Merry Christmas America (Are We Dead Yet?)

A few years back, Xmas in Rome.

 

Yes, I'm writing on Christmas morning, but that's not my choice, it's sort of my duty. A long time ago when I was studying and writing at The Breadloaf Writer's Conference, the novelist Tim O'Brien kindly took me under his wing, personally critiqued a short story of mine which was then called Portrait, and which later became the novel, When Shadows Come (a novel that was orphaned prior to its release from Thomas & Mercer when the editor jumped ship--something that happens a lot over there. But as usual, I digress). 

In the middle of going over the story, sometimes line by line, he with red pencil in hand and trademark Boston Red Sox baseball cap on his head, lit cigarette between his lips, suddenly asked, "Hey you don't happen to have any coke on you?" 

I was sorely disappointed I didn't. 

In any case, when we were through he said...and I'll never forget it..."One day, you're going to be more famous than you are now. You will have fans, and they will expect a lot out of you. They will, in some cases, become more needy than your wives (yes, he used the plural), and you will need to put out for them. That means you will be writing on your birthday, when you are sick with the flu, when you are happy, and when you are depressed. You will be writing ON CHRISTMAS DAY, whether you like it or not." 

So there you have it, readers. It's Christmas and I will spend my day or most of it anyway, working on novel edits. But let me say, Merry Christmas to you all. Some might find that offensive but I'm not woke, and shall forever remain asleep, metaphorically speaking, I guess. 2020 is about to come to an end and let's hope the door slaps it on the ass on the way out. 

I still recall standing inside a bar in Lake Placid last New Years Eve as a blizzard was blowing outside. I had a pool cue in hand, and was watching the wall mounted TV while my GF was beating me at pool. The report about a virus outbreak in China sent a chill down my spine. At that point it was still a small story in the grand scheme of things, but I recall saying half under my breath to said GF, "This is going to be bad. This is going to be very, very bad." And bad it became. 

I'm not fond of the Grateful Dead, and in fact, I hate their music (I prefer old punk rock), but I'm reminded of their song that goes What a Long Strange Trip it's Been. It's raining outside my window. I had planned on skiing today (sorry Tim), but the grass outside my writing studio looks like a putting green. There's hardly any planes in the air and many fewer cars on the road. Carbon emissions are way down. Why isn't it snowing AOC? But again, I digress. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it doesn't feel like Christmas. In fact, the whole year doesn't feel like we've progressed, but if anything, regressed into this population of fenced in individuals who are slowly going insane with boredom, loneliness, financial ruin, and despair (BTW, my profound thanks to the US government for pulling through with stimulus for normal everyday folks who will visit the food lines today instead of enjoying a nice Xmas dinner. The US government is broken and you only have yourself to blame...You know precisely who you are. Enjoy your ice cream, Nancy. And Mitch, I hope you're sipping only the best Kentucky bourbon today with a big fat cigar stuffed in your mouth. You both should be drawn and quartered in public...once more, I digress). 

But it almost feels like we've actually succumbed to the disease and simply don't know it yet. Like a person who's suddenly dropped dead and sort of hangs around for a while as a ghost. Or maybe we're all in purgatory. Who knows? But then, election fraud was real, not that anybody cares. The rent is still due, and the price of chicken has doubled if not tripled in just just a few months. These things are reality. 

So than, I can bitch and moan all I want, but on the other hand, I am thankful for my health, my relative youth, my publishers (Yet another notable outfit approached me the other day and said they would love a Zandri novel in their catalogue, God bless them...I remember when I couldn't find a publisher to save my life. Now they come to me in some cases), my family, my kids, my mom, my life (which is blessed in every sense of the word), my God, my travels, my country (as busted up as it is), and what lies in store for the future. It's got to be better than this. My hopes are that very, very soon, all us dead folk will be resurrected. 

Today, you can get my brand new release, CHASE BAKER AND THE ARK OF GOD for special intro price. You can also get my brand new big 4.8 star thriller, THE GIRL WHO WASN'T THERE there also for a special holiday price. Last but never least, THE EMBALMER, the pilot novel in the Steve Jobs PI series is just 0.99 since it's a Bargain Booksy promo for 24 hours. 

It's Christmas morning so no doubt you'll want to fill up that new Kindle eReader you just unwrapped. 

A very Merry Xmas to you all, and a Happy and prosperous New Year. 

WWW.VINZANDRI.COM

 

  

   

It's a real Hank Moody day, let me tell you...

A real Hank Moody moment...

It must be the holidays, because yesterday I consumed ten chicken wings, a plate of greens and beans, prosecco, red wine, beer, and a shot of Jameson. This morning I am miraculously up and at 'em at my laptop, pounding out the words, even if the electrical signals from brain matter to typing fingers are a little slow. It's a real Hank Moody day, let me tell you. See what happens when you're a full-time author and you suddenly find yourself single again?

First off, Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays all around. 2017 was a stellar year for me in terms of word count, book and story publication. It was also a year where I made a sort of dramatic shift from making traditional publishing my priority with the independent side of things being a fun sideline, to quite the opposite.

I now consider the indie publishing method of primary importance. That doesn't mean I'm giving up traditional. Not at all. I'm still a hybrid. But this year I became entirely enamored not only with the freedom of indie publishing, but also the financial, passive income possibilities and the lack of industry volatility. IE: I have had two editors from traditional world either yanked from their jobs or decide to quit just prior to a book's publication, dooming the title, at least in the short term (one of these titles actually went on to sell a couple hundred thousand copies...ten years later). Such totally-out-my-control issues becomes non-issues in indie world.

My kind of Xmas!

The thing about indie, it's a matter of content. While my traditional publishers could never nor would ever take more than one book per year from me (sometimes they decide not to take any!), I can, under the guise of my own publishing label (Bear Media), publish as much material as I wish. The more the better, and my true fans are happy to have the new material as fast as I can write it (and have it edited, of course).

It's a matter of math. If one of my indie books/stories earns me $2.07 per day (sounds paltry doesn't it?), imagine what 100 will earn me, per day? This is a passive income that is entirely separate from the royalties earned on traditional agented projects. But you get the idea. The more I write, the more money I make. And what's even better, I own 100% of my rights. I also get paid once per month. Which means, in years to come, it will be my children who get paid once per month and their children, and so on. 

What I foresee in the future (in fact, it's already in the works), is all of my novels and stories being available not only in all commercial markets but also in a store at my website WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM where the thousands of readers and fans who subscribe to my "For Your Eyes Only" newsletter can purchase what they want, when they want it, directly. Not everyone believes in shopping at Amazon and not every Amazon customer even considers buying a book from Kobo. Not everyone wants to get in the car and go to the bookstore, that is you can still find one that hasn't become a toy store/coffee shop. But they can always come to my store, even if they're in bed, totally butt naked. It's always open. This is the eventual journey indie publishing will take us. The inevitable destination.

One of these indie projects is my Handyman series. Tagline: Would you commit murder for art's sake?  This steamy, noir thriller is as graphic as it is suspenseful. But don't take my word for it. I'm just the author. As of today, the entire first season is collected in one single handy bundle. It's called, appropriately, The Handyman: Season I...If you're into this kind of graphic romantic noir, this is totally for you:

Buy The Handyman:Season I in the US

Buy The Handyman: Season I in the UK

"Merry Christmas you old building and loan!"
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM 


   

Final episode of the erotic noir Handyman series is now released...

I know you.
You're the type who not only likes a hell of a mystery and/or thriller, but you also like a little steamy romance mixed up along with it. You're the type to binge all those steamy series on HBO and Netflix. You eat them up like potato chips, one after the other. You also finish an episode with a smile on your face because even if you're not realizing a happy ending, someone else sure is.

So with that, I give you the third, titillating yet thrilling Episode III of the brand new Handyman Series. Thus far sales have been good enough where the boss (me), has green-lighted a second season. You can read these episodes in an hour or so and if you're lucky enough to have a sig other nearby you can do a little role playing later on (nudge, nudge, say no more). Or, if you're single, just download the Tinder App and see who's available.

So here it is: Episode 3, Savage Sins...

His passion is sex. His muse is murder...

 Have fun reading and have even more fun after reading...

 WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Savage Sins: US

Savage Sins: UK

Richard Godwin: Hard-Boiled Enigma

The hard-boiled enigma, Richard Godwin

He is an enigma.
A tall, wiry man who is as comfortable surrounded by the surviving members of the Sex Pistols as he is London's most gifted literati. He no doubt dominates the conversation when engaged with both respective groups, or any group or gathering for that matter. He's that smart, that gifted, that interested.

He's also prolific and versatile, having written...well I'm not sure how many novels Richard Godwin has written in his 52 years, but I'm sure it's a lot. His style and themes are as diverse as our big blue marble of a planet. There's the dystopian Paranoia and the Destiny Programme,  the horrific Mr. Glamour, the violently raw Apostle Rising, and even the sexy One Lost Summer.

His short work has appeared in more anthologies and journals than one can shake a pen at (29 according to his official bio), and he's a regular at popular underground noir and hard-boiled magazines like Pulp Metal Magazine and Crime Factory. His work might not be readily visible on the New York Times bestseller list, at least not yet, but I'm not sure that's what he's going for. Richard Godwin doesn't just write stories because he hopes to make a buck. He is instead painting a picture not necessarily of a event as it happens, but rather, as it could happen. What he's interested in is the violent, horrific and at the same time, erotic human experience. He's a writer, but he's also a philosopher, a descendant as much from John D. MacDonald as he is Albert Camus. It would be interesting to open up his head to see how his mind works, how the gears spin, what kind of instrumentation God provided him with. But then, I'm not sure I want to go there. I might be too frightened by what I see.

And of course, Godwin doesn't just limit himself to novels and short stories. He also writes poetry and plays. Having never read the former, or experienced the latter, I can't tell you precisely what to make of them, but if his fiction is any indication, my guess is that the participant will be exposed to a raw and thoroughly brave presentation, that will leave him or her sweating bullets. But then, I risk making all this sound like a love letter. 

Despite his title, Mr. Glamour, Richard is a decidedly private man. At least, that's my assessment. He bears a little more anxiety than the average writer, meaning he doesn't trust publishers, big or small, as far as he can toss them. We share this sentiment, perhaps because we've both reached middle age in an occupation better known for its casualties than successes, or maybe because we're just two stubborn coots who don't know when to come in out of the rain. Those rainy days, by sheer luck or Providence, are fewer and fewer these days, thanks to income streams that are in direct proportion to prolific output than they are anything else. But hey, we'll take it.

Richard Godwin, for all his distaste of the unsavory business aspects of being a writer, is not without joie de vivre. He travels so much, speaking about writing and about the writing life, there should be a special Godwin Noir Space devoted to him at every major international airport. And the funny thing is, I've found myself within a very reasonable proximity of him (say within twenty miles) on several occasions, and yet I've never met him in person. But that doesn't mean I feel like I don't know him. We email, talk on the phone, text, commiserate, strategize, share advice, gossip, or just plain laugh together. I haven't been properly introduced to the man, yet I know him like a brother from another mother.  Or maybe I don't.

So now we have a Richard Godwin "reader" in the works from Down & Out Books. It only makes sense for a publisher to figure out the benefits of offering noir readers the chance to sample some of the best hard-boiled prose being banged out with two fingers on both sides of the Atlantic. Back when I was a young writing student at Vermont College during the mid 1990s, any author who boasted their own "reader" was an author who had not only made it, but was revered by their peers. I certainly revere Richard Godwin. Not that I know him as much as I pretend to. Because, like I said, I've never actually met him in the flesh. I guess it's more accurate to say, I know the work, and the work is, well, killer. But as for the man, who knows. Like I said, he's an enigma.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

     

Jason Michel: Noir Drifter

Jason Michel fits the noir bill to the T.
Gruff and scruffy, his salt and pepper hair is cropped almost to the scalp, which itself shows signs of scarring. The result of a knife fight maybe, or his having been tossed out of a train car during one of his many adventures around the globe.

My kinda dude.

The forty-something noir writer and publisher of the underground but universally hailed Pulp Metal Magazine, originates from Wales, but as far as I can glen, he's never enjoyed the many splendors of a proper home.

He's a drifter.

For certain, I know he lived in Bangkok for a few years, and Paris for a long time, along with other ports of call. He's not a big or imposing guy, but he carries about himself an aura of self assurance that would make a man twice his size think again about engaging in a scrape. It's the eyes, the stare, the roaring silence. He now lives in Florence but as usual it's "Just for a while, I don't know how long..." That is, until he heads somewhere else. The U.S. maybe. Who knows. Such is the code of the noir drifter.  

Jason and the author enjoying a cold beverage at the Goose Bistro in Florence

I'm sure wherever he chooses to live for a while longer, he will still be putting out some of the most poetic noir pieces this side of 1950's Paris. Such as the one you can listen to below which is lifted from his new novel, The Death of Three Colours. And as for the cool background music, its comes from his brother's musical project, Little Deaths. Obviously the noir thing runs in the family. So too do the eyes. Those frightening eyes.

 
 Listen to Jason Michel read HERE

 For more on the music of Little Deaths go to their Facebook page HERE 

 "Jason Michel is an author and The Dictator over at the irreverent PULP METAL MAGAZINE and has his own Neo-Noir podcast - The Black-Hearted Beat"

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

"Moonlight Falls" Again...

"Man's life is flashing before his eyes...."

The first line in my novel, Moonlight Falls, still causes chills to run up and down my spine. I was in quite the state when I wrote it. The second marriage was crumbling, the bank account was in the red, my original Big 5 publisher wasn't about to roll out a third book for me now that I hadn't earned out a mid-six-figure advance, I had no freelance prospects, and my dog died. Okay, well I'm fibbing about the dog, but things were pretty bleak to to say the least. So much so, that not even the worst country music ballad could do it justice.

How does the line go in the famous Wilco song? I shiver whenever the doorbell rings. Or something like that. And yeah, I must admit, there were times I thought, you know what, why not just check out now and beat the reaper at his own game. But then, even the next cheeseburger is worth waiting for. Especially if the cheese is sharp cheddar and you're washing it down with an ice cold beer.

But it was in this state of mind that I began Moonlight Falls, with those first seven words. Because in a real way, my life was flashing before my eyes. I knew that I had no choice but to write my way out of my depression. That a creative mind had no other choice. That is, it wanted to survive.

I can still recall sitting across from Suzanne Gluck's big glass desk inside her glitzy William Morris Agency office in Manhattan, while she read the manuscript one page at a time, a pair of brass knuckles set out on the desktop, and her rather attractive assistant bringing her a bagel (no cream cheese). Gluck was, is, arguably, the best literary agent in the world. And that is no exaggeration. She took a special interest in Moonlight Falls and I was convinced at the time that all my problems were solved. But it was not to be. In the end, that big ass advance I hadn't earned out at Delacorte plagued me like a bad shadow and even she couldn't sell it. I had no choice but to go with a small publisher.

Said small publisher treated me very kindly, but as time went on and the manuscript was whipped into someone else's editorial vision, it sort of lost it's original gritty vision in order to become more attractive to a wider audience. But only now, nearly ten years after I first started writing it, is my original vision of the manuscript available for both new readers and Zandri completests. It's hard-boiled, it's noir, it's romantic suspense, it's raw, it's sexy, it's bad ass, and yeah, it's as close to the original version Ms. Gluck read inside her office with me staring at her, wondering if she was single (she wasn't).

So, without further rumination, for the first time in a long time, I give to you, MOONLIGHT FALLS (EXTENDED EDITOR'S CUT EDITION)...

 Also, check out the original MOONLIGHT FALLS TRAILER

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM


     

PULP! The Boxed Set!

Boxed sets that contain a few novels and hundreds of thousands of words seem to be all the rage these days. So I decided to jump into the deep end and put out my first boxed collection of Two Novels and a Novella that will Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat. At least, that's supposed to be the point of PULP!

The collection contains:

1. Moonlight Sonata (A Dick Moonlight PI Thriller)
2. The Shroud Key (A Chase Baker Thriller)
3. Full Moonlight (A Dick Moonlight PI Novella)

So without further verbal bloodletting, here's where you can get yours for your Kindle: Pulp!

I'm pricing it at .99 for a limited time so I hope you take advantage. And don't forget to Join Up with the Vincent Zandri "For Your Eyes Only" Newsletter at WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM



 

Survivor Man

This blog was originally featured this week at bestselling crime author, C.J. West's Suspense. Creativity. Action.

The year was 2005 and I was at my wick’s end.

What had started out as a stellar literary career of writing crime novels for a Random House imprint to the tune of 200K a pop in advance money, went south due to a corporate merger. I had published two books that were going nowhere and, at the same time, gotten involved in a ghost writing project that, while sending me around the world on a fact finding mission on the client’s dime, nearly drove me towards a nervous breakdown when it came time for the actual writing. Imagine writing for someone who is constantly telling you, “You can’t write that piece of dialogue. My friend George Bush won’t like it.” That’s the kind of vice tightening madness I was up against.

I was broke from a protracted divorce, without a home I could call my own, no money in the bank, considerable debt, no book contracts, no work, nothing. I had recently remarried and it was not going well. Instead of being a good and decent husband, I spent most of my nights staying up until the wee hours, stressing, plotting, but mostly just feeling sorry for myself. Things got so bad, my wife asked me to move out. I loved her more than any woman in the world. And because I loved her, I did what she asked of me. I moved out.

A couple of months later I woke on a cold Christmas morning. The kids were already up, but I decided I didn’t want to have a Christmas that year. So I stayed in bed until everyone had opened their gifts. When I finally emerged from my bedroom sometime that late afternoon, I went immediately to the refrigerator and cracked open a beer. I also lit up a cigarette. I stood there at the sink, staring at the beer and the blue smoke rising up from the cigarette. I knew I had reached a pivotal moment in my life. I could either slide down that slippery slope towards certain protracted death. Or, I could somehow make the effort to get my life back together.  

I’m not sure what came over me at that very moment in time, but I put out the cigarette and dumped the beer. I apologized to my family over missing Christmas and then I put on my running clothes and went for a long jog on that cold December afternoon.

The next day I went back to work. Since it was going to be a while until I could manage another book contract, I went back to the beginning, so to speak. I went back to the same kind of freelance journalism and freelance writing that had originally sustained me back when I was just starting out. It took some time, but I eventually scored gigs with some global publications. I worked so hard at it day in and day out, that within the year I was working for RT, Russia’s English speaking 24 hour global satellite news network. I found myself writing news pieces, professional blogs and photographing in places like West Africa, Moscow, Italy, Paris and other destinations. I also secured some much needed bread and butter work with some trade journals that specialized in architecture, building, and design. Suddenly, I was paying my rent and putting some money away. I’d even managed to pay up most of my debt. Not bad considering when I moved out of my house my wife loaned me fifty bucks in order to start a checking account.

I wasn’t only writing journalism at the time. I was also stealing an hour or so a day to work on the new novel that would become Moonlight Falls. To my surprise, an agent willingly took it on, and while I was still more or less blackballed by the majors for having not earned out my original $250K advance, she secured a contract with a small publisher. I couldn’t have been happier. I was not only back as a professional writer and journalist, I had a new book coming out.

I was so encouraged by my humble but serious success that I started taking even more time out to write fiction. That next year I wrote The Remains, The Concrete Pearl, and then Moonlight Rises. Those got picked up by one of the hottest indie publishers in the business. In the meantime, my agent managed to re-acquire the rights to my Random House books, The Innocent and Godchild. My new publisher agreed to republish them also. By the fourth year of my career rebuilding and re-commitment to excellence, I had sold more than one-hundred thousand copies of The Innocent and nearly the same for Godchild. The Remains would go on to sell at least as many. Almost all of these sales were e-book sales, which meant the books would never go out of print. In the end, I sold so many books I would have earned out my Random House advance.

Enter year six. With my new sales record and the income that was coming in along with it, I found myself with a new agent. That agent was able to repackage Vincent Zandri and acquire an eight book, “very nice deal” with arguably the hottest and potentially most powerful new major publisher on the block: Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. I had come full circle.

It took six full years to overcome the hump, or slump if you will, that began with a simple corporate restructuring. No matter what you call it, it still resulted in my having been served a crap sandwich. But there’s a major lesson to be learned here. As bad and personally directed as it all seemed at the time, my situation wasn’t unique. This business is fraught with disappointments and stumbling blocks too numerous to mention here. It’s not a matter of avoiding them since you can’t possibly avoid them all, but a matter of positioning yourself so that you can deal with them without having to take too many steps backwards.

Sure I have the major deal again but unlike the last time, I have set myself up so that I am never without a writing income, should one of my sources go south. How can you do the same?

--Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If you’re a journalist and/or freelance writer, try and maintain a client or two, even if your books are making you a nice living. The money will be welcome, and it will keep your journalism skills sharp.

--Don’t rely on one method of publishing. Acquire major, traditionally-based independent, and self publishing contracts. This is an ever changing business and what seems like an awesome major contract today can become a real dog tomorrow.

--Ally yourself with a very good agent. He or she will secure you work should you need it. And of course, they will sell your movie, TV, and foreign rights.

--Take care of yourself. I still like to drink beer and wine, but I never again touched another cigarette after that one dreadful Christmas day nearly seven years ago now. I run and lift on a daily basis and I love to cook good food.

--Travel. See the world and write about it. This will re-energize the batteries and give you a global perspective, the least of which is this: the world and the universe does not revolve around you.

--If you’re in bad relationship that prohibits your making a success of yourself as a writer, get out of it. My second wife saw the destructiveness of our relationship and she made the difficult decision to end it while we still had love for one another and even a friendship. Today, I have my life back together and we are once more a couple. But this relationship is so different from what we had before, that she seems like an entirely new woman to me. And as for me, I’m an entirely new man. I’ve learned from my mistakes and turned a disaster into a success. More importantly, I’ve grown up. And in doing so, I survived the slump. 

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

The Red Pill

Swallow the red pill and discover how deep the rabbit hole goes.

It's the moment I've been waiting for, for nearly ten years now.
The moment 5 of my my in-print books and 3 brand new books get republished with a really big house that knows how to sell books (and that's saying it rather lightly). It's the moment I've worked for since my split with Random House. The moment I've honed and sharpened in my mind with each book I wrote and each publication that rose up the charts with some really great small presses and indie publishers like my brothers and sisters at StoneHouse/StoneGate Ink.

I've put up with empty bank accounts, broken relationships, too many sleepless nights, ugly book signings, and at times a hopelessness and an anxiety so profound it was crippling. But then I've also had the great fortune of having enjoyed a creative well that is at present 7 years deep and doesn't show any signs of drying up.

I've enjoyed some nice relationships, met a bunch of new friends, traveled to some distant and exotic lands both as a journalist and novelist, and even been blessed with being reunited with the same woman who inspired me all those years ago. I've seen my bank account refill and I've watched my books go from selling hundreds per year to selling hundreds of thousands.

Next year at this time, I will have sold more than a million copies of my in-print hard-boiled novels. That to me is mind boggling, but a reality nonetheless. A new kind of surreality.

So life has changed for me. And now, in this hinterland between past and future, I await a brand new life filled with publishing possibilities and creative works I never would have dreamed up a dozen years ago when I signed my first major contract. I no longer think on a local level. I think globally and I write for a global audience. My books will never go out of print. The antiquated system of returns means nothing to me now that my novels are being published not only in paper, but ebook and audio.

It's a new world I'm about to enter into. I've swallowed the red pill, and I'm passing through a new doorway that will show me where the rabbit hole goes. 

Listen up on September 4th 2012 when the long pause becomes the big bang!

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM 

 

Your Worst Nightmare

What's your worst nightmare?
Is it being all alone, hopelessly lost in a dark and cold place?
Maybe it's snakes crawling all over you?
Maybe it's being hunted down by a psychotic killer in the deep woods. A devil. A demon.
Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are afraid of the demons that reside inside your head.

If you are afraid of all these things, then you know exactly what it is to be Jude Parish,
former violent crimes detective turned bestselling true crime author.

Jude is being hunted by a video game designer who is also a serial killer.
And before the hunter finishes the violent game of cat and mouse he starts with the entire Parish family in the deep, unrelenting Adirondack woods of Lake George, New York, he will catch their screams.

SCREAM CATCHER: The New Psychological Suspense Thriller from the No. 1 International Bestselling Amazon Kindle Author, Vincent Zandri.  

Praise for SCREAM CATCHER: 

"Vincent Zandri and Scream Catcher are Champions!!!! ” CMash  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement  "The writing is excellent with vivid descriptive writing that will make you feel the powerful emotions of the story. ” M. Vasquez  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement  "Suspense lovers, I highly recommend this book! ” ReviewsByMolly  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement

CATCH SCREAM CATCHER HERE: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005KAE4KW/ref=nosim/theplanningsh-20

 

CATCH THE EXCITING VIDEO TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tix2CNcaxIo

 

 

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

The Brazill Connection: Noir Author Paul Brazill Speaks Out

 "Hey barkeep, give me another and make it a double. I just read another Zandri novel."

It's amazing how small the world is becoming, and how with the advent of social media and digital publishing, like-minded people (oh shit, I mean "Peeps" in the vernacular of the historical present) are now able to gravitate together to form a kind of family. Noir author and hard-boiled writer Paul Brazil is a member of my family or tribe, even though I have never met him in the flesh and he is an Englishman who lives in Poland. He is a brother/sibling, along with the likes of Heath Lowrance from Detroit (actually, I think it's possible that Heath and Paul are the same man, but I have no way of verifying this), Les Edgerton from Indiana, Ben Sobieck from Wisconsin, Enzo Body Cold and Alessandra Bucheri from Rome (Ok, I've had the pleasure of meeting the latter two this past Spring), and so many more. 

Paul has been responsible for putting together some great collections of short hard-boiled fiction, not the least of which is the popular Drunk on the Moon series and Brit Grit. He is an award winning novelist and short story writer and just an all around great noir afficianado and dude knows way more about the dark world I try to inhabit everyday through my little books and stories than I ever will know. Today he speaks to us about TV. Gritty crime dramas coming at you from both sides of the big drink (Atlantic Ocean, that is). Admittely, I haven't seen any of them since I rarely do TV, but now that I've read the blog that follows I am going to make a point of taking a peak. Who knows, I might actually find something here that's as good as the old Rockford Files series. It's got to be good of Paul Brazill recommends it.

Guest Blog: U S Grit – In Praise Of Southland

by Paul D. Brazill

There’s been a lot of talk about Brit Grit recently- usually from me - and, more specifically, Brit Grit television - edgy, realistic crime drama such as  Cracker, Gangsters and Luther.

The US has also been deservedly praised for producing great crime shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad, of course.

But one show that I think is due more praise and attention is surely TNT’s Southland – a cinema verite look at the rough and tumble lives of a group of LAPD police officers that was created by Emmy Award winning Anne Biderman.

I’ll admit that I only discovered Southland quite recently. I’m a fan of the film director Allison Anders, so I sought out a couple of the shows that she directed.

And it was great, raw, fast paced – and yes, gritty -stuff. Despite a slightly cheesy voice over at the start, as in other sharp American crime shows – like Justified - there was more of human life packed in one breathless 40 minute episode than most series.

But like most great television, you need to see more than the occasional episode. You need to get into it. To let it ferment.

And of late I was lucky enough to see all of Southland Season Four. And beaut stuff it was too.

Heart in the mouth tension. Realistic characters and situations. Sharp dialogue. Great performances – particularly from Michael Cudlitz, Regina King and C. Thomas Howell. Lucy Liu even guested and showed herself to be a cracking character actor.

So, if you want a short, sharp shock of US Grit, check out Southland. You won’t be disappointed.

Bio: I was born in England and now live in Poland. I started writing flash fiction and short stories at the end of 2008.  

I've since had bits and bobs published in various magazines and anthologies, including CrimeFactory, Burning Bridges, Action, Beat To A Pulp, Needle, A Twist Of Noir, Radgepacket and The Mammoth Book Of Best British Crime 8. 

I've also had two short but perfectly formed collections published -13 Shots Of Noir (Untreed Reads) and Snapshots (Pulp Metal Fiction).  

Oh, and I've edited two anthologies - True Brit Grit – with Luca Veste -(Guilty Conscience) and Drunk On The Moon (Dark Valentine Press). Times.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Finger on the Trigger

"I'm writing full-time now...and no one can stop me..."

If you're going to try, go all the way.

Maybe you're a novelist working exclusively with the Amazon KDP self-publishing program and what started out as just a kind of curious, let's-see-what-happens thing turned into, I'm-making-enough-in-royalties-now-to-pay-the-mortgage-and-all-my-bills kind of thing.

Or maybe you're like me, a novelist and journalist who stresses the importance of utilizing not just one method of publication, but all three: Major, traditionally-based indie, and self-publishing.

Whatever the case, you've gone from obscure nobody to enjoying a profitable fan base in a relatively short amount of time. Now you find yourself getting up in the morning, getting dressed and hustling off to work, and all the time there's this voice inside your head saying, "Quit the day job. You don't need it anymore."

But will the royalties keep on coming?
Will your desire and ability to write good novels last?
Will changes in an ever volatile e-book market affect your sales?
Or have you simply gotten really lucky over the past couple of years and now the luck is about to run out?

The answer is yes and no.

The only guarantee for a the full-time writer is that there are no guarantees.

So what are you going to do? Are you going to play it safe and keep the day job? Or is that letter of resignation already locked and loaded in your email, your index finger tickling the Enter key. Your finger on the trigger...

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

   

How My Books Are Born

"Awww, I've got so many stories to tell..."

A prominent lit blogger has asked me to pen a guest blog that details the-story-behind-the-story so to speak of all my books. Talk about an intimidating task, and considering this is a blog and not paid journalism, I'm more inclined to lean towards brevity and my humble wits than get into something that could arguably take a few days and cover an expanse of at least twenty thousand words.

So the question looms large. How are my books born?

My first novel, Permanence, a literary romantic/suspense/thriller (did you get all that?) is a fictional recounting of my my honeymoon to Italy and something I overheard about a psychiatrist who entered into what would be a fatal love affair with a disturbed client. "Wow, I gotta write that one," I remember telling myself as I wiped the peach fuzz from my chin. It was the spark that lit the fire. I was a young literary neophyte and convinced I would set the world on fire with my words.

Course, it took a while for the fire to start. But it's still burning and I'm still stoking it with my follow-up novels like The Innocent, Godchild, The Remains, The Concrete Pearl, Moonlight Falls, Moonlight Rises and the whole kit and kaboodle Moonlight Collection. More traditional gumshoe novels with quirky and sometimes brooding protagonists...anti-heroes...who on occasion find themselves doing some pretty bad things in order to do what's right and to uncover the truth behind a series of lies and injustices. Characters inspired by the authors who came before, like Robert B. Parker, Jim Crumley, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben and others.

The Innocent is derived from the real-life story of a prison escape that occurred at Green Haven Prison and also the Attica uprisings of the early 1970s. The Moonlight stories, however, are mostly made up. The product of my vivid imagination and love of over-the-top plot lines. They are inspired by Charlie Huston, one of the contemporary noir greats. Also, Boston Terrain, another contemporary great.

I'm currently working on two more novels. Moonlight Sonata...again, entirely made up...and Aziz, a fiction based upon a truth I overheard about an American officer who becomes a casualty in Afghanistan after ordering an airstrike on a Tajik village. Now in Venice with his fiancee nursing his wounds, which also include unexplained bouts of temporary or hysterical blindness, he finds himself in the desperate position of having to find and rescue his future bride when she goes suddenly missing.

I guess Aziz means I'm back to combining the literary with the thriller and romantic suspense genres. Which means I've come full circle. But then, that's what writers do. Invent and reinvent and steal from what's happening in the world around us. Capturing a portrait of the truth and reinventing it for the page like Monet reinvented a garden scene for the canvass, and in doing so making it more real than than God intended.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

 

Change is Good

Change.

It's sometimes difficult to accept. Just ask Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo who claims, "The Amazon threat is real." In an interview with Publishers Weekly, he blames Amazon for putting the independent bookstores out of business. But the fact is Rich, indies have put themselves out of business, in part by adhering to a an antiquated system of returns. I've had books published by majors and small presses. While my "big" books were carried by the independent bookstores for as long as they sold, the independent books stores were always uncomfortable with the small press productions. They feared that my the titles might be "POD" and therefore "unreturnable." In fact, they would often sell my small press efforts "On consignment only."

I assume Richard Russo doesn't have to worry about returns.

Now that the digital age of E-Books is here and I am selling hundreds of thousands of them per year, I also no longer have to worry about returns. Sure my stuff comes out in paper and audio, but readers are embracing change. They are reading more than ever and they are devouring E-Books.

I'm sorry for independent booksellers. I used to love to browse the shelves to see what was new by my favorite authors. But later on, when I became an author myself, I could see the writing on the table: I wasn't going to survive for very long in a system of returns that allowed for booksellers to remove my product from their shelves after only a few weeks. It also meant that being published by a small press was useless. If I were to survive, I needed to be published by a major legacy publisher. Only then could I guarantee that my books would be carried by all the stores.

Now I am published by Thomas & Mercer. I couldn't be happier. They not only know how to produce a great book, they know how to sell directly to the reader. Amazon embraced change because readers were begging for that change. Amazon hasn't put booksellers out of business so much as they have liberated authors from the chains and bonds of a system that crushed us.

Yes, Richard Russo, the Amazon threat is real.

Thanks God almighty....

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Fictional Lives

Admit it, you've always wanted to create a fictional life for yourself. It's why we become writers. Or, one of the reasons anyway. So we can make shit up and live in a world outside of the two slices of white bread we've been handed.

So here's your chance to really get creative.

Don't just invent one and two dimensional characters to conveniently fit your story. Create real, three dimensional people who have real lives. Before you write the first word or sentence of your new book, take one full day and create character bios. When was your character born? How much did he or she weigh? Where did he go to grammar school? High School? Who did he take to the senior prom? How many times was he beaten to a bloody pulp up in Juvy? That sort of thing.

You might not use a one-tenth of the information your create in the lives of your characters for your novel, but just knowing who they are, inside and out, will create a richer, more complex, more entertaining novel.

So tell me, who are you going to invent today?  

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Wake Up!

There are days when you wake up and go through the motions.
You brush your teeth, splash some water on your face, put on your clothes, stand in line to grab a lottery ticket and a coffee, and head out to a job you hate. It could be a rainy Monday like today. You think neither of the past nor of the future. You exist to exist, and if for no other reason than your heart beats and your lungs breathe. And oh yeah, you're in debt.

But on occasion, perhaps once every few years, if you are very lucky and if you still have hopes and dreams no matter your age, you wake up and something quite extraordinary happens. You realize that you are beginning a brand new phase of life. That this morning, this very minute, is the beginning of something entirely new that will bring with it, new adventures, new places to see, new people to meet, new experiences and challenges that will both test your body and soul, and cleanse it.

You begin to live unconditionally, no longer burdened by other people who hurt you, drag you down, spread bad toxic vibes, shower you with guilt, sink their greedy teeth into you, laugh behind your back, plot, steal, lie, and cheat. These are the gluttons. The blind people who go nowhere and live only within the scope and range of their envy. They are poison and you are not obligated to tolerate them no matter their connection. They live sad and will die bitter.

This wake up moment will be one of complete clarity and peace. You will leave the past's successes and failures behind like a book you've finally finished reading and now placed on the shelf beside so many other books. You take a deep breath and you begin the day knowing you are reborn and that today is your first day of a brand new cycle. Your birthday so to speak. A clean slate

Make plans.
Have hopes.
Dream.
Buy plane tickets.
Get in the car and drive.
Take a train.
See the world.
Write a new book
Quit your job.
Leave the bills unpaid.
Get out of a bad relationship.
Be alone.
Realize that you have only one chance.
Help people.


Wake up!

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Immortality or Worm Food?

Love him or hate him, Ernest Hemingway is hot these days. More than fifty years after his death by self-inflicted gunshot wound, the ever prodigal Papa is once more showing up in films and new books. Most notably in Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris and presently in HBO's Hemingway and Gellhorn.

It all makes me wonder: what makes one writer immortal and another forgotten almost as soon as his or her body becomes food for the worms?

Hemingway was a romantic individual. Handsome, big, outspoken, he was an adventurer, traveler, and a fan of the ladies. He also had a real cool name. One wonders if the author would have become a phenom had his name been Irwin Lipschtiz. But no matter what's in a name, his work was groundbreaking, especially the early stories that came together collectively in the 1924 volume, In Our Time.

I think it's possible that good writing might not be enough to make one immortal. Like Norman Mailer (who followed the Hemingway macho, bad boy line pretty closely), or even Elizabeth Gilbert (who has become a dynamic and charismatic speaker aside from a mega-bestseller), it's important that a writer also develop a cult of personality in order to achieve the kind of fame that will last and last.

Are seeking immortality in your writing?  Or as a writer, are you seeking the immortal?

 www.vincentzandri.com

"Bond...James Bond..."

Here it is...My first DIY expereince...and certainly not the last.

As most of you already know, I've been away since the first week of March and only arrived back in New York a couple of days ago. Not only have I been living six hours ahead of EST, I experienced two back to back daylight saving "spring aheads." Add to that flying from Paris to California and then back to New York, three days later, and you can see why I'm awake all night and asleep all day. I am however, getting back into my normal writing schedule.

A few things have happened since I've been overseas. My books THE REMAINS and THE INNOCENT both made the rise back into the Top 200 over-all Amazon Kindle Bestsellers, the latter coming within a short hair of breaking the Top 100. This just goes to show you that E-Books can have many, many runs up and down the Amazon bestseller list. Perhaps an infinite amount of runs. In the old days, you had one run at the top and that was about it. Now anything is possible with a bookshelf that contains infinite space.

The State Department has filed their suit against the Big 6 (or is it Big 5?) for colluding on E-Book prices. Indie expert J.A. Konrath has the story here. To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure I understand the ins and out of this "Agency Model" suit. But as writer who was originally groomed for the construction business, I certainly know what "collusion" means. And it ain't good. All I know is that Random House nearly ruined my career once and that in itself is crime enough. If these companies did indeed collude to fuck over writers, I hope the judicial system tosses the book at them.

Thomas & Mercer, my new powerhouse publisher and Amazon Publishing imprint, has just acquired a whole bunch of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. More specifically, the publisher has acquired E-Rights having snatched them right out of Penguin's hands. The enthusiastic and future-thinking spokesperson for the Fleming estate had this to say about Amazon's ability to place their books in a position to outsell any other publisher on the planet: “We believe that Amazon Publishing has the ability to place the books back at the heart of the Bond brand, balancing traditional publishing routes with new technologies and new ways of reaching our readers.”

Can you say, "Bond...James Bond...?" In any case, I'll drink to that. A dry martini. Shaken, not stirred. 

I've been invited to attend the BEA in New York City this June by Amazon Publishing, and I was honored to accept the invite. It takes place June 5-7 and should be a very exciting opportunity to rub elbows with the best of the best in the ground zero of literary success. I hope to run into some old friends and make some new ones, and of course, to push my new novels, BLUE MOONLIGHT and MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, both coming in December from Thomas & Mercer. 

Finally, the re-publication of my 1995 literary novella, PERMANENCE, is about to become a reality. And for the first time ever, I am putting one of my out-of-print novels out on my very own. Yup, I'm about to self-publish through Amazon's KDP program. Makes me kind of proud and nervous at the same time. But I see this as the first in many books, novellas and short stories I will be publishing through Bear Media while continuing to publish traditionally with my indie and major publishers.

It's Spring in New York. A really great time to put pen to paper. I have a lot of stories to tell this year and while I've begun some, I'm having a hard time holding others back. I only have two hands to work with. But it's nice and comforting to know that the stories are still in me no matter who publishes me and how.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM    

So Little Time, So many Words

"Die hippy!"

I haven't had the chance to blog as much as I would to like lately. I'm in the middle of the rewrite for the third book in what will eventually be five books and five total rewrites as a part of my new seven book deal...

....Ummmm you following me here.

Suffice to say I'm so over the top busy I'm not sure if it's Sunday or Wednesday. Things are so frantic I sometimes feel like Dirty Harry trying to answer all those pay phones for that creepy hippy kidnapper/assassin dude on the streets of San Fransisco. But also like Harry, what I have to ask myself is this: "Do I feel lucky?"

I do feel lucky. Because this kind of frantic is a good kind of frantic. The new book deal kind of frantic. It's what we all wish for as writers.

As for the schedule: I have one more solid month at home and then I start traveling again. In that time I will have gone over and addressed the content edits for my noir thrillers Moonlight Rises, Blue Moonlight, Murder by Moonlight, Concrete Pearl and The Remains. The Innocent and Godchild have already undergone an extensive content edit when they were with Delacorte and Dell respectively, so no use in putting them through the ringer again. Naturally all these books will be copy-edited once more and what were some pretty big blunders in previous editions will no doubt be corrected. Hey, we're talking the majors here.

What this means for now is that Vincent Zandri, Noir Author is about to take a short Winter's nap (after hitting the gym) and then another couple hours of work. But then I'll take in some playoff football and cheer along my New York Football Giants as they crush the San Fransisco 49's ("You feeling lucky punks?".

It's good to take time off from the writing game in order to recharge. But sometimes you need to meet your deadlines. That's the life. As writers, these are the pressures we so crave. And it still beats having to get up in the morning to go to a job.

Hey Harry, if the phone rings, don't answer it!

Stay tuned....

GET MORE VINCENT ZANDRI, NOIR AUTHOR BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

MOONLIGHT RISES Reviewed in Denver Examiner

Writer Zack Kopp reviews Moonlight Rises...



The second full-length novel in the continuing Richard "Dick" Moonlight series by Vincent Zandri has been released by StoneGate Ink in Kindle, Nook, and all e-Book forums, available via your Tattered Cover and other retailers. Private eye Dick Moonlight is really dead this time, see. Three thugs in black wearing Obama-masks and communicating with hand-held voice synthesizers pressed against their voice boxes appeared from nowhere and beat him to death in a dark alley in downtown Albany, NY. But why? And forwhat reason! They demanded a mysterious box, see, of unknown proportions the likes of which he’s never heard about. WHAT box?!! They insist he cut all ties with his latest client: a disabled nuclear engineer of Russian heritage by the same of Peter Czech. Is he really from Ruissia? Moonlight can’t be sure, see. It hardly matters, now that he’s dead. Private Eye Dick Moonlight has a blissful out of body experience, his soul floating above his ruined mess of a body inside the Albany Medical Center I.C.U. whereon his one true love, Lola, is standing by his bedside, see.

But then something happens, see. Something bad. This young punk rambles into the I.C.U, see, he takes Lola’s hand, and draws her into a loving embrace over the limp Dick Moonlight. What seemed at first like a sweet peaceful death now causes Moonlight to struggle to reenter his body so he can stare down Some Young Guy and avenge himself, see. The pain of his battery is worsened by the pain of his breaking heart. Even so, as a hardened private dick, Moonlight wants to find out the true identity of those thugs who killed him, see, and decides his bruised and broken body is the perfect place to lay low for a while and pick up information. Yeah, see. Surely he’s not really dead, given the title. Does he come back to life? Will he spring into action, clubbing down attackers with balled fists? And what about those crazy masks? Is this is a political book? Hah. Life sucks, then you die. But Moonlight Rises

To read original review: http://www.examiner.com/books-in-denver/book-review-moonlight-rises-by-vincent-zandri-review

To grab Moonlight Rises: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005HB16Y6/ref=nosim/theplanningsh-20