Mystery Night

This Thursday, I'll be joining fellow local area Boston writers David Hosp, Hank Phillipe Ryan and Paul Tremblay from 7pm to 8pm at Newtonville Books, where I'll be reading from Pariah and signing copies afterwards.

Kingdom Books on Killer

"Brace for it: Behind this smoothly narrated page-turner, there are levels of pain and loss that wait, along with the hardened criminals around Leonard, for a chance to strike. It won't be pretty. But it sure will be a compelling read, if you're up to all the darkness. Maybe it would be a good idea to leave a couple of lights on tonight, and make extra sure the door is locked, and the windows, too. Someone like Leonard could be out there now. In fact, it's almost a dead certainty."

I'd like to thank Beth Kanell over at Kingdom Books in Vermont for her terrific review of Killer over on their bookstore's blog.

Crime Factory #2

The new revamped Crime Factory has their second issue, and from the looks of it Keith Rawson, Cameron Ashely and Liam Jose are doing everything right with a solid mix of articles, interviews, fiction and reviews. The physical layout looks great, kind of a gritty retro look. But the biggest thing they're doing with this is not only putting out a PDF version, but also making an ebook version available for Kindle and all other ebook readers by going through Smashwords. I ran Hardluck Stories for five years, and I know how hard it is putting out a crime fiction webzine. There's an excitement every time you put out an issue that you're proud of, but it also wears on you over time knowing that only a few hundred people are ever going to read it, and I think more than anything that's what eventually kills all online crime fiction webzines. This is where I think Crime Factory now has a chance of bucking this trend---by making their issues available as ebooks for popular readers, they have a chance of greatly expanding this typical readership for crime fiction webzines. It's a smart move, and given the attractive look of the magazine, I think it's going to pay off.

I haven't read the complete issue yet, but what I've read is good stuff. This issue's got the first chapter for my upcoming book Killer (May, Serpent's Tail), and now for the good stuff that I've read: a really nicely done essay on William Greshem's Nightmare Alley by Jimmy Callaway that's making me want to track down this book, a good writer and friend Charlie Stella interviewing and being interviewed by Craig McDonald on their latest books, the Nerd of Noir's (Peter Dragovich) look at the films The Baader Meinhof Complex and Flame and Citron, and several short crime stories that I would've gladly put in Hardluck if I were still running it. My hat's off (if I wore one) to Rawson, Ashley and Jose for jumping into the fray like this and putting out such a quality product.

Killer Book Trailer

More Killer Enthusiasm

"Dave Zeltserman's Killer is simply one of the best crime novels I've read. Not in a long time, not in ages, not this year, but ever." Juri Nummelin, Pulpetti

Gearing up for Killer

Killer is six weeks away from being released in the US and is already generating a good amount of excitement.

"Spare prose and assured pacing place this above most other contemporary noirs." - Publisher's Weekly

"With graphic imagery and exciting twists, this novel is impossible to put down and has a surprising ending. A brilliant read" - Aberdeen Press & Journal

"This novel is everything hard-boiled fiction should be - compact, direct and disciplined, and concerned with humans rather than stereotypes. It is also, for all its violent subject matter, a quietly told story, which makes its tension all the more intense" - Mat Coward, Morning Star

"Killer is a major novel of crime." Ed Gorman

"The whole book is told in tightly controlled prose that's perfectly suited to the subject matter. Killer is another bang-up job from Zeltserman, and a noir novel in the grand tradition. Don't miss it." Bill Crider

"And the surprise ending... I was trembling after reading the final pages. It's a surprise not only plot-wise, but Zeltserman also turns the theme of his novel totally upside down." - Juri Nummelin, Pulpetti

"Here at the Bookbag, we've been very impressed with Dave Zeltserman's work thus far. He uses a wonderful noirish narrative that takes you straight to the heart of the story. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much style, but sticking to the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every time. With Killer, he has done the same again." - Iain, Wear, thebookgag.co.uk

"Read the book, amici. It’s a very good one that will rock you in the last few pages." - Charlie Stella

"To put it simply, Killer is a brilliant character study that will rip the literary rug right out from under the reader's tightly-curled toes." Corey Wilde, The Drowning Pool

"In a Nutshell: Superbly written with a real twist in the tale, Killer is a novel which will appeal to lovers of crime fiction and the general readers alike. As a reader who usually ‘crosses the road’ to get away from crime fiction, Zeltserman has single-handedly convinced me that I should rethink my long-established custom of shying away from the genre." RobAroundBooks

"Highly recommended ... Zeltserman’s choices and the way he links them feel exactly right. He times the revelations and the peeling away of the past to enhance events happening in the present." NextRead

Shot to Death by Stephen Rogers

When I was publishing Hardluck Stories I was always happy to be able to publish stories from fellow Massachusetts crime fiction author, Stephen Rogers, and now that Stephen has a new collection of short crime fiction, Shot To Death, I'm happy to let him hijack my blog for a day to talk about it.

--Dave

I reached the front desk out of breath.- DISTURBED

So begins one of the 31 stories contained in SHOT TO DEATH (ISBN 978-0982589908). Within that beginning lurks the ending to the story and everything that happens between the beginning and the end. Or at least it seems that way to me.

First off, I don't care for the sentence. It doesn't flow. There's something in the phrasing that just seems odd.

So, if I'm going to keep the opening as is, there's going to be something off about the narrator. (While editing the sentence would be easy enough, let's see where this one takes me.)

I reached the front desk out of breath.

We're at a hotel. Well, some restaurants have front desks, but I'm thinking hotel. A nice hotel.

I see four possibilities. The narrator is approaching the front desk from outside. The narrator is a registered guest approaching the front desk from the hotel. The narrator is an employee approaching the front desk from the hotel. The narrator is an employee approaching the front desk from the room behind the desk.

Other options are possible, but these four give me more than enough to work with.

If we're talking a nice hotel, it's unlikely that an employee would be odd in an interesting way. A dive on the other hand.... But I see a nice hotel, which means the narrator is not an employee.

Who rushes into a hotel from outside? Even if you're later than you expected, you're just going to stand in line, if only a line of one. So the narrator is a registered guest.

An odd version of a registered guest. Someone pretending to be a registered guest. Someone pretending to be a specific registered guest.

That's the spark. All that remains is the writing.

For a chance to win a signed copy of SHOT TO DEATH, click on over to http://www.stephendrogers.com/Win.htm and submit your completed entry.

Then visit the schedule at http://www.stephendrogers.com/Howto.htm to see how you can march along.

And then come back here to post your comments. Phew.

About Stephen Rogers:

Stephen D. Rogers is the author of SHOT TO DEATH (ISBN 978-0982589908) and more than six hundred stories and poems. He's the head writer at Crime Scene (where viewers solve interactive mysteries) and a popular writing instructor. For more information, you can visit his website, www.stephendrogers.com, where he tries to pull it all together.

Another Killer Review

"And the surprise ending... I was trembling after reading the final pages. It's a surprise not only plot-wise, but Zeltserman also turns the theme of his novel totally upside down."

Read Juri Nummelin's complete review here.

A List I'm On

It's pretty cool to see Small Crimes on this list of the 100 Best Crime Novels Ever Written (#53).