Noir fiction for the modern reader.

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, but I had misplaced the cord that connects my camera to my laptop, enabling me to dump the photos into iPhotos. The pictures in the first Cuba post were taken with my cellphone.

Anyway, on with the show!

This was the first photo I took in Cuba. We were pulling out of José Martí International Airport in Havana, and I snapped this guy outside his house next to his 1957 Chevy.   

We headed for Viñales, a little town some 100 miles southwest of Havana. Along the way, every few miles, I saw people standing along the side of the highway. Sometimes there would be a half-dozen or more, sometimes only one or two. Our guide explained that they were “hitchhikers”. These “hitchhikers”, it turns out, play a key role in Cuba’s economy.

For decades, the government took all the crops grown in Cuba, paying the farmers a pittance. They had confiscated all the land, so the crops were theirs. Naturally, agricultural production nosedived, as the farmers figured, “Why should I bust my ass in the fields when I don’t get to keep any of what I grow?” So a few years ago, the government eased up. They set quotas for the farmers, and anything the farmer grew beyond that quota, he got to keep.

Well, production shot up as the farmers were finally able to glean some meager reward for their labor. They fed their families and what was left over, they sold to “middlemen”, operating in the black market. These middlemen would come to each farm, buy up what they could carry–say, 40 pounds of rice–then hitchhike to the nearest city, where they had an established route of customers. Knocking on doors in urban neighborhoods, they would sell the rice one pound at a time, for less than what it cost in the state-owned stores. After whacking it up with the local government officials, themselves paid very poorly and looking for extra income, these middlemen make out quite nicely. Everybody gets a taste.

When we got to our hotel, I took a deep breath as I stepped out onto the balcony of my room and saw this:

After getting my breath back, I headed straight for the bar, where to my joy, they had Cuban baseball on TV:

I had this one shot of me against the stunning backdrop, the beauty that is Cuba.

The next day, we went to a tobacco farm. The Viñales Valley is the most fertile soil in the world for growing tobacco. It’s where all the best Cuban cigars come from. We took the bus into town, then walked about two miles through the countryside to the farm. On the outskirts of town, I saw this car. I couldn’t resist the photo:

We’ll pick this up next time. The tobacco farm was pretty cool and we heard some great music that same night.

The good folks over at DailyCheapReads.com have posted a little feature on my noir novel, The Take. This is pretty amazing, since they usually feature only very inexpensive books. The Take weighs in at $4.79 for the digital version and $12.95 for the paperback (both prices set by my publisher). They’ve got a great site going over there at DailyCheapReads. Check it out here.

The Caffeinated Diva has weighed in on Bloodstains On The Wall, and she…well, I’ll let her tell you. Go here.

My short story collection, Bloodstains On The Wall/Three Stories From The Dark Side, is now available in print, thanks to Amazon’s CreateSpace. Copies are available for only $9.95. Signed copies will soon be available from this website, but for now, it’s CreateSpace, specifically here. The back cover, which had to be specially designed for the print version, was done by Jeroen ten Berge, who did a terrific job.

These are three stories which will escort you to the other side of the human condition. I recommend them (now wasn’t that a surprise?).

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that a few weeks ago, I went to Sleuthfest up in Fort Lauderdale. Deerfield Beach, actually. While I was there, I connected with an agent and two publishers, each of which wanted to see a sample of the work that I pitched to them. I know, I know, these agents and publishers all say that while they’re at these conventions, then they go back to New York and send out the form-rejection emails the minute they walk in their office.

This was a little different, though. Not because I really believe that they were so enraptured by my pitch, but because I pitched a different novel to each one of them.

I’ve got these three noir novels, all set in Key West, and they’re all pretty much ready to go. I’d really like the three-book set to be picked up, but I know I’m dreaming. It’s not a trilogy in the usual sense, in that there’s no overall story arc through all three books, but several secondary characters and locales pop up in all three, lending an underlying continuity to it. They span 20 years, from 1991-2011, and I’m currently working on a fourth that’s set around the Millennium.

Now, here’s my problem. If even one of them, especially Akashic Books, picks me up, then I’ll go for it. (I say especially Akashic because they have some great books and they specialize in the noir subgenre, which is where I do all my writing) So it’ll be two years probably before the book comes out. Okay, I get it. I’m just not sure I want to wait four more years for the other two, which will sit around gathering dust all that time. The siren of the digital world is calling me. And I feel my resistance, which has been high for years, is now withering.

Yes, I’ve read all the Konrath-Hocking-Eisler stories and I know who’s tearing up the digital bestseller lists. It’s pretty persuasive stuff, you know? Get your novel formatted, edited, and with a good cover, and you’re up on Kindle within a couple of weeks, selling books. Then, as the script goes, head for the blogs, shout it from your website, get on Facebook and Goodreads, get a few decent reviews, and before you can say “$2.99″, you’ll be selling 1000 books a month.

At least, that’s how it appears to go for the majority of the authors I read about on the Kindle Boards and elsewhere. Really. A lot of these authors have published their sales figures, and most of them started in 2009 or 2010, and now they’re selling thousands of books. Some of them even say they haven’t done much promotion: “just an interview on a blog or two and not much else”, one said. Another one went from zero to 1000 books a day in three weeks! The room is spinning.

Okay, I know these are the exceptions. Trouble is, I’m way down there in the “rule” territory. I’ve got my self-published short story collection, Bloodstains On The Wall, up on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, priced at 99¢ and it’s going nowhere. My novel, The Take, was put up by my publisher and priced by them as well (at $4.99), so I’m not privy to the sales figures, but I can easily say it’s also nowhere. This is after months of working all day, every day, on blogs, getting reviews, Facebook, etc, etc.

I’m 100% positive the reason it’s not selling has nothing to do with the writing. I mean, those who have read them have liked them, and I’m not talking about friends and family, either. I mean, they can’t say the writing isn’t any good when nobody’s read it, right? No, I believe they’re not selling because I haven’t yet snapped to the promotional tricks the successful authors are using to break out of the pack.

Another big difference between me and all of them is genre. In fact, come to think of it, this may be the real reason. For the most part, they’re all writing the Sci-Fi, Fantasy-Dragons, YA, Vampire-Zombie, Paranormal Romance kind of stuff that kids with Kindles want to read. I’m doing noir. Can’t you hear them now? “Noir? Noir? What’s that?”

Well, I’m still tempted. If these three novel submissions don’t pan out, I’m putting all three up on Kindle at once. I mean, selling a few copies digitally is better than selling no copies while waiting for the “gatekeepers” to let me in. Isn’t it?

Or is it?

Over at Kipp Poe’s blog today, she ran a very nice interview with yours truly which also included the cover image of The Take. The interview contained some of the usual questions, but I found myself giving them unusual replies. I don’t know, maybe I just felt like being candid or something.

Anyway, if you’d like to read it, go here and leave a brief comment at the end, okay? Thanks.

The folks over at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com were kind enough to post a review of Bloodstains On The Wall. You can check it out here (scroll down a little when you get there). And afterward, please leave a comment of some kind. It’ll mean a lot to me and to them. Thanks.

The cheap chicks over at DailyCheapReads.com were kind enough to feature my collection of noir short stories, Bloodstains On The Wall, on their site the day before yesterday. Check it out here. They even called it “great late night reading”. You may be assured I will use that hot blurb. A big thanks goes out to them. They’ve got a great site. Go have a look at it.

Yesterday, Feb 28, San Diego author Alain Gomez featured my new short story collection, Bloodstains On The Wall, on his website, Book Brouhaha. He very graciously included a full description of each of the stories, as well as my bio and my opinion of the short story genre. It’s an excellent website, fully devoted to short stories and their authors. Those interested should check it out. Short stories have new outlets now, and I believe they will gain many more readers.

Here’s a novel idea.

And here’s another one.