Howard Andrew Jones's Blog, page 61

February Update

Prehistoric groundhog.

February’s been pretty good to us here at the Jones homestead. I’m finishing up the drafting of the longest book I’ve ever written, and, as I think I’ve mentioned, with it divided into different parts some of them are finely polished and some are still in “stage play” format. (That means that I’ve got dialogue and a couple of  descriptive tags dropped in to key scenes.) This new method sure does seem to be working well. I think I’ll use the same method on my Paizo Pathfinder books when I start on them next week.

We almost bought a four horse trailer Monday until we figured out it was a Craig’s List scam. It sure sounded too good to be true, and then when we were asked to pay through a third party to get to Google Checkout we knew we were being had. Ah well. At least we caught it in  time and lost no money. According to this site, many people weren’t so lucky. My wife was pretty annoyed, and a little sad that she never gets the lucky breaks, but I think she’s pretty lucky being brilliant and capable and lovely as well, and I think we’re lucky we didn’t just send 2500 overseas never to be recovered.

I finally started reading some non-noir, starting with Ian Tregillis’ Bitter Seeds. After that will be Brian McClellan   (Promise of Blood) and Brad Beaulieu (The Winds of Khalakovo) and Matthew Thyer (The Big Red Buckle).

I’ll be curious to see how long I can stay away from noir, though, because I hear the siren call of Raymond Chandler’s last books, not to mention some more Max Allan Collins, some more Westlake, and some other authors far more obscure. It probably won’t be long. Interestingly enough, I’m still not that curious to try writing noir myself. I’m just using it as a window on observing writing techniques, and enjoying the heck out of some good stories.

Link Day

Link Man copyright Darian Jones

Two links I thought visitors might find of interest.

First, a great write-up on some techniques of fine dialogue writing, by Jesse Damiati.

Second, some features to keep in mind the next time you remodel your house.

A Tip of the Fedora

I finished  more noir books the other day despite the fact I said I needed to get back to reading some  modern fantasy. All three of these books were short, which was a huge lure, seeing as how most modern fantasy weighs in decidedly on the other end of the spectrum. Also, one of them doubled as research. I suppose in a way ALL of these double as research. Hand picked as these noir books are by John Chris Hocking, who’s very well read in noir, I’m getting a real education in great writing.

First up was the poorly titled but well-written Swamp Sister, by Robert Edmond Alter, chiefly concerned with how a lost plane carrying a huge bankroll transforms the behaviour of the folk living in and around the area. Immersive descriptions, great character arcs and plenty of surprises. Also a big leg up for me as I begin contemplation of describing some swamp land myself in an upcoming Paizo Pathfinder book. Surprisingly good.

Next up was Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, which was pretty fascinating, but hardly left a good taste in my mouth, seeing as how it was from the viewpoint of a sociopath. Apparently it was a favorite of Stanley Kubrick’s and has been made into a motion picture. Well-written, but I don’t know that I found it my kind of thing. Maybe it’s all those years watching Star Trek or reading fantasy, but I generally prefer my protagonists to have some kind of moral code. (I guess Parker and Quarry are the lone exceptions, but then they do what they do for professional reasons, not for kicks.)

Which leads me to the third book, which I just finished last night, and it was just a lovely and somber and powerful a detective story as Hocking promised. This was The Taste of Ashes, by Howard Browne, which was so finely written it could almost give Chandler a run for his money. Not only was it loaded with the soaring language and action I found in Chandler, the plot was tight as a drum. Great stuff. If you’ve read Chandler but never read THIS book, run, don’t walk, to get thyself a copy. I understand Haffner Press is going to print a complete hardback  of Browne’s detective novels, and I’ll be first in line.

John Chris Hocking, here’s a tip of my fedora in thanks.

More Good News

I’m pleased to announce that both The Desert of Souls and The Bones of the Old Ones will shortly be available as audio books, courtesy of Audible! I just signed the contract late last week.

Now, presented for your amusement, a fabulous song too few people have heard of, performed by Swag.

 

More on ConFusion 2014

Michael Underwood and Howard Andrew Jones at the ConFusion 2014 AMA. Photo by Steve Drew.

 

I participated in three panels at ConFusion, an “Ask Me Anything” session, and a Question and Answer roundtable, and I ended up pretty pleased with all of them. (Oh, and I almost ended up on several wrong panels Friday night before I learned to read the hotel map, but that’s another story.)

The first was “Why Does Bones Need to be a White Guy” on Friday at 9:00, with Christian Klaver, Seleste deLaney, and  Gretchen Ashand. It turned into a lively discussion of gender and racial portrayals on screen and in fiction. I don’t think any of the panelists expected much of a turnout at that time of night, but we had a decent sized crowd who brought a lot to the conversation. A panel can sink or swim based on its audience, after all.

Of all the events I was scheduled for, the one that most worried me was the Historical Fantasy Q &A. It would just be me, alone, at 11:00 Saturday. I was most worried that no one would turn up at all, and at first it seemed that my fears would materialize, because when I walked into the room around five ’til, no one was there. Shortly thereafter, though, one guest turned up, and then a few more, which was good enough, but at about one ’til the room suddenly flooded with people.

I suppose I’m a bit of a ham, or maybe it’s easy for me to talk to people about subjects I’m passionate about, but I had a blast with the Q&A. I’d talk a little about hard lessons I’d learned  in research, or discuss a few tips or tricks, and then I’d toss things out to the audience and they’d ask questions based on those, or bring up topics of their own. And like any good teacher will tell you I learned some things from the participants. Hopefully they learned some things from me!

Sunday I had two panels back to back right before the end of the convention. The first was “Faking History,” with Brigid Collins, Brian McClellan, Kameron Hurley, and Charles Finlay — basically when and how to simulate historical information in your epic so that it feels “real.” None of us was quite sure who the moderator was supposed to be. That meant that none of us had turned up with prepared questions, yet, because we were all interested in the topic and the audience had plenty of good questions themselves, it turned out quite well.

The last panel was one I shared with Saladin Ahmed and Carrie Harris, all about gaming and writing, and it might have been the most relaxed panel of them all, with lots of give and take throughout the session. As you’d expect from the topic title, most of the audience were gaming enthusiasts, so there was a lot of sharing about favorite games we’d played and how inspiring they were to  writing.

I did attend one more event, and that was an AMA, or “Ask Me Anything” session on reddit. A bunch of authors turned up and, administered, coralled, and assisted by the mad genius of Steve Drew and Dave Wohlreich, logged on to the Internet and answered interview questions from around the world. I was only slated for a half hour session, but I had so much fun hanging around with  Steve, Dave, and the rotating band of authors that I remained for most of the afternoon.

For greater detail about my convention experience, check out my essay at Black Gate.

 

Back from ConFusion

Howard Andrew Jones and Saladin Ahmed at ConFusion 2014. Photo by Al Bogdan.

I’m back from ConFusion and working up a pretty detailed post about it for the Black Gate web site. Right now, though, I need to get to work, so I’ll just mention a few things in brief.

I finished Chandler’s The High Window on the way there and read most of Quarry’s Deal on the flight back. I was picked up by the mighty John Chris Hocking at the Detroit airport Friday and we had a memorable morning and afternoon wandering around Ann Arbor. Hocking is simply a princely fellow — he and his family are delightful people. Hocking gifted me with a stack of noir from his own collection (along with a Nate Heller book and Leigh Brackett’s No Good from a Corpse), and then picked up some more noir for me when we went to an award winning mystery bookstore, Aunt Agatha’s . I have additional details about all of that in the Black Gate article, which I’ll probably take live in the next day or so.

I may take a brief vacation from my noir exploration, though, as I returned from the con with a number of fantasy books. Brian McClellan and I traded volumes, and I picked up Matthew Thyer’s The Big Red Buckle and Jane Irwin’s graphic novel Clockwork Game. And I mean to read something by new friend Ian Tregillis as soon as possible, although that might take me right back into noir, albeit with a fantasy slant.

Tomorrow I’ll try to type up something about the panels I participated in and provide a link for the Black Gate essay, but for now I’ll just say that I had a fantastic time and get back to work. I am under deadline, after all.

Victory is Mine!

I am extremely pleased to announce that I’ve just signed a book deal with Paizo for two new Pathfinder novels.

Just a few months back I was finishing the outline for the first of the two at The Three Broomsticks at Universal (probably the coolest place I’ve ever finished an outline) while my wife and daughter rode roller coasters. Later that same week I was working on the second at a cafe in Epcot Center. It was a good week, as you can see from the picture on the right. Note the smile. Also note the miniature zebras. They’re small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, but they’re kind of high maintenance.

Friday morning I’m flying off to ConFusion in Detroit. I hope to announce additional cool news very soon!

Musical Interlude

And now, the greatest TV theme show ever written for a show that never, ever existed. I bring you “Spider” by They Might be Giants.

Thank me later.

And just because I’m in a musical mood today, go check out this great retro track from Gold Motel titled “These Sore Eyes.” In case you realize that it’s awesome, realize that the guiding force behind Gold Motel (and the writer of this particular song) is the gifted Greta Salpeter of The Hush Sound. Incidentally, they have a new album out. Didst thou know? I wish I had known before Christmas…

Farewell, Something Lovely

I swear I didn’t plan this. I was recently contacted by my old friend, the talented Fraser Ronald, who’s launched a Kickstarter for a collection of hardboiled sword-and-sorcery stories titled Farewell, Something Lovely. That this post comes right after I read Farewell, My Lovely and wrote a stupid post titled “Farewell, My Fence Rail” can only mean that synchronicity is at work. It’s also a sign that you need Fraser’s collection!

If you’ve been visiting the site over the last week or so, you’ll have noted how the interconnection between sword-and-sorcery and hardboiled pops up from time to time. Charles Rutledge in particular called it out in the comments section from the More on Noir post. Fraser hits that interconnection with both barrels… er, long swords.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to take a look at Fraser Ronald’s Kickstarter, which includes some art from my old friend Storn Cook. Don’t delay — there aren’t too many days left to join in!

Farewell, My Fence Rail

The writing day started out quite well. I rose without aid of an alarm clock and put in  a half hour of good work before I roused everyone else. Things got interesting after I returned from taking one of my children to school.

I have a three rail horse fence. One of my horses loves to press against the top rail to get the grass on the other side. When I pulled in this morning I found he had pressed against BOTH the top and middle rails and cracked them apart so that they hung down and a vast gap was there revealed (Our fence is old, and this happens occasionally, but usually only a rail at a time.) If he had cared to do so Trigger could have stopped munching at the grass and gone running wild and free. (And naked, but that’s not such a big deal if you’re a horse.)

In any case, Trigger’s adventure necessitated  a horse fence repair job that occupied my time until 12:30 or so, because after I fixed the broken boards I discovered three others that were close to going. I figured that as long as I was out there with all the tools I might as well head off future troubles

Despite all that, I got a lot of good work in once I finally made it back inside. And I must say, if I had to work on a fence in January, the weather THIS week is a far better time for it than say, last week when the temperature was frequently below zero. Today I ended up taking my jacket and hat off while I worked.

Because of my late start I’ll just briefly address the more interesting subjects I had planned to hit in greater detail. First, I finished the second Phillip Marlowe novel last night, which was fine enough that I would use a curse word if this wasn’t a PG-13 site.

Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely was Fan Smurfing tactic. It was a thing of beauty, a work of art, an excellent adventure and mystery and social criticism and character study… Honestly, I am too tired to rhapsodize. It is so finely crafted that if I were the jealous type I could weep to think I could ever craft something that approaches such excellence. I look forward to reading more Chandler, although Max Allan Collins commented the other day that Farewell, My Lovely is the greatest of the Marlowe books. I will soon enough discover whether or not I agree.

Note my clever segue to Collins, whom I mention because three more of his Quarry books showed up in my post just today, a gift to myself. That leaves me in possession of all the earlier Quarry books but his short story collection. Now that I’ve heard that his Nate Heller series has a little bit of a Marlowe feel, I’m even more interested in seeing what it’s about, but I have some more Marlowe and Quarry to read before I get there.