a kingpin weed dealer, a malevolent county sheriff, a biker bent on revenge, and practically everyone else they encounter. When their plan starts to unravel, can they sell enough of their contraband to make the wild road trip worthwhile?

THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW will be published by TCU Press in 2024

I'm excited to officially announce that my new novel THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW will be published by TCU Press in 2024! It's a dream come true to collaborate with this prestigious university press. Thank you TCU Press and my agent Mark Falkin!

"A dream come true." I can't say it more plainly than that. I'm so grateful to Charlotte Gullick and my wife Lori Hoadley for helping me edit this new novel into something special.

Thank you to all of my writer friends who generously spent time reading and blurbing this novel: Kevin Wilson, Annie Hartnett, James Wade, Stacey Swann, Aaron Burch, Brian Kindall, Thomas H. McNeely, C. Matthew Smith, Johnnie Bernhard, Ran Walker, Philip Elliott, and Rick Treon.

Thank you to Jeff Loftin for taking a stellar photo of me for the book.

And thank you to my family and friends who enthusiastically read an early version of this novel and provided me valuable feedback.

2024 can't come soon enough! Looking forward to seeing this dream come to fruition!

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett is a humorous novel of literary fiction about grief and family. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn't yet know—like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.”

Elementary school-aged protagonist and narrator Elvis Babbitt has recently lost her mother, who drowned while sleepwalking one night. Elvis’s counselor at school helps her through her grief while Elvis snags self-help books from her office to research grief and trauma herself. Her sister Lizzie also sleepwalks and sleep-eats and it causes the family trouble, so much so that she’s sent to an insane asylum for a time, eventually bringing her kooky roommate home with her. The sister ultimately pours her grief into baking one thousand rabbit-shaped cakes to set a world record. Her father tackles his own grief while wearing the lipstick and the robe of his deceased wife, pouring his deep well of love into caring for a parrot named Ernest Hemingway, a reject from the local pet store. Even though this novel is about grief, it is filled with humor and lightness and love for this dysfunctional family who learn to come together in the wake of the matriarch’s death.

I loved loved loved this novel! I loved Elvis as a narrator and her spunkiness, intelligence, empathy, wittiness, and love for her family. I loved how the family came together despite the large holes left in their hearts. I loved the family's pets too, characters in their own right, the family dog Boomer and parrot Ernest, both having quirky personalities all their own including the parrot's propensity to speak in the deceased matriarch’s voice, something he learned when she used to visit the pet store where he lived for a time. In short, I loved this big-hearted novel. Don't let the fact that it's about grief scare you away. It is a lovely book that I didn’t want to end.

THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW will be published by TCU Press in 2024

I'm excited to officially announce that my new novel THE CODGER AND THE SPARROW will be published by TCU Press in 2024! It's a dream come true to collaborate with this prestigious university press. Thank you TCU Press and my agent Mark Falkin!

"A dream come true." I can't say it more plainly than that. I'm so grateful to Charlotte Gullick and my wife Lori Hoadley for helping me edit this new novel into something special.

Thank you to all of my writer friends who generously spent time reading and blurbing this novel: Kevin Wilson, Annie Hartnett, James Wade, Stacey Swann, Brian Kindall, Thomas H. McNeely, C. Matthew Smith, Johnnie Bernhard, Ran Walker, Philip Elliott, and Rick Treon, Author.

Thank you to Jeff Loftin for taking a stellar photo of me for the book.

And thank you to my family and friends who enthusiastically read an early version of this novel and provided me valuable feedback.

2024 can't come soon enough! Looking forward to seeing this dream come to fruition!

Saint Sebastian’s Abyss by Mark Haber

Saint Sebastian’s Abyss by Mark Haber is a dark comedic novel of literary fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Former best friends who built their careers writing about a single work of art meet after a decades-long falling-out. One of them, called to the other's deathbed for unknown reasons by a "relatively short" nine-page email, spends his flight to Berlin reflecting on Dutch Renaissance painter Count Hugo Beckenbauer and his masterpiece, Saint Sebastian's Abyss, the work that established both men as important art critics and also destroyed their relationship. A darkly comic meditation on art, obsession, and the enigmatic power of friendship, Saint Sebastian's Abyss stalks the museum halls of Europe, feverishly seeking salvation, annihilation, and the meaning of belief.”

The unnamed narrator and his former best friend / frenemy Schmidt were college friends who simultaneously “rediscovered” the titular painting by Beckenbauer, Saint Sebastian’s Abyss, which launched both of their careers as art critics. But their careers are singularly and obsessively focused on this one painting even though Beckenbauer painted other lesser works, two of which are referred to as “monkey paintings” by the two critics. Their obsession over this painting consumes their lives and eventually destroys their friendship as well as the narrator’s two (!!!) marriages. The results for the readers of this dark comedy are thought-provoking and enlightening.

Haber excels at mining the obsession between these two “friends” and creating a cadence with the narration that is circular yet unique. Many phrases are repeated throughout the novel like the title of the painting “Saint Sebastian’s Abyss” as well as “that horrible thing I said,” creating a mantra-like effect. Haber has an astute comedic eye and describes Schmidt as an animated critic with a “flexing moustache,” a hilarious mental visual. His followers or “fans” also sport their owning flexing moustaches as an ode to their favorite art critic. “The Holy Donkey” is another repeated phrase, a character from the painting itself, a moribund animal on the precipice of falling off a cliff in the painting who can absorb the emotions elicited by the two “friends” as the symbol of their devotion to Beckenbauer’s masterpiece.

Best Books of 2022

2022: was it a good year or bad year? I experienced some extreme highs and extreme lows this year. The pandemic still lingered, my sister and brother-in-law were in a bad car accident, and I lost an old friend to a fatal motorcycle accident. But I also got signed by a literary agent this year and my latest novel was accepted to be published by a university press (to be released in 2024). More sad news: Malvern Books in Austin, Texas (one of my favorite bookstores) is closing on December 31, 2022; what a terrible way to end the year. But I’m not here to dwell on the bad or gloat about the good. I’m here to talk about one thing: BOOKS! I read so many great works of fiction: novels, collections of short stories, and the craft of writing books. Here is my list of the Best Books of 2022. Many of these were released in 2022. Some were released in late 2021 and some may not be out until early 2023. I have eclectic taste in books, so their categories vary from humor to literary to suspense to surreal. One thing is for sure: all of these books are great! Let's congratulate these stellar fiction writers for their fantastic books.

Best Books of 2022

Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

Tell Me One Thing by Kerri Schlottman

The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza

Beasts of the Earth by James Wade

Pictures of the Shark by Thomas H. McNeely

Valleyesque by Fernando A. Flores

Black Marker: A Novel in 100-Word Stories by Ran Walker

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

Sparrow By Brian Kindall

Twentymile by C. Matthew Smith

Mixed Company by Jenny Shank

Honorable Mentions of 2022

If you read all of these wonderful books and are chomping at the bit for more, then I offer up my 2022 honorable mentions. Hannah and Ariela By Johnnie Bernhard, More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez, and We Are All Together by Richard Fulco are great novels, too. Two books I’m reading now and enjoying, but haven’t finished yet: Saint Sebastian’s Abyss by Mark Haber and Year of the Buffalo by Aaron Burch.  I read quite a few book on the craft of writing, but these were the best I read in 2022: Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell, Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum, and Talk Talk: Interviews with Writers by Allan Vorda. I also read a ton of classics, but the two classics I loved the most in 2022 were: Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck and The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. The best coffee table book / comic book aficionado tome was—hands-down: Fantastic Four No. 1: Panel by Panel by Chip Kidd.

Support writers as well as indie bookstores this holiday. Find many of these books over on Bookshop.org at the following link:

https://bookshop.org/lists/books-featured-on-austin-liti-limits

I am grateful to have interviewed many of these fantastic writers on the web series I co-host with my esteemed colleague Larry Brill: Austin Liti Limits. Watch here:

https://austinlitilimits.com

Have a great holiday whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza. And may 2023 be a great year for books, writers, bookstores, and readers everywhere!

Take care,
Scott

Scott Semegran Signs with Falkin Literary

I signed with an awesome literary agent on October 21, 2022: Mark Falkin at Falkin Literary! I'm excited to see what the future brings this humble writer.

After 30 years of searching for the right literary agent and publishing eight books myself, it feels great to traditionally publish my ninth book and to have a fabulous literary agent on my side. Great news coming soon about my new novel!

To read more about my forthcoming novel The Codger and the Sparrow (2024, TCU Press), please go here.

For more about Falkin Literary, please go here.