Josh Lanyon's Blog, page 54

Cover Contest Finals: BITE CLUB (the XOXO Files)

The project is Bite Club, book 2 in the XOXO Files series. The challenge was matching the feel of Mummy Dearest, which was the first book.


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Cover Contest Finals: FOOLS RUSH IN

The project is the sequel to Snowball in Hell. This was a really tough one because not only did the new cover have to work with the cover of Snowball, this is historical fiction. 1943, in fact, and if you've ever tried to hunt for decent historical photos, you know what a challenge that is.

I think the artists who tried for this one get an extra round of applause!



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Cover Contest Finals: GREEN GLASS BEADS (AUDIO)

The project is the audio book for "Green Glass Beads," which was the story I contributed to the IRREGULARS anthology. Here there were no limits, nothing to match, and the results are uniformly gorgeous. Good luck picking just one!


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Cover Art Finals: The Monet Murders

There project is The Monet Murders, which is the second book in the Art of Murder series. There was an additional invitation to supply a potential cover for The Mermaid Murders, given that it was going to be difficult to match The Mermaid Murders moving forward (since the original cover model has been removed from Shutterstock).


So where two covers were supplied, I'm putting them together as a pair.


Here we go!


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Cover Art Finals: SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS

The project is the Adrien English holiday story -- and the challenge was to come up with a holiday look and yet be true to the other covers in the series.

So here we go!

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Ducks in a Row

I had to recheck that title a couple of times lest there be an unfortunate (but not entirely inaccurate) typo. Somehow I managed to rub some kind of lotion or oil in my eyes this morning and my vision is infuriatingly blurry. I've tried rinsing my eyes, eye drops, etc. but...the blurriness persists. I said DUCKS, right?


I was going to discuss...well, it doesn't matter. I'm going to settle for a quickish update on what you can expect to see from me over the next few months.


I'm currently working on Fair Chance, the final book in the All's Fair trilogy (and on Wednesday I'll be blogging a bit more on the pressures of wrapping up a mini-series over at Not Your Usual Suspects)  but that's not due out until next March or so.


What is coming out this year?


First up is Murder Between the Pages. It's...nutty. It's a post World War 2 bit of kooky amateur sleuthing by two rival mystery writers.


Felix Day, author of the Constantine Sphinx mysteries, and Leonard Fuller, author of the Inspector Fez mysteries, are bitter rivals and the best of enemies. Both happen to be present when a notorious author of roman à clef is shot by an invisible assailant during a signing at historic Marlborough Bookstore.
Even if they weren’t both suspects, it’s the perfect opportunity to match wits and sleuthing skills.
If only the murderer was equally amused.


Here's a snippet from Chapter Two...






The bell jingled as Harp yanked open the door and breezed out, and to my astonishment, Day let him leave without so much as a peep.

“What the hell?” I said as I reached him. “You let him go?”

Day seemed almost distracted as he replied, “He’s with the police.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s the oldest trick in the book!” I grabbed the door handle--and Day grabbed my arm with bony but surprisingly strong fingers.

He was scowling--which is his usual expression with me--and I scowled back.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he said.

“If you don’t want a punch in the nose, let go my arm,” I warned him.

“Just try it.” Day's black eyes were narrow and hostile. Again, perfectly normal for him. “Where were you when that shot went off?”

“Me?” I gaped at him. “That shot came from the back of the room. As you very well know.”

“I don’t know any such thing.”

“Where were you? That’s the question.”

His eyes blazed. “Had I been planning to shoot anyone today, it wouldn’t have been Josiah Shelton.”

“Oh, very nice!” I retorted. “Well, maybe you missed and shot Sheltonby mistake.”

“I don’t miss.”

“That’s not what the critics say.”

Day’s face turned a nice healthy red.



This is my Kindle Unlimited experiment, which I consider to be something of a disaster already. By now I would typically have about 2000 preorders. Instead we're looking at a very scary and unsustainable 700ish. But I'm locked in and anyway this all started because I'm so tired of so many writers insisting the only way they can make money is through KU, so the experiment shall continue. And I'll be honest about the results, biased though I am. I mean, what's the point of an experiment if you're not going to really look at what's in the test tube?

So there's that. And then there's The Curse of the Blue Scarab, which is even kookier. But I'vealready chatted about that one (which, if you missed, you can read about  here). I haven't listed it for preorders yet on Amazon, but probably in the next day or so.

And then we've got the much anticipated (or maybe just long delayed)  Adrien English holiday novella. So This is Christmas. If you're on my mailing list, you got a teeny sneak peek at that. It's also available for preorder, though again not yet at Amazon. 



No cover yet because it's one of the projects in the on-going cover contest -- deadline fast approaching!!!






And then lastly we have the final release of 2016: Christmas Waltz, the second collection of holiday codas. Like the first collection the existing codas have been edited and expanded. And of course there will be several new codas as well as some other bits and bobs.

Not my most productive writing year, I agree. But definitely some interesting stuff (or at least, I hope you'll think so too).
Next year... well, the plan next year is to finish off a lot of these long promised titles, particularly the sequels and series. So it should be fairly busy.
But why worry today about what we can worry about even more tomorrow?
We're in the process of doing a major updating of my website, so if you're wondering about the fate of a particular title, you can always check in there. It's quite a study in optimism and my faith in the power of positive thinking. ;-)

Happy Labor Day!

It turns out I have no Labor Day appropriate photos! I'm just about to leave town for a long (though not long enough) weekend, and because my head is still in the fictional realm of Fair Chance (oh, POOR Elliot...) I thought I would simply share a couple of my all-time favorite essays with no purpose in mind other than to share something I love--writers being witty on the subject of writing.

The first is by James Thurber and it's called "The MacBeth Murder Mystery". You can read it right here.

The second is Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) on the topic of James "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," which you can read here .

Do you have any favorite witty essays on the subject of writing?

Wishing you all a happy weekend! Have fun and stay safe!

I Got Those First Draft Blues...

The challenges of this writing week have been the death of my desktop (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!) and the return of wrist problems AND a surprise visit from my pop on a day set aside for nothing but research and writing.
Which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't already behind.
But I am. Mostly due to circumstances outside my control, but that's life. Or the writing life.
Writing a first draft is just the weirdest thing. You start with basically nothing. Even when it's a series book and you have the advantage of knowing the characters and their dynamic...there's this feeling of trying to make a snowman out of sand. I hate this stage. It is all blood, sweat and tears. And Sam-E and motrin and sleeping with wrist braces and typing with copper thread gloves and begging my computer not to leave me...
I'll do anything you ask, just don't die, my little graphics card...
Anyway, here's a messy, clunky  wee snippet from the first draft of FAIR CHANCE, third and final book in the ALL'S FAIR trilogy, which is the current project (though not due out until next year)


CHAPTER ONE




“I knew you’d come.”

Andrew Corian, dubbed “The Sculptor” by the national press, was smiling that same old smile. Supremely confident and a little scornful. For a moment it was as almost as if he was seated at his desk in his old office at PSU and not in this dingy interview room at The Federal Detention Center in Sea-Tac.

“Sure you did,” Elliot said. He had been second-guessing the decision to meet with Corian from the minute he’d acceded to SAC Montgomery’s request, and Corian’s supercilious attitude just confirmed his doubts. They were not going to get anything useful out of The Sculptor.

Corian’s big hands, wrists handcuffed, rested on the resin table top. He spread his fingers, palms up in a have a seatgesture as Elliot took the chair across the table.

 “How could you resist? A chance to play hero one last time. A chance to convince yourself you got the better of me.”

“You’ve been hitting the psych shelves in the prison library pretty hard,” Elliot commented, folding his arms on the table top. He glanced casually around the room. He’d been in plenty of these interview rooms back when he’d been with the FBI. Neutral colors. Durable furniture. Mesh over the windows. Generic right down to the two-way mirror behind which stood Detective Pine of Tacoma Homicide and FBI Special Agent Kelli Yamiguchi.

Just in case they missed anything, the cameras overhead were recording the interview.

Corian’s eyes, a weird shade of hazel that looked almost yellow in the institutional light, narrowed at Elliot’s jibe, but his broad smile never faltered. He seemed to be a in great mood for a guy looking at a multiple life sentences.

“I don’t need to read a psychology book to understand you, Mills. There’s nothing complicated about your psyche.”

“But enough about me,” Elliot said. “Let’s talk about your favorite subject. You. Or more exactly, why you wanted to see me.”

Corian sat back in his chair. He looked a bit like a cartoonist’s idea of the devil. Gleaming bald head and immaculately trimmed Vandyke. He was a big man and prison had made him bigger. Leaner. Harder. He looked like he ate steroids for every meal and spent all his free time body-building. Maybe the body-building wasn’t far from the truth. There wasn’t a hell of a lot to do while sitting around waiting for trial. Not when you’d been caught red-handed, as it were, in a series of brutal slayings and mutilations spanning more than fifteen years.
He said, “I didn’t want to see you, Mills. I gave you permission to visit. That’s all.”
“Two letters in two months? We’re practically pen pals. Come off it, Corian. You want me to sit here and listen to you explain in detail how brilliant you were. How brilliant you still are compared to the rest of us.”

Corian’s smile widened. “That wouldn’t be the only reason.”
“It’ll be the main reason. You’re sure as hell not interested in bringing closure to the families of the victims.”
“You’ve never understood me, Mills.”
“You’re right about that.
“But you’re afraid of me.”
Elliot sighed. “No, Andrew. I’m not.”

They had never been on first name terms. Corian replied, “You should be, Elliot.”
“This is bullshit.” Elliot made sure his tone revealed nothing but boredom. “If the idea was to get me here so you could practice your bogeyman routine, you’re wasting both our time.” He pushed his chair back as though to rise.
Corian sat back and expelled an exasperated sigh. “Goddamn, Mills. Can’t you at least buy me a drink before you screw me over?”
“Look, you wrote me. I’m not looking to continue our relationship--if you want to call it that. I don’t need closure. I got my closure when they slammed those cell doors on you.”
That wasn’t completely true. Like everyone else involved in the case, Elliot wasn’t going to truly breathe a sigh of relief until Corian was tried and convicted. He wanted the reassurance of knowing Corian was locked up in a maximum facility until the end of time. The numerous court date postponements were wearing on everyone’s nerves.
Corian had the gall to look wounded. It was only partly an act. Being a psychopath, his own pain and his own frustrations were very real to him. It was the suffering of other people he was indifferent to.
“I’d appreciate a little courtesy. A few minutes of intelligent conversation. Or as close as you can manage.”
Elliot eyed him without emotion. “All right. But we don’t have all day. If you’ve got something to say, you’d better say it.”
Corian leaned back in his chair, smiling. “How’s the fall session shaping up? Have they hired someone to replace me yet?”
 “Oh, no one could replace you,” Elliot said sarcastically.
“True.” Corian grinned. “How’s Rollie? I read his book. When you think about it, it’s pretty ironic. The only child of a celebrity sixties radical joining the FBI.”
 “Yep. Ironic. Are we done with the chitchat?”
Corian’s smile faded. “All right. Ask your questions.”
“As of this date, sixteen bodies have been removed from the cellar of your property in Black Diamond, bringing the number of victims to twenty-three. Is that it? Is that an accurate headcount? Or are there more?”
“Headcount.” Corian’s smile was pure Mephistophelian. Partly he was acting. Partly he was simply…evil.

Cover Art Contest! And YOU'RE Invited!

It has been a really, really long time since I've done one of these cover art contests. 2014 was the last one.



Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com 

And that would largely be because I bought so many covers when we did that last one. But anyway, I've got some new projects coming up, and while most of them do have the cover art already designed, a number of them are without art. 

So I'm going to be put up a couple of cover art challenges in the posts that follow/precede this one.


Here's what you need to know.


The deadline is September 22.


It's more challenging this time because in most cases you're being asked to match the style and feel of existing covers.


The technical stuff. The covers must be vertical (rectangle-shaped) and must be a minimum width of 1,400 pixels. Recommended size is approximately 1,600 pixels wide by 2,400 pixels tall. JPEG (JPEG / JPG) or TIFF (TIF / TIFF) ONLY.


I will pay $75.00 a piece for the winning cover (not including the price of any photos that must be purchased) and the artist of course gets a cover credit inside the book.


The photos can be submitted to the contest with the watermark.


****Because I have an existing account at Shutterstock, I would prefer that you choose from their library, but I'm not going to make that a hard and fast rule if someone comes up with a really amazing image for a winning cover. ***


You submit your cover art to the email address on my contact page. Make sure you let me know what name you want your work posted under.  http://www.joshlanyon.com/contact.html


Your work will be posted on this blog site and then readers and other interested parties will vote for their choice for the final cover over the next week (I need this all finished up by the end of September) HOWEVER THE FINAL VOTE IS MINE. And I can be picky and eccentric as regular viewers know.


If you have any other questions, go ahead and in the comment section below.

Cover Challenge #5 BITE CLUB (The XOXO Files)

The cover for the first book in the series (published by Samhain but soon to be back in my hot little hands) was done by the wildly talented Kanaxa. I liked it a lot at the time, but I'm neutral as to whether to keep that concept or change it out entirely.

So this is another one that could potentially turn into a two-book deal?

I wish I could be a little more definite about what I want, but I honestly don't know. What I can tell you is these books are fast-paced and funny. This is light-hearted stuff not serious gory vampire stuff.

Anyway, here's the blurb:

Fraser Fortune and the production crew for The Mysterious reality show are headed to Gnarlbone, Massachuttes, the vampire capitol of North America--much to the dismay of newest team member Dr. Drew Lawson.

Drew is putting everything on the line to see where the instant and powerful connection between him and Fraser might lead. He wasn't expecting destination Transylvania, USA.

Sometimes romance bites.

And again, if you'd like to read the excerpt from the original book, Mummy Dearest, it's right here. Oh, and there's a little bit of a trailer on this page at the very bottom.