LIVE FROM THE BUNKER #122: Declan Finn, the Pius Geek

New interview this week. Thought you'd be amused.

On editing

One of the things about editing your own work is distance.

When I was working strictly on my own, without editors, without publishers, without anyone, I needed to finish a project, then put it aside for weeks if not MONTHS, just so I could come back to it.

Granted, at the time I wrote it, I just wanted to get it all out of my head. So when I came back to it later, my first thought was "Who wrote this s***?"

Nowadays, I need a lot less of it. Because I have a better handle of what I people to feel and how to get that result.

Of course, some days are better than others.

Right now, I'm working on my third Williams and Miller book. If you don't know that series, it's more self-pubbed thrillers. The books were so large, I've broken up books one and two into three and two parts, respectively.

Why were they so big? Well, I had a general notion that books had to be 300-400 pages. So, I did that....

With 8.5 x 11 inch pages....

Single spaced....

Which is how I ended up with my current editing project, a monster of 156,000 words.

After two days of editing, it's not 146,000 words. Oy. Trust me, if you thought I like long sentences now, you should have seen the Ciceronian chunks of text I churned out back then.

Keep in mind, "Back then" was 20 years ago. When people are commenting on how much my writing has matured and use the previous two novels as proof... well, that's less the writing, and more the editing. The previous two novels were edited to within an inch of their life, until the point where I couldn't even read them anymore.

My current one... eh. Not so much. There will be a lot of "kill it with fire" going on. Keep in mind, in 2000, I thought one of the bigger stories twenty years from t hen would be sending UN peacekeepers to Belfast.

Current story in Belfast... all medical related.

[Head desk]

So I'll hit this one with a machete until the edits on Lightbringer come back, then I'll switch off again and see what happens when I come back to it again.

Fun fun fun.

NEW RELEASE (Sort of) Coven is now on Amazon

 Yes, you read that right. Saint Tommy book #8, Coven, has released on Amazon. 

https://amzn.to/3170afE 

After months of being Silver Empire exclusive, it's live and in the wild. 

So, for those of you who couldn't, for whatever reason, buy it from Silver Empire, you can now get it on Amazon. 

For those of you who have already reviewed it on Silver Empire, now would be a good time to review it on Amazon. 

Hint hint. Wink wink. Know what I mean?

I'd make a comment about the book, but I've been working on book #10, and I'm about to start on book #11 soon. So I'm playing bingo with about five dozen cards and trying to track them, only the cards are the events and activities of my own life.

Fun fun fun.

Coven is a return to New York. After an arrest goes sideways, Tommy is given yet another murder case. And no one wants to cooperate with him. the bodies start piling up. Tommy's charisms have stopped working, and worse of all, people are after his children.

So grab Coven here if you haven't already.

Jennie Posthumous on Supernatural Streets (Now, only $0.99)

Jennie Posthumous on Supernatural Streets (Now, only $0.99), and the origin story for her tale in the anthology.  

A Hunting We will Go

Staunton, Virginia is known as a historic city. From the architecture to being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson. There are also cemeteries dating back to the 1700s. One of those is Thornrose Cemetery, dating back to around 1750. 

Thonrose was used in my first Lady of Death novel, The Fae's Amulet. It's a gorgeous place where people still go to walk around. There are even benches, flowers, and wildlife. (Disclaimer: I also have family buried there, though not in any of the mausoleums.)

There's also Pokemon Go stops.

The husband and I enjoy playing Pokemon Go. It's a fun game. While driving through the cemetery to get stops, we stumbled across some local police officers near a large pile of red clay mud. (It's Virginia, red clay is the thing here.) I guess it's where they dump the extra dirt and mud. Anyway, these poor officers are standing around the edge looking at something. One is talking on his handset and the other's body language said he was uneasy about something. Since that pile of dirt is a good ways from the single-car road, we found another route and left them to their business.

That did not stop the husband and myself from joking about what they were looking at. The conversation went something along the lines of:

Husband: They found a bone.

Me: Well, duh. It is a cemetery. Maybe they found a femur! (Anyone who has kids will recognize the Disney COCO reference.)

Husband: But there's no graves over there. 

Me: It's a really big femur. Dragon, maybe?

Husband: That’s too obvious. It would have to be something more unusual.

And that got us to talking, and joking, about what type of bone it would be. Some other references to movies and such were also thrown in, because we have kids and are nerds/geeks.

And then came the call for short stories for the Supernatural Streets anthology. It seemed all the pieces were falling into place for a story about a griffin femur found at Thornrose. Of course it had to be set in the Lady of Death universe!

A Hunting We Will Go features Chris and Curtis, a pair of best friends who work at Fellhaven Restaurant and Tavern (a fictional restaurant in the nearby city of Waynesboro). Close enough to be brothers, the pair go hunting for a creature from another realm and find something more than they bargained for.

A fun story to right, it gives a little more insight into some fun side characters.

Julie Frost on The Genesis of “Brave Day Sunk in Hideous Night” for Supernatural Streets

Another guest post on Supernatural Streets. This time, from Julie Frost 

The Genesis of “Brave Day Sunk in Hideous Night”

Julie Frost 

The origin of the whole “Pack Dynamics” universe is a bit weird and a lot convoluted.

When the first “Iron Man” movie came out, I got a little obsessed. Scratch that. Wholly obsessed. Tony was so messed up, and Pepper so long-suffering, that they were just... irresistible. Yeah, I shipped that, and shipped it hard. So I sat down and bashed out a novelette starring two characters that totally were not them in any way, shape, manner, or form. Ha. It was the first story I’d ever written without any speculative elements whatsoever. It was basically a romance (I don’t write romance, by the way) with a lot of torture, as Not-Tony and Not-Pepper get in a plane crash in Bosnia and are captured by terrorists. I loved it to itty-bitty pieces.

And it was completely unsalable. Short romance was not a Thing in 2007.

I lamented to my Writing Buddy about how I needed to add a spec element so I could actually make some beer money with the thing. He mused for a minute and said, “Make her a werewolf. She’s hiding her condition from him. Wackiness, as we say, ensues.”

So I did. The length doubled. I never did place it (werewolf romance novellas are a hard sell, who knew?), but I eventually self-pubbed it because I could and because by then I had a novel series to hang it on. One publisher rejected it but said that it was the best title they’d seen all year. I’m rather fond of “Piles of Cash and Killer Benefits” myself. I am pretty sure my Writing Buddy came up with that too.

A year later, give or take, the Iron Man Train was still chugging merrily along, and I was basically devouring every movie Robert Downey, Jr., has ever been in. “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” crossed my radar, and I thought it was the best movie I’ve ever seen that only twelve people have even heard of, let alone watched. And I got to thinking, double the Downey, double the fun, what if I mash KKBB and Iron Man together, Tony hires Harry and Perry to look into some industrial espionage for him, whee.

My issue with that was that I didn’t want to write fanfiction anymore. But I was three thousand words into it, madly scribbling when I got a spare minute at Denvention 3 (the 2008 Denver WorldCon), and also lamenting to high Heaven and anyone who would listen about ARGH FANFIC MAKE IT STOP BUT ALSO I LOVE THIS.

A kind soul tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Don’t you have a universe you can drop characters like this into?”

I blinked. Why, yes. Yes, I did.

Long story short, “Pack Dynamics” turned into a prequel of “Piles of Cash,” and I sold it seven years later to WordFire Press.

Ben is nothing like Harry. Harry is a clueless, incompetent doofus. We love him because he’s got a good heart and he tries hard. While Ben is Damaged with a capital D, he is actually skilled at his job. I imported Harry’s White Knight Syndrome, and--like Harry--he gets kidnapped and beaten up a lot, but that’s where the resemblance ends. We love him (hopefully) because he fights for the things he believes in, doesn’t see himself as a victim, and is almost painfully self-aware.

Now, I’m a short story writer at heart. Novels are hard. In the six years between the time I wrote “Pack Dynamics” and its sale, I managed to scribble several short stories and novelettes set in the universe, including this one. Ben is a favorite creation of mine, and I love tossing him face-first into a situation and seeing how he’ll react to it.

When I sat down and started outlining projects for a short-story NaNo endeavor in 2013, I knew I had to write a Ben story. So I started poking through private eye websites to see what sort of job I could hang some fiction on, and decided to combine a repo with a skip trace. But a normal repo would be boring, so I decided to mix it up a little and have my brand of fun with it while also traumatizing Ben. Again.

It’s what I do. 

Buy Supernatural Streets here

Home Chemistry and Supernatural Streets.

So, what bat guano insane environment did I have to grow up in to be a writer?

Well, in the age old argument of nature versus nurture, I must say that I was always like this.

In 8th grade, my science project was "Bombs from Bisquick." Fans of the 1994 film Blown away should recognize the quote. That film was my introduction to Forest Whittaker, U2, and creative chemistry.

Experiments I did for this science project involved amonium iodide (pressure sensitive little green crystals), as well as a "magic trick" watching colored water shift, etc.

This of course, doesn't even include the things that I didn't do because it was ... inadvisable. 

Though I now regret not having mixed ammonia and bleach... outside... in a sealed jar. I figure they might be good for crowd control these days.

In short, if someone had handed me the anarchist cookbook in grammar school, that would have been an interesting month.

Nowadays, I have like-minded individuals on social media who have helped with research for books, such as chlorine fluoride (used to great effect on Infernal Affairs). And my own, lesser research for homemade thermite, which appears in Supernatural Streets...

Because when you're writing fantasy, and you need to hit a Terminator-level threat with something heavy, and you don't have superpowers, chemistry is a great second option.

... Assuming you don't think that's a superpower to start with.

Anyway, you can get your copy of Supernatural Streets here -- now out in Kindle Unlimited and hard copy. Just to see how to weaponize chemistry 101.

Allan Kemp's "Bitter Pill" in Supernatural Streets

Today, I'm giving my blog over to Allan Kemp, so he can discuss his short story, Bitter Pill, in the new anthology, Supernatural Streets.

So, over to Allan.

Bitter Pill

In my urban fantasy novels, The Black Phoenix and Hagar’s Tears, I created a world in which the supernaturals had conquered and enslaved humans. At the end of Hagar’s Tears, the main character, Mutt Davidson, opens a nightclub called The Black Phoenix. Though Mutt is both a wizard and a werewolf, he didn’t take part in the supernatural invasion because he felt it was a cruel solution to their problems. His nightclub is neutral ground where supernaturals and humans are treated equally.

I’m a fan of Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s series and thought it would be fun to write a series of short stories that feature characters who visit The Black Phoenix. The Bitter Pill was the first of three Tales of the Black Phoenix. The other two are Panty Man and Loopy in Love.

Once I was in a kosher grocery when a girl around eight-years-old said, “You’re such a pill!” She was talking to her brother who was around five-years-old. I’ve never used the slang term myself, even when it was appropriate, but by having Mutt say it gave me an opening into where the story would go.

The slang phrase preacher creature was the inspiration for Bishop Willie Walker Jr. the vampire preacher. Researching sermons to come up with Walker’s sermons was some of the most enjoyable research I’ve ever done.

Chad Blyth was a satire of all the rich loafer boys who think they rule the world. I worked with a guy like Chad. He wore pressed khakis that he was constantly hitching up so that’s why Chad does the same thing. Having Chad get what was coming to him was my way of getting revenge on that guy I worked with. He was such a pill.

I wanted the story to have an ending that was truly horrifying, something I hadn’t done before. Though my Black Phoenix novels are urban fantasy, they contain more mystery and adventure than horror. Here was an opportunity to explore elements that were dark and disturbing.

And that is basically where The Bitter Pill came from.

Buy Supernatural Streets here.

Rob Reed's Night Hawks for Supernatural Streets

The anthology Supernatural Streets is out and ready for debut.

And I'm not the only one in this anthology. Meet Rob Reed, as he talks about his short story, Night Hawks.

The origins of my story “Night Hawks” in the “Supernatural Streets” anthology

Rob Reed

As co-editor of the urban fantasy anthology “Supernatural Streets” I went back and forth on whether I’d include one of my own stories. I had several ideas I really wanted to write, but we had more good stories then spots available, and I didn’t want to bump someone just to run my own story.

That changed when we had a couple authors drop out close to the last minute for different personal reasons. There was no heartburn on my end. They are both pros and were upfront about their reasons and I’d work with either person again. But, that left us two stories down and we needed to fill at least one of those holes with a new story.

Enter Frank and Tiny. I had created these characters in my mind as sort of a look at the “dark underbelly” of what monster hunting might be like as a lifestyle. I wanted to explore the toll it would take on the characters and how they’d cope.

I also wanted to create a story that was fun to read. It had to have relatable characters, some well-staged action, and more than a touch of humor.

I had their world. I had their voice. All I needed now was a story. The germ of the idea started with something I’d observed in my own life. I stretched it out into a running gag that also gave me a pivotal bit of action near the climax. That first piece helped structure the rest of the plot complications.

One thing I like about this story is that I wound up using every idea I thought up along the way. Every character trait, every joke, every little bit of business I envisioned, they all made it into the final product. Some of them were changed along the way, smoothed out a bit or restructured slightly to fit the other pieces better, but they all made it in. Like a well-built bicycle on Christmas morning, there were no extra pieces left over when I was done.

The title is deliberately evocative of the masterful Edward Hopper painting, “Nighthawks.” I had that image in mind when mulling over the characters. It’s no coincidence the story opens with the two main characters at an all-night truck stop reminiscent (in my mind at least) of the diner in the painting.

What’s amazing to me is how close the final story on the page is to how I originally envisioned the story in my head. Even before I had all the details worked out I had a vision for what I wanted the story to be and the result is as true to that vision as anything I’ve ever written.

I hope you all enjoy the result.

Buy Supernatural Streets here.

New Release, Supernatural Streets anthology

Last year, Amie Gibbons of the Psychic series put out a call for urban fantasy detective fiction for a new anthology series: Supernatural Streets.

My first thought was "Oh, why not?"

After all, at the time, I had been writing my Saint Tommy, NYPD series for 40 hours a week for months. It was a world filled with detective stories and fantasy in the big city. What else would I write for this? I knew the world inside and out. At the time, book three, Infernal Affairs had come out, and #4, City of Shadows was about to come out, and I may not have even started on Crusader.

So I had a day or two to kill to work on this one. 

Before you ask, yes, that is how long it takes for me to pound out a short story.

But I knew I wanted to do something with witches. After all, Alyssa Milano wouldn't shut up at the time, and you had covens putting curses on President Trump (Yes, really), John C Wright had noted they were on the rise, my research told me they were getting big in Europe. It was clearly in the Zeitgeist, even before people on Twitter decided that witch hunts were cool.

Besides, I hadn't used witches yet. I had meant to in book 3... then book 4... then later, book 7 (hint, it's called Coven). But I never quite got there.

So, I knew the short story would have witches.

I also knew it would have one other element. And it wouldn't be Saint Tommy, NYPD.

See, there was a problem. Given what I was writing at the time, I didn't have a lot of places to put Tommy. Yes, there is Lupus Dei, but I hadn't considered that idea then (and it was less detective fiction and more The Most Dangerous Game with magic). There was very little room in the timeline to use my main character for a short story between books 3 and 4. In my novels, I had explicitly mentioned that nothing supernatural had hit Tommy Nolan between books one and three.

However, while Tommy Nolan is a wonder worker, and fights the forces of darkness in every book, he's also a cop. And cops all have one standard issue piece of equipment. 

He has a partner. 

Enter Alexander Packard, the new POV character. Unlike his partner, Packard has no charisms, no superpowers except sarcasm, but I was still going to send up up against the forces of darkness.

The story was originally entitled Dark Web, and it would open with "My name is Alex Packard, and I am nowhere near a saint--unless my partner is in the car."

It was all downhill from there. 

Set between Infernal Affairs and City of Shadows, the premise is simple--Tommy has a price on his head on the dark web. When the person who put out the bounty is killed, there's no way to tell everyone that the price is off. Time for him and his family to be ... away. Far away.

This leaves Tommy's house empty, except for his partner. After a few months of this, finding a body on the front lawn is no longer a big deal. But this one is special -- it's in pieces, and it looks like it has nothing to do with Tommy Nolan.

Then we're off to the races. From there it was easy. The fun part was giving Packard a small team to work with, and fighting the forces of darkness with only his wits, and his new fondness for chemistry. And one or two magic tricks up his sleeve.

One or two rewrites later, the narration changed a little changed, and became "They burn witches, don't they?"

Anyway, that's one of the stories in Supernatural Streets. Go buy it. I think you'll like it.

Review: Storm Between the Stars, by Karl Gallagher

Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I've been a fan of Karl Gallagher's books. He delivers character and plot, even at times when you don't know which he's delivering on. Torchship was a better Firefly than the actual product. His Lost War series is criminally underrated, even though I think it's even better than Torchship.

And now he's back to a slightly harder SciFi, with a bit of a twist to it.

Storm Between the Stars: Book 1 in the Fall of the Censor is his latest release. I was worried about spoiling the key threat in this book... but the series title has already given that away.

To begin with, Niko Landry is Captain of a family-owned and operated freighter. Like all shipping companies, he makes a lot of deals based off of what will sell better in X system over Y, and never leaving his cargo hold empty. 

When Niko and his crew find himself lost in space, he finds himself in the midst of a great business opportunity. After three thousand years of a human diaspora caused humans to flee Earth and being subsequently cut off from the home system, they find themselves to be the first ones to have found a way back.

Since the Landry family business is private, they don't have to report anything to any one. They're the first ones back to the home system, and therefore, the first ones to find what new resources and technology may have been developed in the last three thousand years.

But Earth and the associated systems are now ruled by something called "the Censor." And what seems to begin as a system of bureaucrats is slowly revealed to be a creepy, terrifying system of oppression. Each new revelation makes the reader feel new levels of dread every time. It goes from "aw Hell" to "aw f***" to "why aren't they running?"

Karl essentially unveils a system, piece by piece, that builds into 1984 / Farenheight 451 IN SPACE, and ends with an interstellar space chase that David Weber would have been happy to have written. It feels a little like the end of On Basilik Station, only our heroes are being chased, and they don't have real weapons. Their only weapons? Physics.

Karl does a good job of developing a world. Many of the ideas are sane Libertarian. I have to make that distinction because there are the libertarians I know, versus the ones I've seen in public. He has a smart and sane approach to extended families, marrying into a family business, barter to get around taxes, how to work around oppression, and a lot of cultural elements that would make some libertarians I know scream like a sunburnt vampire.

There is also a great bit of work on language. I haven't seen this much effort put in since John C Wright's Somewhither. It's not as extensive, but it works well for the story. 

And there are nice little touches here and there. Character names that are very ... Welsh. Details on spaceship cargo loading. Human zebras (long story). Bringing back the zealots.

The only problem with this entire novel? We could have spent five pages on the crew being a bit more impressed with "This is something no one on our side has seen for thousands of years." In the book, they were all business, no wonder. Five pages would've been enough. It's a minor quibble, but I have to find a flaw somewhere.

In short, it's great world building. And I definitely enjoyed it. At least a 4/5. Maybe 5/5. I definitely recommend it. There's sequel bait, but there's there isn't a cliffhanger. So this won't cause you to throw your book against a wall.

Buy it here.