Clerical Error: out now

Clerical Error is out.

This one is going to be interesting.

There are no fights.

There are no explosions.

There are no ... okay, there's one murder.

Maybe one or two people are just a wee bit injured.

But no one is shot. Or stabbed. Or poisoned. 

A lot of this book falls under your traditional cozy. There's a lot of talking and maneuvering. There's a lot of local politicking and environment...

It helps that this is a historical novel dealing with local issues and murder in 1976.

James is a college philosophy professor with too much time on his hands. When an old classmate asks for a favor, he drops in with little notion of what’s ready for him.

The year is 1976, during the dark times – for both the Catholic Church and New York City.

James’ college classmate is Father Gus Sadowski, the pastor of Saints Gabriel, Columcille, and Rocco church in the middle of Bed-Sty, where there drive by criminals are on one side of the parish, and the mob is one the other. Father Gus is all alone to run the parish, and needs some help – because the live-in priest in the attic, Father Timothy A. Lessner, is worse than useless.

When Lessner takes a tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night, the casual favor has turned into a nightmare.

Can James solve the mystery of who killed Lessner before he finds himself the main suspect?

So, obviously, this is different for me.

The joke I've been using has been "If things go wrong, I'll just blame the co-author."

Since the co-author is my father, that's part of the joke.

Anyway, it's out. I think you can even return e-books if you don't like them. So give it a shot.

Be well all.

Pre-Order, NEW RELEASE: Clerical Error

So it's time to talk about a new release.

No, not something from Silver Empire -- much to my publisher's relief. 

This is something from the distant past, brought to you by someone who was there.

Obviously, any similarities between real persons or events is completely coincidental. Wink. Wink.

Enter: Clerical Error.

And, I have a new co-author.

Dr. John Konecsni is a veteran of academia for decades. Primarily teaching philosophy or shuffling papers in a college office.

Who is this man and why is he important?

First of all, he's my father.

... What? You thought I magically managed to have been born with as cool an author name as Declan Finn?

Second of all, he is my co-author on Clerical Error.

Clerical Error is what you might call a "cozy." It's a nice, laid-back murder mystery, without a lot of running around and shooting. In fact, more of the book is almost a comedic historical set piece, back in the sands of time that were the 1970s.

Let's just say that Dr. Konecsni spent a lot of time in Bedford-Stuyvesant, aka, Bed-Sty, hanging out with a college classmate of his.

The classmate happened to be the pastor of a church.

And the "hanging out" meant becoming an assistant pastor for the entire parish.

Take all that together, add a dead body, and you have the plot of Clerical Error.

James is a college philosophy professor with too much time on his hands. When an old classmate asks for a favor, he drops in with little notion of what’s ready for him.

The year is 1976, during the dark times – for both the Catholic Church and New York City.

James’ college classmate is Father Gus Sadowski, the pastor of Saints Gabriel, Columcille, and Rocco church in the middle of Bed-Sty, where there drive by criminals are on one side of the parish, and the mob is one the other. Father Gus is all alone to run the parish, and needs some help – because the live-in priest in the attic, Father Timothy A. Lessner, is worse than useless.

When Lessner takes a tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night, the casual favor has turned into a nightmare.

Can James solve the mystery of who killed Lessner before he finds himself the main suspect?

I came along, edited the book, added a few touches, and thought it was more than good enough to publish.

Clerical Error is up for pre-order.

And anything else I've got up for sale can be found here.

Pius Writing

Over the years on this blog, I've talked a lot about how A Pius Man came about, and I've muttered about some of my research on it. I've talked about the characters, and their biographies, and their progress from being a biography to being a real person I play with in my head.

I don't think I've ever mentioned my thought process behind the evolution of the novel.

You see, once upon a time, I considered writing a murder mystery in the Vatican. I made the head of security an Irish redhead who had family with the IRA. I was going to murder a bishop or a Cardinal or something like that. I had a Hispanic Pope named Hector (I don't recall the Papal name), and a few other loose elements kicking around. I may have had a whole page of notes.

Obviously, when I started on A Pius Man, that project went the way of the dodo.

However, one thing that stuck was it was going to be a mystery. I wanted everyone to be under suspicion. I wanted everyone to look dark and sinister, and let the reader decide who to trust, and when they could be trusted. I wanted to cheat, like Agatha Christie, and make even the investigators look like they could be in on the plot.

I wanted it look, at first glance, like every other knock off of that idiot that shall not be named.

Not that anyone would know who that is.

**COUGH** **COUGH**

Basically, I wanted it to look like X. Because, hey, if it looks like X, X is a proven formula. X is harmless. X is status quo.

A Pius Man is at once both subversive and superversive. Superversive in content, but I totally intend to subvert the status quo of X stories.

Obviously, as the first 4-5 chapters are released, you're going to have to tell me how much I managed to make A Pius Man look like the stories we've all come to know and loathe, before the story kicks into high gear and becomes a knock-down drag-out thriller.

And of course, as I've mentioned before on this blog, it spiraled. Mostly because one son of a bitch just wouldn't die.

Again, what I intend may not be what you see, but then again, I'm the idiot who thought that Honor at Stake was a light, fluffy throwaway book. So I'm not the best judge of character.

But you are. Tell me what you think when you read it.

So, look interesting enough yet? Just click here, and you can preorder it directly from the publisher at deep discounts. A dollar for the e-book half off for the paperback..

And, if you've done that....

The Dragon Awards are open and ready for nominations, and I have a list of suggestions you might want to take a look at. If you already  have a good idea of what you want, just click here to go and vote for them. The instructions are right there.

Or: sign up for my mailing list in order to get free stuff.

The Love at First Bite series. 

    

Follow That Clue! The Making of a Great Mystery, RavenCon, 2017, 4-29

As promised, I have video from my time at RavenCon.

The description of this panel is

Part of the fun of reading mystery novels is to discover the clues and figure out the resolution before the detective reveals what happened. As an author, how does one make sure the clues are planted properly without falling into the Holmesian trap of keeping the main clue hidden from the reader.

With
Jeanne Adams (Moderator)
Declan Finn (Yellow Jacket)
Jack McDevitt (on the far end)
Darin Kennedy (in the middle)

Enjoy.

For those people who like a good mystery, here are two I suggest.

The Dragon Awards are open and ready for nominations, and I have a list of suggestions you might want to take a look at. If you already  have a good idea of what you want, just click here to go and vote for them immediately. The instructions are right there.

Or: sign up for my mailing list in order to get free stuff.

The Love at First Bite series. 

    

Year in review, 2016

I cannot even begin to cover all of the strangeness that happened out in the world in 2016.

After all, think for a moment ...

Trump won.

The Cubs won.

Army won.

Brian Niemeier won.

I got nominated for a Dragon Award.

I hung out with Jagi and John C. Wright.

Who could have guessed that any of the above would have happened?

Okay, Brian Niemeier was apparently a forgone conclusion, but other than that ...

Okay, I guessed that Hillary would lose, not that Trump would win, but that's nitpicking.

And the body count this year ... yikes. Wikipedia has it here. It looks like a massacre.

And yes, I've been busy as heck.

I've actually come out with six books last year.

Yes, six.

Count with me.

Pius History .... which has now been unpublished, and we'll get there.

For All Their Wars Are Merry -- In August

Sad Puppies Bite Back  -- In September

And the following were all in November.

Codename: UnSub

Set to Kill

Murphy's Law of Vampires

And that's not even counting my rerelease of Honor at Stake last June, remember that?

So, yeah, I've been sort of busy.

Oh, and while I think about it, that's not even all of it. because there's still Silver Empire to deal with.

Don't tell me you've forgotten that one, do you? The deal with Silver Empire is to take everything Pius -- the history volume, the short story collection, the novels -- and rerelease it with ambitious ideas for expansion -- expanding the brand, and for expanding the reach of the books in and of themselves.


Ugh ... so ... yeah ... I've been busy.

By the way, this isn't even counting several other projects I've been working on that I haven't told anyone about. Why haven't I told anyone about them? Well, these are books I'm submitting to a publisher, and the backstory behind the submission I'm not even sure I should be discussing it in public, because it was a private conversation. So, that's about 200,000 words I've been fighting with over the past four months, in an effort to get things in shape for any possible situations that might come up.

What the bleep am I talking about? You'll have to wait a bit to find out.

And, again, as I said -- THIS IS JUST 2016.

Just wait until I discuss what I'm doing tomorrow in the rest of 2017.

Movie Night: A Murder Of Quality

You might recognize some of the men and women in this performance.

This is based off of John Le Carre's novel of the same name, this takes George Smiley, who is "a civil servant" (ie: spy) who is looking into the murder in a small town of the local ... gossip, for lack of a better term. Instead of Alec Guiness -- who played Smiley in the two miniseries from the Carla cycle (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Smiley's people) -- we get Denholm Elliot, known best as Marcus Brody from two Indiana Jones films.

This stars Joss Acklund as a professor, a very young Christian Bale as a student at a local school, and

Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

 

Movie Night: Rehearsal for Murder

This was a made for TV movie from the 80s that was a star-studded mystery, from the actors to the writers.

The writers are Levinson and Link, the men who created Columbo and Jessica Fletcher,

The lead actor is Robert Preston (The Music Man), starring as a writer who suspects that his wife's suicide was really murder. A year after her death, he has assembled the men and women of his wife's final performance in order to not only prove she was murdered, but also prove who did it.

This stars Lynn Redgrave (yes, one of those Redgraves), William Daniels (1776, Night Rider) as the producer, Patrick Macnee (Steed of The Avengers) as the last leading man she worked with, as well as a very, uh, uh, very, uh, young uhhhhhh, Jeff Goldblum.

This is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing you will ever see. And I know it's not Christmas-themed, but I'm not able to post Die Hard on the blog.

Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below. You might see some similarities in the writing. Heh heh heh.

Movie Night: Death of a Doxy

Another Nero Wolfe novel adapted for A&E many moons ago, Death of a Doxy went a little dark. But then, Nero Wolfe started dark, just look at Fer de Lance.

It also ties in, after a fashion, to A Family Affair, the very last Nero Wolfe novel.

How? Well, read both of them, and find out.






Also, if you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

REVIEWS ARE IN

So, yeah, new reviews, for a little bit of everything.

And they are incredible.

Item the first, Daniel Humphreys really liked Honor at Stake. How can I tell?

"....with Declan Finn’s “Honor at Stake” we have a vampire book that not only hearkens back to the old school, it adds some interesting new twists on the science and mythology of the vampire plague while still remaining firmly focused on the cast of characters who inhabit Mr. Finn’s world.

....Marco has a bit of Mary Sue syndrome to him at first, though Finn does an excellent job of slowly drawing out deeper aspects of his personality, and leaves us with an interesting cliffhanger at the end that will leave you wondering what lies beneath in terms of the character.

....If you’re looking for a great entry point in a new series, ‘Honor at Stake’ is highly recommended. Five stars."

So ... yeah, I think he liked it You can buy the book here.

And then there's Lori Bird. You might remember that Lori originally reviewed Honor at Stake for The Catholic Geeks last year.

This year, it got more interesting. This one goes on for a bit, but here's the most interesting part of the review on Murphy's Law of Vampires, for me.

"Actually, I decided about halfway through that if Larry Correia had been smart, he wouldn’t have asked John Ringo to write Monster Hunter: Grunge.  He’d have gotten Declan to do it, because when it comes to writing about badass, almost-bad-guy good guys with exceptional loads of snark, Declan Finn completely outran John Ringo.  No joke.

He was running so fast, it was like John Ringo was encased in cement and being dragged in the other direction by a freight train.

I would pay a small fortune to have read the Declan Finn version of Monster Hunter: Grunge.  Sorry, Ringo."

Wow. She even went out of her way to compare me to Ringo, and deemed me better.... huh.

So, yes, she liked it.

And then, there are these two reviews on Set to Kill, one by Dragon Award Nominee Marina Fontaine, and the other by the Injustice Gamer.

Marina's thoughts...

Take an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Make it THREE murder mysteries. 

Replace the middle-aged Inspector with a security expert who happens to be a martial arts guru/all-around killing machine ....

Stick it into the naturally insane environment that is the world's largest Sci-Fi/Fantasy con (fictionally renamed WyvernCon).

....Oh and also make it funny enough to qualify as satire.

OK, so maybe it's nothing like an Agatha Christie mystery after all. But it is a darn good read. The reason I was thinking of Christie is because, underneath all the fun and goofiness and inside-baseball sci-fi literary community references, there is a solid plot worthy of an old-fashioned detective novel.....

The pacing is good....The violence is not as plentiful as Declan Finn's fans might expect, but there's still sufficient to keep the adrenaline flowing. The fully fictional characters are well enough developed that you can go into the story cold and still care about what happens to them; and those inspired by real life are easily recognizable while changed up just enough to still fit into a satirical fiction environment.

And all that for only four stars. Heh.

Alfred Genesson, The Injustice Gamer, even broke character for this review.

Ah, I'll drop the facade a little. This book hooked me harder than anything he's written yet, and I really like his previous stuff. The pacing was amazing, all the slow parts had purpose, and the action didn't let up until bodies fell. I didn't feel like there wasn't a wasted word in this book .... I went and read very late when I finished, and I have to get up EARLY for work.  .... I was amazed at what Declan spun out of the cloth of Sad Puppies bite back and Sean Ryan.

So .... wow. Yeah.

These are some amazing reviews. I'm kinda surprised. As usual.

Anyway, you can buy any or all of these here

Honor at Stake
Murphy's Law of Vampires
Set to Kill

And enjoy.

Set to Kill is out, and ready to be Best Related at the Hugos

Heh, yes, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

However, SET TO KILL IS OUT NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW! Enjoy it.

Though, believe it or not, when I was finished with Set to Kill back in ... March, I think? My first thought was, "Maybe I should give it to Vox Day, and it becomes a Rabid Puppy nominee at the 2017 Hugos. Ha!"

That led me to thinking I should run it past Castalia in the first place, which led to a six month oddity ... or odyssey, depending on who's writing it.

Though I must admit, I would be amused if someone decided to nominate this for Best Related anyway. Lord knows that Sad Puppies 4 was an acid trip I didn't anticipate at all.

Heads exploding, though?

That I expected.

Let me allow you in on my plan for the next year. In fact, I'll let you in on what my plan for the publishing schedule is like.

Then he got an idea. An awful idea.
A wonderful, *awful* idea!

Codename: UnSub was published when it was because ... I wanted it off my plate. I wanted it gone. It was around for four years. It was going to happen with or without the Castalia House acceptance of my books.

I wanted Set to Kill released this year because I want it up for Sad Puppies 5 ... Read it, you'll see why.  It is awesome. It is hilarious. And it will be one of the better things I've ever written.

Yes, really. It's that good. It's that awesome. And I'm not even worried about building it up too much. I don't think this one will let down anybody. For the Puppy crowd, they'll get some laughs out of it. For the non-puppy crowd? I think they'll still be rolling in the aisles.

And the Anti-Puppies? That requires that they think of me at all. And I can't imagine that they would. Really.

And yes, I think this is one I want up for consideration. No, I won't be up for a Hugo. I'm not even entirely certain if I'm going to be up for Sad Puppies 5. But either way, I want to see heads explode. And go BOOM. Bwahahahahahaha.

However, what about Murphy's? Don't I want that up for the Hugos?  Well, sure, if someone else wants it, who am I to say no.

But, with my Dragon Award Nominated novel for Best Horror, you'd think that I'd expect another award domination. At least for the Dragon.

Remember, though: books eligible for the Dragon Award go from the start of August to the end of July.

However, while the four reviews all like Murphy's Law of Vampires ... just wait until you read Live and Let Bite (book 3). It is going to be ...

You know what? Live and Let Bite will be so flipping epic, if it doesn't get best Horror at the Dragon Awards, I'll be surprised. It will be the payoff for everything set up in Honor and Murphy's.  Think I'm kidding? Heh heh heh.

You haven't seen anything yet. You think Mister Day was a pain in the ass to kill? You thought he was a threat when he blew up REDACTED buried REDACTED alive and turned into a giant freaking man-eating REDACTED?

Just wait until you meet Nuala.

This? This is going to be AWESOME.

Live and Let Bite should be coming out in early February. The 2017 Dragon Award nominations should be out a few months later, so everyone can soak in the amazing aspects of the book, and vote it for best horror novel.

Yes, that's right. This time, I know what I'm doing. There will be horror. There will be blood.

And, yes, I blow up San Francisco. A lot.

.... Though, now that I think of it? I do have a dystopia novel out ... and there is a best dystopia category...

Well, it's something to think about.

Why not Sad Puppies Bite Back the book? Based on the original blog post from 2015. Not eligible anywhere, I think.

Anyway, as you're reading the following, just consider for the moment....

Murphy's Law of Vampires .... not really up for any awards, unless you think it should be best novel at the Hugos. Which, also, would be hilarious. Though, like with Set to Kill, I can't imagine it happening, and I wouldn't force the issue....

Though, come to think of it, I can't recall any novels this year I would put down as best SF or best Fantasy. Dang it. I know I should. Huh. It'll come to me.

Set to Kill for best related at the Hugo Awards. Just because. (I can't wait to see some read the name Charles RR Martinez. Their heads will explode, even though that's actually the name of a friend of the family ... AND his son. Heh.)

Anyway, there's Codename: UnSub, for best dystopia at the Dragon Awards. I can't think of any opposition, actually ... which would mean something if I actually, you know, READ dystopia as a matter of course.

Then there's Live and Let Bite for best horror novel at the Dragon Awards.  What's that you ask? Why not nominate both Murphy's and Bite at the Dragons? Because that would split the vote. And I can't see winning best fantasy, if only because Jim Butcher might release a novel in the next few months, and I'm just assuming that won't be a 2-ton gorilla, it'll just be King Kong. Nominate Murphy's all you like for best fantasy. It won't win up against Butcher .... but having the name out there would be awesome.

So, that's the plan for Murphy's Law of Vampires ... sort of ... and Set to Kill .... and Live and Let Bite ...  and even UnSub, I guess.

Don't say I can't plan for the future.

2017 will be the year that Declan Finn .... gets a few nominations. I can't promise anything other than that.

You know what? Once more, just for old times sake.....

UNLEASH THE PUPPIES.

The Timing of Codename: UnSub

As I mentioned the other day, Codename: UnSub ate the original book one of The Last Survivors.

Part of that devouring included the missionary priests who came to San Francisco, trained in hostage negotiation and the conversion of the newly disarmed. While we had considered parts of it -- mostly with how to get these people into San Francisco -- we never really talk about where we put them. How do they relate to the rest of the city? How do they make their mark? How do they deal with the Children of Thanatos?

Also, in Codename: Winterborn I made a mention of "the Burners." They set people on fire. That was it. It's the general shallow thinking of every other thug in San Francisco ... and most thugs in real life. It's taken from the concept of Bum Burning. However, most of these burners do not generally gather and operate in gangs. While they were in a throwaway scene in Codename: Winterborn, they are an entire subplot in UnSub as well as a major plot point.

While Codename: Winterborn ended with the beginning of 2094, literally at 12:01 on January 1, that's because I just wanted to end on a high note. Sure, I could have stretched it out with an additional three chapters, but... no, why? The arc in Winterborn's second half was to show exactly how Kevin's actions are the butterfly effect on acid. I established that when the priests showed up en mass. The priests and their side effects are another story.

So, since the chapters I had down were all about the priests and their introduction to San Francisco society, I would use them to introduce the readers to the society. It's a cheap maneuver, basically the Alice in Wonderland effect (or the X-Men film effect, pick one), but it works.

So Codename: UnSub backs up a bit. The prologue takes place right before Kevin meets the priests at the docks. It shows Kevin having a long conversation at arrow point with some burners, setting them up a little better. Chapter 1 takes place just after the priest pickup that is shown in Winterborn. And then we have a heartwarming Christmas chapter....

And then we have a dead body show up down the block from Kevin Anderson's place that's been beaten to death. Because San Francisco.

Why, yes, I have been to San Francisco, and I've had it swarmed by vampires in one series, and a distopian nightmare in another. Why do you ask?

But all in all, the main action in UnSub takes place a few months after the arrival of the priests. They'll be more of an established force within the city by the time the main action kicks into gear.

And then, the stage is set, and we're ready to nuke the entire city straight to hell. BWAHAHAAHAHAH.

Serial killers and Codename: Unsub

I've always been a fan of serial killers.

Okay, mostly, I've been fascinated about them from an early age because they are at both complex and shallow at the same time. They can be a source of infinite evil, especially the ones who grew up in perfectly normal households, and then became Jeffrey Dahmer, or Ted Bundy-ish. A lot of them are broken, but a large block of them are just evil sons of bitches who need to be put down like the rabid dogs they are.

Because no, to understand all is not necessarily to forgive all. Sometimes it just makes it easier to find and kill the little bastards.

Nowadays, the only way to catch a serial killer is to get lucky. Any similarities between real serial killers and Criminal Minds is ... usually in the footnotes of the early episodes, where they told you what serial killer they were stealing from that week.

There's a lot of police work, there's a lot of forensics, and you have to have teams of cops continually drilling down on the manhunt until someone gets lucky. Or good. Usually both. Because the problems of catching serial killers is usually a matter trying together a connection between victims killed (most likely) by a total stranger. In a world where most people are killed in the middle of the night, in their own bedroom, by their nearest and dearest, murder by stranger is a great way to get away with it. Strangers on a Train works for a reason.

When I was designing Codename: UnSub, it was simple: how do you catch a serial killer, trained to be a professional assassin, in a city where half the population is psychotic, and there are no cops?

And then, to up the ante, I made certain that one of the victims has the power to end the world,

But, hey, no pressure.

One of the reasons I wanted to have this be a murder mystery is that mysteries have always been a snapshot of culture, and cultural assumptions. When Sherlock Holmes assumes that a man is a bachelor by a frayed button on a sleeve, it's a bit of a snapshot of 19th century Victorian London.

For Codename: UnSub, I decided that this nightmare San Francisco needed more personality, and more depth. I was going to spell out some of the sects and factions. Because in order to find one killer in a city of killers, Kevin Anderson is going to have to dig through plenty of insanity.

Obviously, I'm not going to get anywhere near as deranged as real life serial killers. There will be none of the Ted Bundy "strangled while being raped" victims. There will be no Dahmer cannibalism or pederasty. There will definitely be no Ed Gein "ashtrays made from human skin." There will be no "stab a victim in the gut and then have penile penetration of the wound."

We're just not going to go there.

There are sadistic murderers, there are sexual sadists. There are hunters who like the stalking of victims and do little about the kill. There are some who really like to take their time.

Though don't worry, if you want something gruesome, I can manage that. I've got a killer who basically likes to beat people to death. And fight them until they fall down. Then drag them to their feet and simply continue breaking things. And then, when they can't stand anymore, continue to break every last bone in the victim's body.

So, hopefully, serial killer fans will not be disappointed in just how much of a sick son of a bitch we have in this one. 

Movie Night: The Doorbell Rang (Nero Wolfe)

I am a fan of Rex Stout's original novels, the A&E show they had broadcast a few years ago, and of Timothy Hutton.

Guess what I tripped over on YouTube lately.

Movie night is BACK.

But if you don't have time for a movie, here, have a new review of Codename: Winterborn.

Movie night: The Detective

So, item one, obviously, the radio show did not go off as planned. I couldn't log into the system, and by the time it was up and running, the show would pretty much be done with.

Anyway, just to make my life easy for five minutes, I'm going to show you a movie. For free.

If you've never heard of GK Chesterton's Father Brown ... have you been living under a rock? Before there was Father Dowling (and you've at least heard of that one, haven't you?) there was Father Brown, created by Chesterton out of thin air.

While there have been some attempts at Father Brown (the most recent evoking the most homicidal reaction from me), this is probably the best. Not because of the accuracy of the scripts to the stories (for that you want the Father Brown as done by Kenneth More) but because of the best execution of character, done by Alec Guiness.

And it's for free on YouTube.

Enjoy

#TBT Flashback Blog: Interview with Ann Margaret Lewis on Murder in the Vatican

Yes, I know it's not Thursday yet, but, well, shut up. It fit the schedule.

In April of 2011, I interviewed the awesome Ann Lewis for the release of her book Murder in the Vatican.

Since then, I am proud, and blessed, to call Ann my friend.

Anyway, I will probably be meeting her as this blog goes live, as I will be in the Catholic Writer's Guild Conference this week. No, I'm not staying away from home. It's only New Jersey.

Also, this Sunday, at 7PM, EST, the awesome, amazing, and wonderful Ann Margaret Lewis will be my guest on The Catholic Geek. And then we're going to have a party.

* * * *

After yesterday's guest blog by the very generous author of Murder in the Vatican, Ann Margaret Lewis, you didn't think things could get better, did you?

Well, they did.

Today, Ann Margaret Lewis has willingly submitted to questions from the A Pius Man blog.

You will notice that some of the questions are numbered differently.  These are questions that came with the press packet that I believed readers of this blog might be interested in.

The questions I came up with are plainly numbered, with no additional lettering ... you'll see what I mean.

So, if you just want to skip to those quesitons I asked, you can ....

Here we go.

Book tour special: "Greater Treasures" Interview with Karina Fabian

Before we begin today's blog properly, there's a little announcement.  A Pius Man can be found on Kindle for Free every Friday this month. Why every Friday? Because I'd like to encourage people to get hooked, and then buy the novel, rather than wait a week for another freebie. The first taste is free, then you have to pay. It works in other marketing environments.

Now, on with the rest of the blog.

Longtime readers will remember Karina Fabian, author of Live and Let Fly, and co-editor of Infinite Space, Infinite God II.

Greater Treasures is a novella set in the Live and Let Fly universe.

The story? Well, it's as follows:

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind. Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

And with that established, let's begin.

Your previous DragonEye books were full novels with small press publishers, and now you're going a different route with a short story. Why the change? 
KF: I have two DragonEye novels—Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem, published by Swimming Kangaroo; and Live and Let Fly by MuseItUp books. I also have numerous DragonEye stories in various anthologies and magazines. I have a few larger stories, however, that are too small for novels but too big for anthologies or magazines. So I’m self-publishing those. It’s not a change, so much as an expansion—another arrow in my publishing quiver.

I love the publishers I’ve worked with and have great respect for them, and I am still submitting to small and big traditional presses.



You've got a lot of different and disparate elements scattered throughout the book. Heavy on religious elements, scattered with scifi tv references, in an atmosphere that's very much The Maltese Falcon. With all that in mind, one must ask: who is your target audience? 

Geeks? How about well-rounded readers of fantasy who enjoy a different approach. I don’t expect everyone to get or appreciate every reference in a story. I know when I read, I don’t, and one of the joys of reading is to discover something new.

I have to ask – how many times did you see The Maltese Falcon before you wrote the story? 
Once while taking notes.

Your world is an alternate world where two worlds – Mundane and Faerie – are connected. Yet you still have real-world events like 9-11 mentioned. What does the history of your universe look like? 
The Mundane world’s history and culture is very similar to our own, and where the Faerie world has changed it, I’ve mostly explored the local level. There’s a nice little nastiness about the Faerie in that they cannot be too far from the Gap for too long or they lose their connection to the magic. It’s fine for the humans, but any magical creatures get ill. (I explored this some in Live and Let Fly.)

The Faerie world has a lot of parallels to ours, but with some major exceptions. Satan and his minions prowl about the world in a very visible way, and the Catholic Church has remained united against them. It’s the only human religion, with the pagan gods (who are actual creatures) having been put in their proper place by the True God. Many of the problems leading to the Protestant Revolution either not happening or solved in-house in light of the fact that there’s an obvious bigger threat we need to stand against. Politically and technologically, they are behind us historically. The Gap connects to an area in England that is a duchy complete with a Duke who, as Vern will tell you, likes to have fun with his authority.


You made a point in the short story to say that dragon's don't have souls “like humans,” and therefore couldn't be converted. How does that work, considering that Vern is quite religious?

Christ died for humans, but that doesn't mean the other Faerie races don’t have souls or religion. They worship differently. In dragon’s case, it’s more of a great appreciation for their creation. They believe that while Man was made in God’s image, Dragon was made from God’s great imaginings. (It also accounts for their superiority complex.) They also have a different morality; for example, eating a lesser being does not count as murder—and all non-dragons are lesser.

Vern is a special case, however. St. George, convinced that the Church needed a dragon on its side, “recruited” Vern, but he did not go willingly. In the end, God through George had taken away just about everything from him—from size to magic—and told him to earn back his former glory, he would have to serve God’s creatures through the direction of the Church. Everything he does toward that end gives him something back; every backslide morally means a backslide physically. After 850 or so years working in the human religious institution, he’s picked up some human habits.

Why use the Lance of Longinus for the plot device? 

The Lance of Longinus is the spear used by the centurion to pierce Christ’s side, and has been sought after as a source of supernatural power in our world for millennia. I needed something with more punch than a bird statue. I don’t remember now why the Lance came to mind, but as I read all the conspiracy theories around it, I loved how it fit into the story.


In the Gap, God seems to take a direct hand in things more often than He does indirect– including an angelic security system. How do you manage the theology of Vern's world?

Carefully. They are more open to miracles and visions there than in the Mundane, but even so, God seldom comes from On High to hurl a lightning bolt. That’s more Zeus’ style.

What's your next project? 

I’m finishing the last book in the Mind Over Trilogy—Mind Over All. The second book, Mind Over Psyche, comes out in September. It’s a fantasy about a young man who claws his way back to sanity after suddenly acquiring psychic abilities. In the second novel, he escapes the mental asylum to another world, where he meets the woman who had been contacting him through visions. He (and his friend and intern who got caught up in the teleport) discover that she, too, is facing visions she cannot handle, and if they want to live, they need to help her understand the visions before they drive her insane.

What are you reading right now? 

I just finished Rapunzel Let Down by Regina Doman. One of the best books I’ve ever read in my life—edgy, griping, and very believable. As you can tell from the title, it’s a modern-day play off the Rapunzel story, but as told by the Brothers Grim. I highly recommend it.

Next, I need to read a biography on a saint for a writing assignment. Haven’t decided who is next; I just finished St. Ignatius of Antioch.


What question would you like me to have asked? 

None come to mind. Actually, it’s refreshing to have some unique questions. Thanks!

Come back tomorrow for the review.

Karina Fabian

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.   

Guest Blog: Murder in the Vatican Author Ann Margaret Lewis.

Welcome to the blog for my novel A Pius Man.

The Good News: No Snarky Theology this week.  After Communion, Lent, Sex, and Evolution, I'm taking a break.

The Even Better News: Today, we have a guest blog from Murder in the Vatican author Ann Margaret Lewis.

Since Murder in the Vatican deals with tales from the Sherlock Holmes canon that involve Holmes working with Leo XIII, I asked if she could blog about history in fiction, religious historical character in fiction, or "something like that".   As you can see, I was very helpful about picking out a topic for her.

The below was the result.

For the record, I have not doctored or altered her text in any way.  In fact, the only "edit" I made was that I asked that she insert some hyperlink footnotes to some of her statements.

And, here we go.

But what is he when he's at Home? Other Novel Ideas.

I've had people in my Real Life tell me that they're confused about what I'm selling at the moment.

I post on my personal pages about what I'm working on, while at the same time inviting them to look over A Pius Man. 

So, it might be a good idea to clear things up.

To do that, I think it's time to allow you a glimpse into my dark, dark mind.

A note on religion, characters, and who do you trust.

Not too long ago, a friend of mine read through the first fifty pages of A Pius Man. She was struck by something odd. The first priest who made an appearance was rather shifty looking. Her note was “is he supposed to look that menacing?”

Answer: Yes.

It occurred to me that I should address something: there might some people who think that, because I'm Catholic, means that A Pius Man is going to have an easy answer: Pope Pius XII was a saint and an action hero who could do no wrong.

This goes double for those who believe that, just because I go do church every Sunday, I must be super Catholic. (I have a disturbing vision of me in a cape that's Lenten purple. I then desire to acid wash my brain) Believe it or not, I have had people tell me this, to my face, even though it's more or less a minimum requirement.

If you fall into any of the above categories, then, good, that means you'll be surprised for most of the book.