Dave Zeltserman's Blog, page 11

Farewell, Dave

Dave Kanell, who formerly owned and operated Kingdom Books in Waterford, VT with his wife, Beth, until it became economically unfeasible, passed away earlier this month. Dave was a goodhearted, generous, and gentle soul who first and foremost loved his wife, then the NY Yankees, crime and mystery books, especially those taking place in Vermont, his corner of his adopted state of Vermont, and his Jewish book collection. Anyone who used to go to the holiday parties at Kate's Mystery Bookstore would've met Dave as one of Kate's helper elves. Similarly, if you'd gone to any of the New England Crimebakes before Dave's health started to fail, you would've had a good chance of meeting him. Or if you were a New England crime/mystery writer while Kingdom Books was still operating, Dave probably would've gone out of his way to help promote your books.
I first met Dave in 2008 at Kate's holiday party. With me being a Jewish writer from New England and Small Crimes taking place in Vermont, it was inevitable that Dave would be interested in the book, and we soon became friends, with Dave and Beth taking a special interest in my writing and helping to promote me in any way they could. Dave might've also been Julius Katz's most ardent fan, and if Beth agrees, I'll find a way for Dave and Kingdom Books to live on in future Julius Katz stories.
Writing can be a hard business, but what makes it worthwhile is meeting and becoming friends with people like Dave. I always enjoyed our phone calls, whether we talked about books, our favorite authors, the publishing industry, baseball, politics, or whatever subject we ended up on. I'll miss Dave. The world has gotten a little bit colder without Dave being part of it.

The short story ending

I  don't necessarily want to play favorites here and give short shrift to the novel, but a great ending is more important for a short story. Good endings are needed for novels--you can think of a novel as a large ocean liner being brought into port. The ship has been out at sea for days and it's been a fun trip, and you certainly don't want to ruin it at the end by crashing and sinking the ship as it's being brought into the harbor. As long as most folks leave the ship happy, good job! And so with a novel, it's the journey that matters most, although a stunning and startling ending certainly doesn't hurt.

Short stories are different. The reader needs a great ending for the story to be worth their time.

So what makes a great ending? It depends on the genre.

For mysteries, all the elements to solve the mystery have to be present so the reader has a fair chance to solve it, yet doesn't, but still ends up admiring the solution and not feeling cheated.

For crime fiction (and other genres as well), the endings I strive for are ones that changes everything the reader believed he or she knew about the story and does so in a way that makes perfect sense. It will leave the reader gobsmacked.

I am now a Black Mask author

There's no crime writer I admire more than Dashiell Hammett. The Continental Op stories are a gift to all of us, and Hammett's five novels in a way created five different subgenres of crime fiction: The Maltese Falcon, the search for the MacGuffin, Red Harvest, the stranger cleaning up the crime-ridden town, The Glass Key, the political crime novel, The Dain Curse, the supernatural crime novel, and The Thin Man, the screwball crime novel. There's never been a writer who has had more influence on the crime fiction genre than Hammett and whose works I revere more. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is the premiere crime fiction magazine, and I never take it for granted being published within its hallowed pages, but it's because of Hammett's connection with Black Mask that having my 18th EQMM story be published as a Blask Mask story means something extra special to me.

You can read an excerpt of my story Brother's Keeper.

The Investigator has been Investigated!

Publishers Weekly has conducted a thorough investigation of The Julius Katz Collection, and their conclusion: fresh and funny … There’s good fun to be had along with the brainteasers in this sprightly volume. 

About my Morris Brick serial killer thriller series

I’d had fourteen novels and dozens of short stories published by the time I sold my first Morris Brick thriller, Deranged, to Kensington Books, and my editor, Michaela Hamilton, thought it would be a good idea to differentiate this new thriller series by using a pseudonym. It made sense. While the Julius Katz mystery stories published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine turned into an accidental series, and my ‘man out of prison’ books published by Serpent’s Tail could be looked at as a noir trilogy, this will be my first planned thriller series. The tone of these books are also going to be different than my darker crime noir novels, or my moody and supernaturally-tinged A Killer’s Essence, or my metaphysical crime thrillers Bad Thoughts and Bad Karma. My Morris Brick thrillers will be suspenseful crime thrillers with a dark edge, humor, lots of surprises and twists, and rapid-paced plots. They’re also going to be written more along the lines of the stories I write for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine: little to no profanity, no onscreen sex, and while the violence will by horrifying and gruesome it will either take place off screen or be described with minimal detail. Also the protagonist, Morris Brick, will be someone the reader will want to root for, as will his bull terrier, Parker.



So how did I come up with the pseudonym Jacob Stone? Well, it was a team effort with Kensington Books! I also liked the symmetry between Brick and Stone, and that Stone suggests someone solid. Also, after using my long and somewhat difficult name, Zeltserman, with my other books, I liked the idea of a simple author name for these thrillers. Why Jacob for the first name? No idea. It just sounded right.


A little bit about these books. My protagonist, Morris Brick, will be a former LAPD homicide detective who has recently started his own investigative firm, Morris Brick Investigation (MBI). When Deranged begins, Morris is working as a consultant on a serial-killer film. Morris is smart, tough, resourceful, and dogged when he’s on a case. He is described physically as follows: ‘Well, he certainly wasn’t handsome, not with his big ears, thick, long nose, spindly legs and short, compact body. Maybe more comical looking than unattractive. In many ways Morris proved the old adage about a dog owner resembling his pet, since he looked quite a bit like his bull terrier, Parker.' Hollywood, the film industry, and the obsessive desire for fame and notoriety will be an undercurrent running through these books.


While Morris, the supporting cast, and Morris’s inimitable bull terrier, Parker, remain constant, I’ve written a very different type of crime thriller with each book in the series. The first, DERANGED, flips the readers expectations halfway through. CRAZED uses my favorite plot device—an interloper that messes everything up for everyone. MALICIOUS is constructed as a devious Rube Goldberg machine. CRUEL is written as a series of cascading mysteries. The final book in the series (so far) UNLEASHED is more psychological suspense and crime-oriented. While they’re very different from each other, I use the same structure for each of them, mixing in chapters from past and present, and by doing this I can dig deeper into the killer’s evolution and his motivations.

My 5th Morris Brick crime thriler UNLEASHED out today!

Scream Magazine on UNLEASHED: "This was my first experience with a Stone novel, but it’s made me an instant fan. His writing style reminds me of Jim Thompson, Dashiell Hammett, and other veterans of hard-boiled detective and mystery stories. His style is no frills, tough, and gritty, and he’s not averse to breaking a few conventional rules and unleashing some unexpected surprises. As far as detective mysteries go, Unleashed is a winner that keeps you on your toes and guessing throughout."

My own opinion--my backstory chapters about the killer is some of my best writing, and I think this is one of my best crime thrillers.

UNLEASHED has been unleashed today. I hope folks give it a read.

Get THE TENTH WISH Today!

Mystery author Clea Simon calls The Tenth Wish "Fun and Fanciful." That certainly couldn't be said about any of my horror and crime novels. But this book is something from me. I look at it as a charming and, at times, thrilling mix of contemporary fantasy and adventure built around a love story. And while this is very different than anything else I've written, it's also not in a way. While it's several ticks lighter than my Julius Katz stories (except for the times in veers into very dark territory) it has a similar humor as my Julius Katz works, and the interplay between Emily and the genie will remind my readers (at least a little bit) of Julius and Archie. And there's more than a little bit of Archie in the genie. And while I think "fun and fanciful" is a good way to describe The Tenth Wish, it has characters in it who'd be right at home in my darkest noir.

The Tenth Wish is available today as either a kindle ebook or paperback. Yes. It's different.  It's "fun and fanciful" (actually Clea said about it: "Fun and fanciful, The Tenth Wish finds love and magic in this bitter old world.") But I think readers who've enjoyed my other books, even my darkest noir, will like this one also.

PW on THE INTERLOPER: "action-packed, darkly witty thriller"

Publisher's Weekly on THE INTERLOPER: "Zeltserman creates characters who, while at times amusing, still maintain their terrifying aura of unleashed fury."

The review can be read here.

Julius Katz readers might want to pre-order The Tenth Wish

The Tenth Wish isn't a PI novel or mystery. Instead it's a contemporary fantasy in which a young woman finds a genie's lamp and the adventures that follow. So why might Julius Katz readers like this book?

The Tenth Wish is a tick or two lighter than my Julius Katz stories (although it veers at times into territory that's every bit as dark as my noir novels), but given everything I've written it compares closest in tone and humor to my Julius Katz writings. I think readers are going to find this book a lot of fun and exiting, and my genie, Jack, has more than a bit of Archie in him (as well as some Mr. Sheffield from The Nanny and some James Bond.)

The kindle version will be released on Feb. 21 and is available for pre-order now . A paperback edition will also be made available Feb. 21st (maybe a day or two earlier). The price for the kindle version will be $2.99 until Feb 28th, and then will be set to $5.99.

The Tenth Wish available now for kindle preorder

From acclaimed crime and horror author Dave Zeltserman (Small Crimes) comes something very different. A charming mix of fantasy and thrilling adventure.

Emily Mignon recently moved to New York and finds herself frustrated romantically, professionally, and financially. When she comes into possession of a genie's lamp, she's tempted to wish for her biggest dream to be fulfilled, but she knows from literature that a genie's wish can be maliciously twisted. Even the genie--who is quite handsome and looks like a young lawyer dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit and black leather oxfords--admits to her how disastrously some of his previous masters' wishes turned out. He seems sincere when he promises her that this time will be different and she wants to believe him. Except there's a warning engraved on the bottom of the lamp. Do not trust him.

"Fun and fanciful, The Tenth Wish finds love and magic in this bitter old world." - Clea Simon

Paperback and kindle versions of The Tenth Wish will be available February 21. Kindle copies can be preordered now.