Year of an Indie Writer: Week 31 AKA Ten Years and 1,000 Posts

Today marks two anniversaries: this is the 1,000th post on my original and ongoing blog and this weekend is the 10th anniversary of the founding of Do Some Damage.

For a time, I didn't cross-post my entries, but I started to. Why not? There might be folks who only read what I have to say on one site and not the other. When I noticed the two anniversaries approaching, I made sure the two streams crossed today.

Ten years ago this summer, Steve Weddle invited me to join his venture. Since I was the only guy without a published book, I got the Saturday slot. I believe I had landed on the radars of both Steve and Jay Stringer via my own blog posts starting in 2007. I was putting myself through what I called the Self Education of Crime and Mystery Fiction. In checking the number of posts I made in 2008 (248), you can see how much I had written.

I enjoyed the idea of a weekly column. Still do. For a decade now, my family knows that if I haven't penned anything by Friday night, I'll excuse myself to bang out a post. If I'm traveling, I write the blog post ahead of time and schedule it to drop on Saturday. I cannot remember a time when I've missed a post, so that's ten years of consecutively writing a Saturday column, minus the end-of-year breaks.

It's been fun. Really, really fun. I've gone from a guy who thought he knew what he wanted to write about to someone tangentially different. I've gone from a guy who looked to traditional publishing as the only road to an independent author/entrepreneur running my own business. Never would have saw that coming. Hat tip to James Reasoner for putting that idea in my head.

Some weeks I don't know what to write. Others, I write a lot. This thing I've been doing all 2019--Year of an Indie Writer--is one way always to have something about which to write. I've enjoyed it, and I suspect I'll collect all these posts into a book one day. It would be an interesting exercise to add up all the words I've written just to have the number. I'm proud of both anniversaries today.

A decade is a long time, and 1,000 posts is a lot of words. I'm glad folks still read what I have to say and join in the conversation along the way. It's been a blast. There are exciting things in store I have planned, and I'll be writing about it all the way.

Now, onto the future...

Blog Post of the Week

BTW, did you read returning columnist Kristi Belcamino's column yesterday about her adventures in indie publishing? Why not? Do it now. Follow what she does because she's laid out a path for any indie writer to follow.

Discovery of the Week: Halestorm

On Thursday night here in Houston, I went to see Alice Cooper. I knew his show would be good. Had no clue about the opening band, Halestorm.

Holy cow! Blew me away!

Here's just the Halestorm part of my larger post.

Last night, I went from "Who the heck is Halestorm?" to "Holy cow, you've got to listen to Halestorm!"

Sure, I could have looked up their music ahead of time, but I wanted their show to be new on the spot. So glad I did. This four-piece band is led by a charismatic lead singer/rhythm guitarist named Lzzy Hale. It's not everyday you see a female-fronted rock band that is this damn good. She, however, is incredible. Her singing voice is a unique mixture of gravel and clear, depending on what she wants to do with it. Her guitar playing keeps the band's music humming, but she can cut a solo pretty darn good. More importantly, she was having an absolute blast. Sure, she's snarl on some songs, but more often than not, when she'd leave the mic, she was grinning, like "Can you believe this is my job?"

The opening tunes were good, but by the end, I was sold. Heck, that last song, with its extended guitar solos, all but morphed into the chord pattern and rhythm of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4." My ears may have been hearing what I wanted to hear, but I could have sworn part of the lead guitarists notes were homages to Terry Kath.

Check out Halestorm live if you can. You'll be standing and cheering by the end of their set.

Don't Tinker Too Long

Today, over at DoSomeDamage, I discuss how tinkering with things is essential for an indie author, but you have to know when to stop.

Tangible Research

Today over at Do Some Damage​, I talk about tangible research and my trip to the Galveston Railroad Museum. http://www.dosomedamage.com/2015/08/tangible-research.html.

Falling Out of Love with an Author

That's the focus of my post today over at Do Some Damage.

Collateral Damage - A New Anthology Inspired by Father's Day

Fresh off the Kindle presses is Collateral Damage, the second anthology written by the eight authors of Do Some Damage. I'm one of the eight, in case you don't know. We've spun a few tales inspired by the only holiday in June that doesn't involve a flag, Father's Day.

Here's the blurb from Amazon:
This collection boasts stories from Joelle Charbonneau (SKATING AROUND THE LAW, SKATING OVER THE LINE, the Paige Marshall mysteries), John McFetridge (LET IT RIDE, DIRTY SWEET), Dave White (WHEN ONE MAN DIES, WITNESS TO DEATH), Russel D. McLean (THE LOST SISTER, THE GOOD SON), Sandra Ruttan (THE FRAILTY OF FLESH, SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES), Scott D. Parker (TREASON AT HANFORD: A Harry Truman Mystery, BEAT TO A PULP: ROUND ONE), Jay Stringer (OLD GOLD, SCORCHED EARTH), and Steve Weddle (NEEDLE Magazine).

As I was with Terminal Damage, our first collection, I am immensely proud of my collaboration with the other seven writers in this group.

Taking a cue from Steve Weddle, I'm including the first part of my story, "Anne Chambers and the Case of the Father's Day Murder."

In far southwest Houston stands a memorial to the Vietnam War. In the middle of a Vietnamese-American shopping center parking lot, a roped-off area contains a small plateau of nine, white steps. The peak of this plateau has a granite, oval block, about four feet high, with a bronze relief showing a scene from the war. Atop the oval, two bronze soldiers share a constant vigil. The taller man is an American, clad in late-60s fatigues, army belt with canteen, rifle at a high angle, ready to bear down on an enemy. Next to the American is a South Vietnamese soldier. He is a head shorter than the G. I. He, too, clutches a rifle, staring ahead with the American.

It was on the American’s rifle the body had been impaled.

Houston Police Detective Anne Chambers gazed up at the male victim. Limp, with clothes tattered, the body’s fluids had gathered around one side of the dais. They had run down and stained the white steps. His clothes, where they weren’t ripped, looked haphazard: one tail of his shirt was untucked, the suit jacket had a slash along the side, and the man wore loafers without socks. His hands were cuffed behind his back.

Resting against the base of the step was a crane, the kind city electricians use to repair traffic lights. The cage was a mere two feet from the victim. Anne circled the scene, piecing together what happened. The killer had cut through the chains surrounding the memorial, run the crane as close as possible, loaded his victim onto the pedestal, and thrown the victim onto the bronze rifle.

She turned and scanned the growing throng of onlookers. Men and women, hands over mouths or pointing at the victim, cell phones to ears or held out in front, snapping photos. Behind the crowd, the first news van was parked. She checked her watch: 3:34 a.m. Time to retrieve the body. Giving a thumbs up sign to the two medical examiners in the crane’s cage, Anne said “Any idea how he got up there, Gary?”

“We’ve already asked for the security feed,” Patrolman Gary Ward said. “Figured you’d want it.” He chinned the body. “You seen the front of him?”

Anne nodded. “They look like medals of some kind. They ours?”

Ward shook his head. “Don’t recognize them.” He pointed to the blood-stained steps. “One of ‘em fell off.”

In the center of the blood, a small military medal rested on the edge of a step while the silk ribbon and pin dangled over the side. Anne squinted her eyes. The medal didn’t look familiar.

Ward nodded to a man who stood facing the body. “How you think he’s taking it?”

Anne turned to look at her partner, Detective Harry Tran. “Probably not well.” She pursed her lips and watched as the body was lowered to the pavement. The two medical workers placed the body on a waiting gurney.

Walking up next to Harry, Anne said, “You doing okay?”

Harry’s lips were a thin, hard line. When he spoke, his voice was husky. “His name is Dat Nguyen. He is one of the giants in our community.”

Anne gave him a sidelong stare. “Listen, Harry, if you don’t want…”

He turned and strode to the gurney. Her mouth still open, Anne cocked her head, then followed him.

A coroner was examining the body. The suit jacket covered what looked like a pajama top. The slash on the arm had dried blood, darker than the blood on the chest. The mouth was half curled in a snarl of agony.

“Nothing unusual here,” the coroner said, “death by exsanguination caused by the impalement on the bronze rifle.” He turned the body on its side and examined the handcuffs. “The bruising and contusions along the wrists indicate he put up quite a struggle.”

“Time of death?” Anne asked. Harry stood, stone-faced, looking at the dead man.

“Pretty recent, I’d say,” the coroner said. “An hour or two.”

They all shielded their eyes as a vehicle entered the parking lot. It stopped nearby and a man emerged. He started running towards the crime scene. Two officers halted him. After a brief conversation, Ward walked over to Anne and Harry.

“That’s the guy who can get us a look at the security cameras.” He eyed Harry then Anne. She shrugged and head motioned for him to take care of the security footage. Ward nodded once and walked with the newcomer to one of the locked storefronts along the strip center.

With a grunt, Harry started walking towards their car. “Let’s go.”

Anne hurried to catch up. “Where?”

“Mr. Nguyen’s house.”

Do Some Damage Nominated for David Thompson Award at Spinetingler

Do Some Damage, the group blog of which I am a part, has been nominated for the David Thompson Community Award over at Spinetingler. Not only do I love blogging with seven other fantastic crime/mystery writers, I am truly humbled to be up for an award named after my late friend, David Thompson, of Murder by the Book and Busted Flush Press.

I congratulate the other nominees, especially fellow DSDer Steve Weddle, whose year-old, ink-on-paper magazine, Needle, has also been nominated.

Joelle Charbonneau Answers *That* Question

You know the one: How did you come to write this book?

Patti Abbott has started a series over at her blog that asks this question of various authors. If I wasn't already a regular reader of Patti's blog, I'd have started just to read this series. Today, she has lassoed my fellow Do Some Damage scribe, Joelle Charbonneau, into answering this question about "Skating Around the Law," her debut novel. Head on over to Patti's blog to find out Joelle's answer.

And, as I wrote in the comments section on Patti's blog, I am less that 100 pages from the end of of this book. I'll review it in full once I'm done. As of now, however, I can say that this book is very entertaining and downright fun. And, since I still don't know whodunnit*, I can say that the mystery aspect of it is well crafted.

*Last night, I might have an idea of the culprit. We shall see...

Christmas Noir at Do Some Damage

Over at my group blog, Do Some Damage, we're running a series of Christmas noir stories. The stories are posted just about everyday--with some days having two--until Sunday, 2 January 2011.

So, if you need a little extra spice during the holiday season, head on over and take a read.

Writing about reading

I've written a third post about the nature of reading over at Do Some Damage. Today it's how books are time capsules.

The first was titled "What is Reading?"
The second was titled "The iPad: is it medium or is it the message?"

Woodstock = Facebook circa 1969?

I think so and I wrote about it a Do Some Damage today. Check it out and see if you agree.

Two Reviews and an Inaugural Blog Post

My review of Jeff Abbott's Trust Me got picked up New Mystery Reader. You can find it here.

You can also find my review of Clyde W. Ford's Whiskey Gulf. After you read the review, head on over to Clyde Ford's website. It has a lot of good material including a neat map program that'll let you see where the events of Whiskey Gulf take place.

And be sure to head on over to Do Some Damage and read my inaugural post. I'm the Saturday guy. I hope I hold up the high standards my fellows have set.

Do Some Damage goes live

The new group blog of which I'm a part, Do Some Damage, is now live. Head on over and check out the initial blog entry. Tomorrow, we seven will post short bios to get everyone on the same page. Starting Monday, regular columns begin with Steve Weddle. I start next Saturday. Check out the blog, leave a comment, join the ongoing conversation.


For those of y'all on Facebook, we have a page there, too.

"Do Some Damage" group blog

I have some exciting news: starting 1 August, I will be one of the participants in Do Some Damage: An Inside Look at Crime Fiction. The brainchild of Steve Weddle, I think the mission statement says all you need to know:

Do Some Damage is a group of seven crime writers, each with a different voice and something to say. From grizzled vets to grizzly rooks, they pull back the curtain on the way the industry works. Whether beating deadlines or beating characters, each week they share their thoughts on reading, writing, plot, voice and all the sordid junk that goes through a writer’s brain.

Count me in as a 'grizzly rook' since I don't, as yet, have a published book. We all have a scheduled day, as you can see here:

Monday - Steve Weddle
Tuesday - Jay Stringer
Wednesday - John McFetridge
Thursday - Dave White
Friday - Russel D. McLean
Saturday - Scott D. Parker
Sunday - Mike Knowles

We're going to have a couple of days of introductory material this weekend and the regular columns start on Monday, 3 August. Thus, my first regular column will be next Saturday, 8 August.

I have to tell I'm quite excited about this new venture. I read other group blogs regularly (Murderati, Women of Mystery, and others) and I've always liked the idea of a regular column. I did that last year with this blog where I posted certain types of posts on certain days. Now, I have a place for a weekly column. I'm jazzed. I have a few ideas for the first few columns but I'll leave myself open to change them as circumstances allow. It should be fun.

Come check us out this Saturday, put Do Some Damage (http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/) on your blog reader of choice (I use Google Reader), and join us in an ongoing conversation about the ins, the outs, the triumphs, and the heartaches of crime fiction.

Here's a hint at probably (note the word "probably") my first posting topic: I've been undergoing an analysis of my writing life in recent days. I've been in a valley, steep walls blocking me in. I've made some decisions in my writing life that should allow me to crawl up those walls and peer over the edge. What I intend to see is sunlight dawning. I'll let you know.