Noir fiction for the modern reader.

Well, I actually made a list. No, I didn’t sit down and write things in list form, I appeared on someone else’s list, specifically, Dana King’s Best Reads of 2011. He was good enough to include Setup On Front Street in his list, for which I’m grateful, to say the least. Dana’s own Wild Bill would’ve made my list, if I’d had the energy to sit down and compile one. But I didn’t, so all I can tell you is to go buy it. You won’t be sorry. It’s a realistic tale of mob/police intrigue in Chicago. For that matter, you can go here and read my review of it.

When KDP Select came along a few weeks ago, I was very skeptical. It looked for all the world like another Amazon gimmick to help authors who are already selling a shitload of books to sell two more shitloads. I mean, why would a struggling writer like myself want to put in a lot of time and effort, only to see the big boys and girls walk off with all the sales while I remain buried?

For the uninitiated, KDP Select is a new program on Amazon, wherein a publisher or a self-published author makes a digital title exclusive to Amazon Kindle for 90 days (print versions can still be sold anywhere), during which time anyone with an Amazon account can “borrow” the e-book with no due date. Amazon is putting up around $500,000 a month to be divided among the authors on a per-borrow basis. Readers can only borrow one book per month, though, so you know they’re going to be selective. Meaning they will borrow from among those books that are shoved in front of their faces. Enter the Amazon behemoth and its relentless promotion of bestselling authors.

The folks over at DailyCheapReads.com have featured the first novel in my Key West Nocturnes series, Setup On Front Street, today. You can check it out here.

I’ve watched this site become very popular among readers over the last year or so. Daily references to it can usually be found on the Kindle Boards Writers Café. Indie authors are often lined up to secure a spot on it. They’ve worked hard over there at building their reputation. So please check them out. You won’t be disappointed.

And when you’re there, please leave a brief comment.

Once again, James Scott Bell has reeled me in to his topic du jour over at The Kill Zone. Today he waxed eloquent about the treacherous path from idea to story. Seems he had an idea for a full chapter some years ago, so he wrote it down. Then he set it aside as other projects commanded his attention. Eventually, though, he went back to it and extracted a novella from it. That brought to mind a similar experience of mine.

Approximately 25 years ago, a friend of mine said, “When I write my novel, I’m going to start off with this line: I moved into the Napoleon House on the day XXXXX died.” (I forget the guy’s name who died, but he was well-known around the Napoleon House in New Orleans) The line struck me as a good one. I loved the idea of tying a new-day-dawning event with someone’s death. I was well into my first novel at the time, but this line stayed with me.

Fast forward to 2009. I’m ready to start a new novel. I’m casting about for ideas. I know that, since I can’t really make up stories in advance, I’m going to have to wing it, as always, letting my characters tell the story while I merely write it down. That line, which had festered in the outer swamps of my memory, awaiting reclamation, finally showed itself and I jumped on it.

I changed it around a little, turning it into, “I got back to Key West on the day Aldo Ray died.”

Of course, I now had to add tens of thousands of additional words to complete that story, and I had no idea what those words would be, but the line got me going. I asked myself, “Who’s coming back to Key West, why is he coming back, and what’s the deal with Aldo Ray?” Ray was a movie actor from the 1950s, usually assigned to tough guy roles, so I took it from there and before you could say “Key West noir”, the book had taken flight.

Which brings me to the title.

I had actually completed the first draft without a title. I had absolutely no hints as to what this novel would be called. I was getting desperate and my title-idea well was virtually dry. Fortunately, I was playing professional poker at the time at Bellagio in Las Vegas and that would be my salvation.

In Las Vegas cardrooms, if a player wants a new deck, he/she requests it from the dealer. The dealer then calls out to the floorman for a setup, which is casino parlance for a little box containing two new decks of cards. One day, a player at my table made such a request and the dealer hollered out, “Setup on fourteen!”, since we were playing at table fourteen at the time. Something snapped inside me and I mentally transformed that to “Setup On Front Street“, and I had my title.

I’m just glad we weren’t sitting at table five or something. I’d probably still be searching.

Christina Irelan over at IntoxicatedByBooks.blogspot.com has reviewed Setup On Front Street and has said some very kind things about it. I would urge everyone to check it out here and please leave a comment, okay? It would not only help me, but it would help Christina as well. She’s definitely one of the “good guys”.

Michael Lipkin’s respected Noir Journal has reviewed Setup On Front Street. I have to say the reviewer, MC Pastoret, totally got it. Nothing could please me more. A big thanks to Michael and MC for giving my novel the opportunity to be seen on that great site.

Check out his review here. And then, please leave a brief comment, okay? Michael’s site is a haven for noir fans, and it deserves plenty of support. In fact, I’m adding a permanent link to it here under “Other Hotspots”.

A week from Thursday, August 18 at 8:00 PM, I’ll be signing copies of Setup On Front Street at Books & Books. The address is 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida. If you’ve never been there, it’s an incredible place. Big, well-organized, huge selection…it’s one of the leading indie bookstores in the country, thriving while so many others are closing. Their list of authors who have appeared there is out of this world, namely Margaret Atwood, Isabel Allende, Martin Amis, Edwidge Danticat, Richard Ford, Carlos Fuentes, Allen Ginsberg, Jamaica Kincaid, Peter Matthiessen, Frank McCourt, Salman Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut, and Derek Walcott; children and young adult authors/illustrators suchas Eric Carle, Tomie DePaola, Lemony Snicket, Judy Blume, and Chris Raschka; journalists such as Walter Cronkite, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry and Jorge Ramos; political figures, such as President Bill Clinton, Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton, President Jimmy Carter, Senator George McGovern and Rudy Giuliani; cookbook authors such as Anthony Bourdain, Rachael Ray, Jamie Oliver, and Bobby Flay; and celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell, Isabella Rossellini, Peter Carey, Cindy Crawford, and Mariel Hemingway, to name just a few.

It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway) that I’m positively thrilled to be doing a signing there.

In addition to the signing, I’m going to read some excerpts from it and (I think) speak on some topic or another, like noir fiction or something.

So if you’re in the Miami area, please come by, because as you might imagine, I need all the help I can get. They’re right off Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Blvd. Their phone number is 305-442-4408. And if you’re not in the Miami area, well, get on a plane and go there!

Okey-doke, fiction lovers, here’s a first. I’ve recorded an audiobook version of Setup On Front Street. I’m posting chapter 1 right here. As soon as I can figure out how to put it over on the side there with all the fancy covers and everything, I’ll do it, but for now, you’ll just have to get it from this post.

I’m also going to put it on Amazon so you may download it onto your “approved electronic device”. Howzat!! (Naturally, this will occur after many curse-filled hours of struggling with technological beasts)

Oh, and for some reason I cannot fathom, I’m unable to attach anything here over 2 MB. The full chapter, which runs, like, all of four pages in the book, is way too big, so I had to break it up into three consecutive parts. There might be another way to do it, but I’m just learning about all this, so please be patient.

In the meantime, here, in three installments, is the first gripping chapter of Setup On Front Street.

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 1

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 2

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 3

Dana King has done a review of Setup On Front Street in the “monthly best reads” edition of his blog, One Bite At A Time. He said some very nice things, which I truly appreciate. I would further appreciate it if all readers of this post would go to his blog right now and check it out, then leave a brief comment. Dana’s one of the good guys.

Hey, how can he not be? He’s a former musician.

The folks over at LoveThyAuthor.com have reviewed Setup On Front Street, and have seen fit to give it 4.7 stars (out of a possible 5). You can check out the review here. When you go there, please check out the rest of the site. It’s pretty impressive. And if you have a moment, please leave a brief comment. Thanks.