Been busy — TWO new books available!

This feels like the first time I’ve come up for air since roughly November. I’ve been working on polishing up some “trunk” novels. Two new books are now available: Shiny Things/Pretty Things and Dead Things.

Shiny Things/Pretty Things is two novellas in one book, and Dead Things is a single novel. All stories feature the same character: Jacob Cable. Cable is a hard-boiled private detective in post-World War II Los Angeles. He is my homage to Raymond Chandler.

Shiny Things is the first book I ever wrote. It’s been awhile now, but what I remember of the experience was educational. I had tried to write books numerous times up until that point. I had been reading Raymond Chandler at the time. One night I simply sat down and started writing a Chandleresque novel as a joke. Oddly enough, it kept going, and I was able to finish it. After all of my attempts to write a book, one I began as a joke is the one I finished. How about that?

I remember the first draft was about 75,000 words, and I eventually cut it back and cut it back and cut it back over the years as I became better at editing and realizing what was and what wasn’t needed in a story.

I went directly into writing Pretty Things after Shiny Things, I remember. Pretty Things seemed to be bit more mature of a story. I could definitely tell I learned a few things from getting through my first book. Beyond that, I don’t remember anything of the process.

I wrote another novel after Pretty Things that did not feature Cable. I may go back and revisit that one someday, as well. After that I went directly into Dead Things. Like Pretty Things, I don’t remember much of the process. The opening of Dead Things was simply full speed ahead. Dead Things brought more of a horror element into the proceedings, and I realized I could do a lot of things with Jacob Cable. Originally, I remembered thinking I wanted Cable to be a bit like Robert E. Howard’s, Conan, just in a trench coat instead of a loin cloth and with a gun instead of a sword.

Clicking on the covers will take you to Amazon where both books are presently available. I would like to continue to visit Jacob Cable’s world and write more stories about him. We will see…