R. Lawson Gamble's Blog: R Lawson Gamble Books, page 8

Time To Load Up! Dollars & Sense

With the long Fourth of July weekend approaching, no one wants to be caught short of eBooks in their tablet library – at a good price, that is.

Retailers raise prices during the holiday. Books are no exception. I will keep my series eBook prices at $4.99, except the novella (The Dark Road) which will remain at $2.99.

Zack Tolliver, FBI series novel #7 Las Cruces is on Pre-sale at Amazon for $2.99 until July 3. After that, the price will be the same as the other books in the series – $4.99.

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Las Cruces is a murder mystery built upon an actual murder mystery that occurred on the ancient land grant of the same name. Zack and Eagle Feather meet all the usual elements of danger, mysticism, multiple suspects, ancient and not so ancient cultures, this time combined with contemporary space technology (no aliens, though).

You can read about the circumstances of the original historic murder in previous blogs. The murder was never solved (I have my own theory, of course). You will find Las Cruces a fun, action-packed adventure that will keep you flipping pages. Enjoy!

Cover Reveal

LAS CRUCES, Zack Tolliver, FBI book #7 is ready to appear on presale next week on Amazon.com. Those who purchase the book during the presale period will pay the introductory price of $2.99 and know it will be delivered to you the moment of release.

LAS CRUCES is a riveting story springing from an actual cruel and ironic incident that ended the lives of two American pioneers whose adventurous careers constitute a book in itself. Perhaps, one day.

Read on for a preview of the novel’s back page and preface and the first look at the book’s cover, the work of cover artist Krysta Lynn who once again perfectly captures the essence of the content that lies between.

“They came down from Oregon Territory in 1864 to tend sheep after a narrow escape from an Indian attack, hoping a peaceful life in the verdant valley of Las Cruces, California would heal Pru’s damaged nerves. But violence even beyond that awaited them. They were found beaten, stabbed, and burned in their cabin. Their murders were never solved.

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“Zack Tolliver, FBI is called to investigate the murder of a woman found near the original murder site, her body burnt beyond recognition and strange metal bands as if from a hoop skirt melted around her. Was history repeating itself?“

PREFACE 

1864

It was happening again. She felt the old familiar dread clutch at her gut and throat, the horror she had somehow reduced to background noise over the months and years, those nights of sitting bolt upright in her bed with her heart beating a tattoo so that it must burst from her chest, the images of blood and the sound of the gunshot and the whine of the bullet vivid in her nightmare, those desperate moments relived but mercifully obscured and faded by the veil of time. 

And now it was happening all over again. They were here again. They were killing George with their knives and now turning their bloodlust upon her. Once again the window loomed as her only escape, a square frame into black unknown. Once again she thrust, scrambled, threw herself over and through it, onto the hard ground, rolling, gasping, her hoop-buoyed skirt snagging. She found her feet, ran down the slope toward the creek, toward the road, seeking help. But this time her toe caught, she pitched forward screaming, fell and before she could rise again rough hands grasped and held her. She fought with all the fury born of terror until a stunning blow to her head turned her senses dull. She felt herself dragged on her stomach by her feet up the hill, her hoops snagging, encircling her upper torso like a cage. She tried to help herself, grasping at roots, grass, the hard dirt, her nails tearing, bleeding. But they were too strong for her. 

It was happening all over again and this time she would not escape.

And now….drum roll, please… the cover!

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Histyrical Fiction

I am sure anyone who has tried to sell their book on Amazon has struggled with the choice of category. Amazon offers the choice of two categories to position a book on their virtual shelves initially. Two are seldom enough. For the seven books in my Zack Tolliver, FBI fiction series, an accurate categorization would require four or more. LAS CRUCES, coming next month, promises to be no different.

The Zack Tolliver novels are all crime mystery fiction. But unlike many of the crime mystery series in the Native American category with protagonists who toil in the same location from book to book, Zack and Eagle Feather are pulled to entirely different settings in each new novel.

While this is no doubt more interesting for my two characters, it makes it challenging for their creator for I must familiarize myself with new environments, cultures, history, political undercurrents and all that goes with solving a mystery in a whole new place. It is challenging, yet exciting––rather like a treasure hunt. Sometimes, however, the facts disclosed by research can require a different path. As a result, the novels in the Zack Tolliver series differ in category emphasis.

Certain features never change. The reader may expect every book to contain the same two protagonists. Their relatives, associates, and friends will not change, but might not necessarily make an appearance. There is always a crime (usually a murder), a mystery, police procedures to a larger or lesser degree, lots of action, suspense, accurate well-researched history, accurate topography, Native Americans (not always the same), and an element of mysticism and/or paranormal.

Each book in the series has these elements but to varying degrees. For instance, the paranormal elements in MESTACLOCAN, ZACA, and CAT are more apparent while the historical elements in UNDER DESERT SAND, CANAAN’S SECRET, and the upcoming LAS CRUCES are stronger. THE DARK ROAD and THE OTHER have more focus on Native American lore, perhaps, but are not lacking in paranormal, action, and suspense.

The resident category for the Zack Tolliver, FBI series is Native American Literature. The secondary categories for each book range from Werewolf & Shifter Thrillers to Police Procedurals to Supernatural Mysteries to Suspense to Conspiracy Thrillers to Westerns. We try to get it right each there will always be disappointed consumers who expect one thing from the category they search and read another.

It all comes down to inventing sufficiently descriptive categories. If each author was expected to describe her/his series in a single category, I would struggle. Given my series’ varied content of mystery, history, and paranormal, perhaps I should call it Histyrical Fiction.

Bringing Down The Heifers

They were bringing the heifers down from the high ranges today. I knew it as soon as I began to run the backside of the Jeep road. Deep hoof mud cups covered the entire width leaving a million sharp sundried ridges like a honeycomb. No cattle anywhere.

The weather has been skittish lately. Cold enough for snow in the high Sierras with wind events daily. Today the clouds were dark bottomed and scudded. I guess they’re bringing them down for protection. They seem younger this year, less afraid of me, more vulnerable. Babies.

I ran off the loop and up the connector and turned off the Jeep road near the springs. Cattle love the oaks here. Not today.

I ran the single track path toward Red Rock Spring, just to the high mesa saddle to catch a glimpse of the Santa Ynez Range, wondering if maybe they had a little snow. The saddle brought cold wind so I turned back.

[image error]A good place for heifers to hide.

I heard the ATV before I saw it, buzzing along somewhere. At the tadpole pond he came up behind me slow, stopped just short and killed the engine. He had two working dogs on the platform behind him. The Sheltie jumped off and came to sniff to see if I was important. I wasn’t, so he went back jumped on again.

“Seen any cattle today?”

The man wore mud coated leather work boots and his flannel shirt was thick. The sun cooked a man to sweat up here then next thing you know ducked behind a cloud to let you chill.

“Not a one.”

“Where’ve you been?”

“I just ran out toward Red Rock, turned back about halfway.”

“Glad you did. I can’t go there with this. See any sign?”

“Nothing.” I paused, seeing concern on his face. “Missing a heifer?”

He grinned. “About a hundred.”

Wow. I asked him about a couple of dells and hollows I knew the cattle liked. He’d been to all those places. His phone rang. He listened, put it away.

“Found some,” he said, waved, and roared off.

I got back to my running, down the connector and back on the Jeep loop. I kept hearing the chainsaw sound of the ATV from time to time. A half mile from the trailhead he came lickety-split down a steep heifer trail slowing as he passed me. The dogs were missing. “Got ’em now,” he said with a thumb’s up.

The last time I saw him I was approaching a sharp turn in the road and heard him coming back toward me. I stood wide at the turn and let him pass. He was flying. I guess he’d left the dogs holding the heifers. A pit bull mix came running after him. I put out the back of my hand for him to sniff but he hardly paused. A rider in a cowboy hat on horseback came after the dog. The horse came opposite me on the turn at a gallop when suddenly threw out it’s forelegs and stopped, its eye rolling toward me.

The woman riding it said “Whoa!” then gave voice to what her mount was thinking. “What’s he doing here without a horse?” She grinned and rode on.

The corral is near where I park my car. It was full of cattle today. I’ve never seen that before. I don’t know if it was the weather caused the ranchers to bring the herds down, or if it was just time to move them on to the next pasturage. I guess I’ll find out on my next run up there.

Las Cruces Murder: Another Look

The gap through the Santa Ynez Mountains north of Santa Barbara is a wild and lonely place. I write about it in my new Zack Tolliver, FBI series book LAS CRUCES as such, a place where no one has reason to linger after dark. Truckers and a few lonely cars pass through, their headlights flashing on high chaparral and rock face. North of the gap a few scattered homes hide among pine and palm. Thus it has always been––the domain of outlaws, a place for ambush and smugglers and even murder.

The gorge after dark reminds me of the sign at the top of the single chair lift at Stowe Ski Area years ago (is it still there?) stating the closure time and followed by these words: “These woods are as cold and lonely after dark as they were 100 years ago!” It made an impact.

The irony is that this wilderness has more hidden infrastructure than a small city.

Researching my novel, I discovered the existence of pipelines and conduits everywhere. There are more “Do Not Dig” signs than in a minefield in Cambodia. And not just the infamous Plains Pipeline which due to decay in materials and men’s brains decided to paint the Gaviota Beach noir, but high-pressure gas lines, water pipelines (some still in use, some not), electrical conduits, and so on. The high-pressure oil pipeline planned to replace the broken one will add yet one more miles-long stretch of subterranean plumbing across the mouth of the gap and up the weary old ridges of these beautiful mountains.

But my interest is history. Evidence of the first telegraph lines in the gorge can still be seen there if one looks hard enough. The poles are rustic and unpreserved, yet still standing after a century and a half, straight as sentinels among the mighty oaks, disguised as branchless trees. Yet a closer look reveals the wooden crook nailed to the pole in which the wire once nestled.

[image error]Pole Hidden Among Trees[image error]Closeup Of Nailed Crook

Before this ingenious triumph of man came to the boulder-strewn ravines, residents were in the dark regarding any news of the world beyond those precipitous walls until the stagecoach or a traveler chanced to pass. No water pipes then. Water was hauled from the creek (when it ran) with a heavy metal bucket.

[image error]Metal Bucket Found Near Corliss Crime Scene

But I speak of murder here. In my April 4 blog article “Crime in Las Cruces” I described the Corliss murder and the hideous irony of an act of cruelty befalling the Corliss couple identical to the one that nearly befell them over a thousand miles away a few years earlier. The story is monstrous…and compelling. Like any attentive crime fiction writer, I latched onto it. The crime had a signature: the body of the wife laid upon that of her husband forming an X, knife wounds, and the building burned down around them. My April 3 article caught the eye of an attentive reader who sent me an Email and a link to the description of another double murder along the Gaviota coastline.

Fast forward to 1963. It was the beginning of the reign of terror by a serial killer known in California as the Zodiac Killer. Although he (or she) was never identified (the Corliss murderer(s) was never identified either), and direct links have not been established, it is commonly believed the killing of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards, shot down as they fled for their lives at Cañada de Molino (Tajiguas Creek) a few miles south of Gaviota on the remote beach where the two teens were sunbathing, was the Zodiac’s first. They were confronted on the beach then shot as they tried to escape. The killer dragged them to a nearby shack where “he placed Linda’s body on top of Robert’s, cutting open her bathing suit with a knife to reveal her breasts. It is then thought the killer attempted to set fire to a tarpaulin covering on the door of the shack, testified by the presence of scorch marks – although it cannot definitively be proved when these scorch marks were created.” * *From local newspaper

I too was struck by the location, the similarity in body placement, and the attempt to burn the building. This precipitated some study of the Zodiac Killer (I was not familiar with the story) but my reading did not reveal other crimes attributed to the killer with those same attributes. The connection between the Domingo/Edwards murder and the Zodiac Killer is considered tenuous. But one wonders if the killing is connected in some way to the 1864 Corliss murder.

Consider that in the 1864 murder George Corliss was killed first and found face down on the floor of the structure. Lucretia escaped out the window and ran downslope toward the creek where she was recaptured and dragged by her feet face down several yards back up a steep slope and into the building then laid across the body of her husband. In the 1963 murder injuries to the bodies suggested Robert Domingos was dragged ten yards up a steep slope and placed in the shack first and then Linda was dragged the same distance face up and positioned on top of Robert. Both murders involved strenuous activity on the part of the murderer(s) to ensure the placement of the bodies within the building. Boxes of ammunition and pre-cut rope for binding found in the shack in 1963 suggest the killing of Robert and Linda was premeditated.

The murders occurred a few months short of a hundred years apart. An anniversary killing?

If not the Zodiac Killer, could the murders have been carried out by a deranged student of local history? Or by a descendant of someone related to the Corliss murders? There are many questions remaining from both the 1864 and the 1963 murders, should some mystery buff decide to seek the answers.

Stoking The Series

Nothing thrills an author more than reviews such as these:
“I’m delighted to learn that Book 7 is on the way!”
“I look forward to the next book in April.”
“Looking forward to next book in April. I am committed!”

Except if it is now April and my next novel, Las Cruces, is not…quite…well, finished. Here is where the push-pull comes––to accede to the temptation to rush to finish and publish, or allow the story to spin out at its own rate and speak for itself.

Of course, there is no real choice. The story will tell itself as the others have always done and I must be patient and allow it time to do so.

But will fans and followers be as patient? Or will they turn to the next series in the same genre and follow another of the millions of authors now available and never look back? I hope not. But I worry.

A good book takes time. A frequent curious question at my book signings is “How long does it take you to write a book?” My response is, “Oh, about four months…or five…or eight…or…” The story takes as long as it takes.

It is not a matter of the Muse for me––she always shows up. It is her story, after all. Sometimes though, I get in the way if I feel pressured to finish. When that happens, I may dictate rather than listen. Ultimately, it can mean rewriting several chapters. That is the Muse’s punishment for me. “See?” she says. “Be patient. Wait for my story to unfold.”

Every market today is flooded with authors. But write a good enough story and readers will want to read your next one. Even if it takes a while. Even if the reader drifts through dozens of other works in the meantime. Believe!

In a recent review, a reader listed Pros and Cons. The Pros were very gracious. I held my breath when I came to the Cons: It read: “CON: Now I must wait for the next in the series. Even if just to see whether Eagle Feather follows through on the ‘date’.”

I think this reader will be there when “Las Cruces” is finally published.

April is Free Tolliver Month!

Yes, it’s official. Every few days this month one of the Zack Tolliver, FBI Series eBook novels will be free on amazon.com/author/rlawsongamble. You may already have noticed this trend. There have been free days for CAT and UNDER DESERT SAND already. ZACA will be free this Friday, April 12.

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Why this month? According to Alexa, April is National Poetry Month. Crime mystery novels may not be poetry but they are this author’s contribution to the world of literature. And hey, they are fun to read.

When mysterious deaths lead to a place where the modern world and ancient Native American spiritualities come together, who you gonna call? Zack Tolliver, FBI, and his friend Eagle Feather. Prepare for suspense, thrills, and can’t-put-it-down sort of excitement.

Free on your eBook reader.

It’s our way to make April special!

Tolliver Tales for April

[image error]If these links fail, please email me at rlawsongamble@gmail.com for your copy.



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Crime in Las Cruces

Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt? It is that same excitement that draws me deeper into my research, as much for my fiction as for history.

I do not write fantasy. My crime mystery novels occur in a different location each time––real, identifiable places. It is my purpose to describe the area in such detail that my reader can go there and find the very spot Zack Tolliver or Eagle Feather trod.

It is the same for the culture and history of my settings as well. All the history described is scrupulously researched and real. Sometimes even the locals are unaware of events I uncover.

One such case involves an event that occurred in Las Cruces, the setting for a future novel. Las Cruces is an original Mexican land grant located just north of the Gaviota Pass, a break in the Santa Ynez mountain range guarding north Santa Barbara county. It is a narrow, wild, and scenic cut where after dark the only light comes from cars passing through on the freeway.

It is also the setting for a terrifying triple murder that took place in 1864. A stage coach stop was burned down around the owners, George and Lucretia Corliss. Both had been stabbed and dumped one on top of the other before the door was locked from the outside and the dwelling set ablaze. The body of a shepherd who tended their sheep was found days later a short distance from the scene, partially scalped with his throat cut.

Some folks in the area know the story. Most do not know that the couple had moved to this place from Oregon Territory hoping to find peace and tranquility after barely escaping a very similar attack by Indians on Whidbey Island, Washington at the home of a friend. Although their host was killed and beheaded, George and Lucretia were able to escape out a window. Lucretia ran to the house of a neighbor instead of hiding, a brave act under the circumstances.

Despite her courage, Lucretia remained incapacitated by her fright. George ultimately gave up his holdings in Oregon Territory in exchange for land in sunny, peaceful Las Cruces in hopes of restoring her nerves. Lucretia’s letters home do reveal a gradual recovery and she encouraged her relatives to join them. It was soon after this letter the home attack came from which neither escaped. The murderer was never found.

The irony is incredible. It is difficult to write fiction more dramatic than this.

Lucretia Corliss was born Lucretia Judson. Her brother Holden married Phoebe Goodell, author of “A Pioneer’s Search for an Ideal Home”.

From Fiction To Reality

If you research your writing intensely, as I do, it seems inevitable that fiction must approach reality. If the location is described intimately and accurately, if the culture of the people there is truly transcribed, if the political possibilities are assessed accurately, might not events occur similar to those that befall the protagonists, all unknowing?

This was the case with events described in my third novel of the Zack Tolliver, FBI series, ZACA.

I enjoy trail running. The activity takes me to places I might not otherwise reach and the beauty and uniqueness of my surroundings often stimulate ideas for my novels. Such was the case while running trails off the upper reaches of Colson Canyon near the Santa Maria Valley. From two routes, one of which hugs the summit ridge above steep cliffs descending to the east, the other a long winding descent down Rattlesnake canyon, I had glimpses of what I suspected were marijuana grows––uniformed rows of a slightly different green color from the oaks and mazanitas surrounding them, located in virtually inaccessible places. I found bits of black tubing such as is used for irrigation and even once jogged nervously past two men taking pistol practice near their parked pickup. All this, I should mention, within the national forest. On one occasion, I found a box of cartridges, apparently dropped during a hasty retreat.

The idea for the plot to ZACA developed from these runs. The specific action stimulated by these experiences begins in Chapter Nine of the novel when Chief Barnard drives Zack up the rough road to the head of the canyon, then leads the hike along the ridgeline. They rappel down the cliff side in order to reach the marijuana grow while overhead a helicopter hovers and lawmen descend to the scene of a murdered man. Thus begins a chase along a hidden trail I named El Camino Burro.

The book was published in 2015. In 2018 Spencer Cole, writing for The Sun told of a nine-month initiative by the County Sheriff’s Department along with federal authorities in the Los Padres National Forest to raid illegal cannabis grows in remote areas just east of Santa Maria, where this segment of my story takes place.

“Deputies and officers used helicopters to drop into the illicit sites,” the article states, “due to the rugged terrain that makes the locations otherwise extremely difficult to access…There were really no trails other than the ones growers made…The growers were tough to apprehend due to the noise the approaching helicopters made and the growers’ knowledge of the terrain that surpassed that of the investigators.”

The description of the terrain is an exact fit for the locality I used for my fiction. The necessity for helicopter descent into the area, the growers’ escape along hidden trails, the lack of arrests all are described prophetically on those pages of ZACA.

I was excited to read the news article, to see reality mirror my fiction. I see it as justification for solid research even in fiction and becoming familiar with the locality within which the action takes place. For me, in those moments, the extra effort and time proved more than worthwhile.

To read ZACA, follow this link.