Sam Wiebe's Blog, page 7

Post-Bouchercon Cosa Nostra Blues

I had a better time at Bouchercon than I thought I'd have. Which may sound weird, since it's a crime fiction convention, and crime fiction is a deep passion of mine. And sure, it was cool to see Michael Connelly and Sue Grafton hoofing around Long Beach. But I went down there thinking of it as a business trip, a chance to hype my book, to get the word out. Not as a vacation, and not as something that would be a lot of fun. 

But it was fun. I sold some books, and I made some connections, but more than that, I got to meet and hang with some writers I respect, like John McFetridge and David Swinson. That made the trip worthwhile.

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Jacques Filippi, Your Correspondent, David Swinson, and John McFetridge. Photo by Tanis Mallow.

Writing is a solitary gig--that's one of its chief pleasures. My fifty-second pitch at the Bouchercon New Author's Brunch began with me saying, "I'm not a morning person, and I'm not a people person." Which is true. But I think what Bouchercon taught me was the pleasure of hanging with other crime writers.

My closest writing friends have typically been people working in different genres or mediums. This was the first time I really got to hang with people who work in the same genre as me, who struggle with the same problems I do, and who hold the same authors in regard. And it's an addicting feeling. As much as I love Vancouver's anarchist poets, I'm definitely not one of them. Nor am I a screenwriter, a fantasy/sci-fi buff, a romance writer, or a literary critic. I respect those genres, aspire to them on occasion, but crime fiction is my thing. And it's good to be reminded that it's our thing, something shared by millions of people. 

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With Don and Jen Longmuir from Scene of the Crime Books. Photo by Dietrich Kalteis.

At Bouchercon you see people who are pure fans. You see people who are at the beginning of their writing careers, searching for a way into the walled city. You see established writers, big names, midlist authors, booksellers, critics, scholars. And people like me who fit somewhere in between those categories. The tables at the convention center are littered with bookmarks and book flyers, gew-gaws and doodads, all trying to hook the attention of publishers or agents or readers. It's obscene self-promotion, yeah, but it's also a beautiful collage of aspiration, a tribute to a shared love of a particular genre.

I'm privileged to do what I do, and have these opportunities. So thank you, Bouchercon, for letting me add my junk to the pile.

Literally.

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Best of Fall 2014; Bouchercon

LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS made the West Vancouver Library's Staff Pics for Best of Fall 2014, "The books that impressed us most this Fall." How flattering to be mentioned alongside Owen Laukkanen, Louise Penny, Suzanne Collins and Diane Keaton. Esteemed company indeed!

Also badass: the book got a very nice shout-out from J.D. Singh at the Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore in Toronto, in an article in the Toronto Star. Imagine seeing your book stacked with  Ian Rankin's. Pardon my French, but how fucking cool is that? 

 


In the last few weeks I've done events in Bellingham, Surrey, and my own beloved Vancouver. It's been great, but greatly exhausting. And in a few days I fly out to Long Beach for Bouchercon. I have a presentation there, but to be honest, I haven't had much time to plan out what else I'm going to take in--as much as I can, probably.

I love writing. I love being a writer. I am uncomfortable being a writer in public. But I'm working at it. People who read this blog, who come out to events, who review or rate the book online--you make this process so much more fun and worthwhile than it otherwise would be. The other writers I've met have been damn cool: very unpretentious, very friendly, and very dedicated. Getting to talk to booksellers who are stocking or talking up the book, or people who love crime fiction and have recommended it, that means everything to me--because that's why and how I buy books, off the recommendations of people I respect. So thanks.

And [putting on his shilling hat] if you feel like buying a copy of the book, or rating/reviewing it, please do so. Stores like Amazon, Chapters, and Amazon Canada*  demand a steady diet of ratings and reviews to glut their gaping maws, and now there are Amazon Author Page likes, which also determine...something. Please review the book and hit the like button. Or go buy it at a badass independent bookstore like Pulp Fiction or Brown's or Dead Write in Vancouver, the Seattle Mystery Bookshop in Seattle, or Sleuth of Baker Street in Toronto.

See you at (or after) Long Beach.

The Demon Dog and Bellingham

 

I'll be doing a signing in Bellingham this Saturday, at the Barnes and Noble from 12-4. Details can be found here. Please come out and hang.

***
I haven't read James Ellroy's new novel Perfidia. It's at the top of my ever-increasing stack. But I've read just about everything else he's done. My Dark Places, The Black Dahlia, White Jazz and American Tabloid are all seminal novels for me, as are the films he's been associated with, L.A. Confidential and Dark Blue. I think he's the most fearless living writer, and living proof that the Nobel committee is out to lunch.

So getting to meet him yesterday at the Writers Fest was great. His talk was a combination of his 'demon dog' schtick, a reading from Perfidia (which made me want to whip through the book I'm reading right now* to get to it), and questions. 

I'd met Ellroy before when I went to Seattle to see him hype his last book, Blood's A Rover. He is the most comfortable and eloquent reader of his own writing. And, channelling my inner Chris Farley, Ellroy seems like a cool guy.

As someone still finding his way as a public speaker, I look to Ellroy as the gold standard. Funny, insightful, able to quote poetry by heart, and can improvise when someone throws him a dumb question. I've done a few readings now and I think I'm getting better, but the only part I'm totally comfortable with is the Q&A. Ellroy gives me something to shoot for--if you could be that good, and have something new to say every time you come through town, you'd be on to something.

And of course I got him to sign my copy of Perfidia. His inscription: "To Sam: FEAR THIS BOOK."

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Two masters of the written word.

*Joe Laurinaitis's biography. He's Animal from the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom. It's a really good book. And yes, I'm aware I probably won't get to Nicholas Nickelby or Middlemarch in this lifetime, due to the many pro wrestling biographies I've consumed. Let's not judge each other too harshly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving, at least. Lots to be thankful for--LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS is getting great reviews, and there are some interesting opportunities on the table. Thanks to everyone who's bought, read, rated, reviewed, recommended, and otherwise supported me.

A couple of things to mention:

1. I have a reading Friday, the 17th, 7-9 at Pulp Fiction Books on Main. Come hang out! It should be fun.

2. Check out the first issue of Dark Corners magazine, and the current issue of subTerrain magazine, both of which have new stories, and both of which kick ass.

3. Please, if you haven't yet, take a moment to rate and review LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS on Amazon, Goodreads, Chapters, or iTunes. If ten more people review, it gets upped in the metrics...and recommended...and stuff...I don't really understand it. But please review!

4. Speaking of LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS, if you haven't got a copy yet...

Pick it up (and review it!) on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Chapters/Indigo, iTunes/iBooks, or your local bookstore.

Thank you!

John D MacDonald

The earliest crime novels I read were liberated from my parents' bookshelf, and included cheap paperback copies of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest and a complete run of the John D. MacDonald Travis McGee series. MacDonald is my dad's favorite writer, and one of his favorite jokes--I use that term lightly--is to compare JDM favorably to Shakespeare, especially while I was doing my Master's on Henry IV. 

But MacDonald IS a great writer. Cape Fear* is one of the most legitimately chilling novels I've ever read, right next to Thomas Harris's Red Dragon. The McGee series, while a bit wish-fulfilling in terms of sex, dealt with real socioeconomic problems like the destruction of Florida's ecology and the rise of consumerism. My dad would put John D MacDonald ahead of the great Ross MacDonald, and honestly, I'd have to agree.

So the review of LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS in the first issue of Dark Corners is especially flattering.

"Vancouver is to LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS as Florida is to John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels...[Wiebe] is a writer that can deal with tough issues and does not sugarcoat...His prose is tight and witty, his dialogue is sharp and realistic, and the plot twists and turns to its final, satisfying conclusion."

Aside from a great review of LOTI, Dark Corners also includes my story "Next to Nothing". It's a magazine worth picking up.

(*original title: The Executioners)

But enough about me...

A great review/interview in the Vancouver Sun: "Last of the Independents: Two Mysteries in One". Reviewer Tracy Sherlock calls Mike, the main character, "Plucky and bold" and "a tad unhinged," and says "Crime novel fans will enjoy this one."

This weekend was busy with book promotion. I visited stores on Vancouver Island, including Tanner's in Sidney and a couple of Chapters locations. The staff was terrific. Saturday I was at the West Vancouver Library with E.R. Brown, Owen Laukkanen and Robin Spano for a reading and talk. Yesterday was WORD Vancouver, and I manned the CWC booth for a couple of hours with Dietrich Kalteis and Glynis Whiting.

I have a couple of new stories coming out, one in an established Canadian literary journal, one in the premiere issue of an American crime and noir magazine.

"August in the Pines" is in the latest issue of Subterrain. I'd describe it as a "geriatric Badlands," told in epistolary form. 

"Next to Nothing" is in the debut issue of Dark Corners, a new American noir magazine edited by C.T. McNeely. It opens with a private investigator following a trail of blood into a dive hotel.

 And now I have marking to get back to. Thanks for reading this.

Meet the Character: Last of the Independents' Michael Drayton

I've been tagged in a blog hop by Dietrich Kalteis, the author of Ride the Lightning and one of the stalwarts of Vancouver crime fiction. You can catch him, me, Robin Spano, E.R. Brown, D.B. Carew, Owen Laukkanen, and the next entrant in this blog hop, Charlotte Morganti, at Noir at the Bar: Tuesday, November 4 from 7-9 at the Shebeen Whisky Room.

* * *

The goal of this blog hop is to introduce a character from your novel. The narrator and protagonist of Last of the Independents, Michael Drayton, is a twentysomething private investigator who lives and works in Vancouver. Before I get to Mike, though, let me say something about the series’ subtitle, Vancouver Noir.

Most series are named after their main character: “A Miss Marple Mystery” or “A Spenser Novel.” I wanted to avoid that for a couple of reasons. First, “A Michael Drayton Novel” is less than poetic. People named Michael generally use a diminutive or nickname.

Second and more importantly, the reason for the “A ____ Mystery” subtitle is consistency. Fiction works like a drug, and such a subtitle is a guarantee of purity and dosage. If you like the first one, you’re assured of a familiar character, with adventures that will repeat themselves, relatively free of consequences.

Simply put, I didn’t want to give the reader those assurances. Last of the Independents isn’t “A Michael Drayton adventure.” It’s the Michael Drayton adventure. It's the crucible that redefines everything for him.

Like a lot of people in their twenties, Mike struggles to balance finances with meaningful work. He operates a one-room office with ramshackle furnishings. When he meets Cliff Szabo, a junk merchant whose son has disappeared, there is a connection. Szabo is prideful and difficult, and has scorned help from the police. That mixture strikes a chord:

Szabo tested the bench before sitting down. "I overreact," he said by way of apology.

"I'd like to help," I said.

"I'm still not sure," he said. "What can you do the cops can't?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"That's right. The police have resources and connections I can't begin to compete with. They're your best hope to get your son back. Any PI who's not a fraud will tell you the same."

"So why hire you?"

"Because, statistically speaking, the more people looking, the better. And because sometimes people get lucky."

I nodded at the Loeb file on the corner of my desk.

"I want you to understand," I said. "The best I can do is work this efficiently and diligently. I can't make your son appear. When you feel that what I'm doing isn't helping, say so, but know going in that it's expensive and time-consuming, and there are no guarantees."

He stood up and walked to the table. He produced a thick roll of twenties, stretched the elastic around his wrist, and began counting out piles of five.

"You don't have to pay up front," I said.

He didn't reply until there were six piles of five, fanned across the table like a poker hand.

"Six hundred is all the money I have," he said. "I can also pay you ten percent."

"Of what?"

"My business," he said, his posture perfect, dignified.

I was going to object, because I didn't want his money and because it wasn't nearly enough. It was an insult to say anything either way. I nodded and created an empty file on the Mac.

"Tell me everything," I said.

* * *

Mike pledges to find his son--and will soon discover to what lengths he's willing to go to do it.

Last of the Independents: Vancouver Noir is on sale now. It's available at Chapters, Amazon, Amazon (Canada), and Black Bond Books, as well as many local bookstores. 

* * *

I met Charlotte Morganti at an Arthur Ellis shortlist event at the Vancouver Library, where we were both delighted to be nominated for Arthurs--her for Best Unpublished First Novel for her book The Snow Job, the first novel in a series set in the fictional B.C. mountain town of Cheakamus*. Her story "What Would Your Mother Say" was recently featured in the premier issue of The Tahoma Literary Review.

(*I was nominated for my short story "The Third Echo," which Charlotte, kind-hearted person she is, insisted I mention.)

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The Truck

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The official launch date of LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS--and look, the book cover is on the side of the Black Bond Books truck! Pretty cool.

Book Launch

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Last of the Independents book launch: Tuesday, September 2nd 7-9 at the Shebeen Whisky House (212 Carrall Street).

Upcoming Events

What a busy couple of weeks--and this is supposedly my vacation.



The reading at Book Warehouse went really well. Thanks to Mary Anne and James at Book Warehouse's Main Street location; E.R. Brown and R.J. Harlick, for letting me read with them; and everyone who came out to the reading. I got to meet some great local authors like Janie Chang, and connect with old acquaintances in the crime writing field like D.B. Carew and Merrilee Robinson. Very cool.

I will be doing readings and appearances and signings and making a general nuisance of myself throughout the fall. Here are the dates that have been confirmed so far:

Saturday, August 30th: The official release date for LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS, though some bookstores are already stocking it.

Tuesday, September 2nd: LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS book launch at the Shebeen Whisky Room, 212 Carall. 

Saturday, September 13th: Reading at Pulp Fiction books, Main Street location. 7-9 pm. Details to come.

Saturday, September 27th: West Vancouver Memorial Library event with Robin Spano, E.R. 
Brown and Owen Laukkanen.

Sunday, September 28th: WORD Vancouver (formerly Word on the Street). I'll be at the Crime Writers of Canada table in the Vancouver Public Library central branch along with Dietrich Kalteis, 3-5 pm.

Tuesday, November 4th: Vancouver's second Noir at the Bar. Details to come.

Thursday, November 13th to Sunday, November 16th: Bouchercon in Long Beach, California. I'll be in attendance.

I'm also trying to schedule some events in Seattle, Bellingham, Portland, Nanaimo, Sidney, Victoria, Kelowna, Langley, Surrey, and New Westminster. 

In the meantime, look for LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS at your local bookstore. If it's not stocking it, ask them to. And please, if you read the book and enjoy it, review it on Amazon.ca,Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Chapters/Indigo, Goodreads, Library Thing, and any other site. A positive rating and an "I enjoyed this book!" comment take a few minutes to post, and that kind of digital word-of-mouth makes a hell of a difference. Thank you.