New Deal with New Pulp

After dithering about the contract for an excessive amount of time, I accepted today New Pulp Press’s offer to publish my second Frank Swiver novel, tentatively titled, Last Puffs. Chuck Newman at New Pulp was very patient with me, and yesterday put my mind enough at ease to sign the contract. It helped that he seemed genuinely enthused about publishing Last Puffs, and that makes an author feel good.

Last Puffs is not a sequel to White with Fish, Red withMurder, in that it doesn’t pursue the story line of Vera Peregrino and Frank. Vera doesn’t make an appearance in Last Puffs, though she was in an early draft. Frank is responsible for two daughters, and though he and Vera were on the outs, she was the only friend he could think of to ask if she could watch the girls for two weeks. But I wrote her out when Bimla, one of the working girls from the Lotus House moved in with Frank at the end of Part II.

During the year or two I worked on Last Puffs, I was discovering that some of my favorite Raymond Chandler short stories were long by today’s standards—”Red Wind,” “Goldfish”—about 15,000 words each. I learned that The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest were serialized in Black Mask magazine. Each appeared in 15,000-word segments over four issues. The Dain Curse was another novel that could be divided into four linked stories. I decided to write Last Puffs on the model of The Dain Curse, admittedly not Hammett’s best work, but I like the structure.

We open the book in "Aragón" in 1938. Frank and his best friend Max Rabinowitz are fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republic. They meet and both fall in love with Amanda Zingaro, a beautiful and courageous Republican guerilla.

Part II is “The Girls from Nanking.” It is now late 1948. Frank is trying his hand at being a private eye. Max is a successful criminal attorney. Frank takes a case for Joan Spring, half-Chinese wife of a wealthy banker. He resolves it, though client Joan ends up in jail on suspicion of murder. In the spring, Max abruptly abandons his practice and moves to . . . Fresno.

And in “We’ll always Have Fresno,” (Part III), the boys are reunited with Amanda who was working in a Fresno cigar factory, plotting revenge against the fascists from her home village that she has tracked to California.

It all comes together (or comes apart for Frank) in Part IV, “Last Puffs.” Will Frank be a good father to the ten-year-old boy Amanda says he fathered? Why does the lad look like Max? Who shot Max in Fresno? Will spy Joan Spring escape to Red China? Can Frank help Amanda on her mission to avenge her father when he’s sworn off violence? Can he protect her from the sadistic Veronica Rios-Ortega who seeks to eliminate any witness to the murder of her husband?

Join Frank Swiver and me for Last Puffs, from New Pulp Press.
(http://www.newpulppress.com/)

Jo Nesbo's Snowman

Hei, there, (“hei” is Norwegian for hello).

I read The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo (Yo Nesboo) a Harry Hole (Hari HEU-leha) novel. Not my normal cup of tea, but it was the summer reading in my new Hopkins class, “Detectives at Home.” Nordic noir is not my cup of tea because there are too many serial killers, crimes are brutal and graphically described, the landscape seems bleak (to me) and there always seems to be this underlying tension of misogyny and violence against women. But once you get past all that, Nesbo seemed to be a good writer, certainly a few cuts above Stieg Larsson, and this was a clever multi-level police procedural.

The book did a good job incorporating the Scandinavian setting and environment into everything—plot, characters, theme. Harry Hole (depressed, alcoholic, and alone), and a couple other principle characters were well-drawn and developed, though many of the victims were just flat types. I liked Harry, and a female detective on his team, found them interesting and cared about them. I disliked every chapter starting out in another character’s point of view—usually the next victim who only live until the end of the chapter.

There were some clever oddities—murders occurred on the evening of the first snowfall, but by coincidence the ones described were on the nights of U.S. presidential elections. The writing was generally straightforward, plain and unadorned, but occasionally there were effective images and allusions, and weird, unexplained metaphors, the weirdest being that Harry’s house was being treated for a severe case of mold. The Mold Thing is probably worth a whole blog post in itself, but I don't understand it, so I'll leave that to someone else to write. 

I don’t know that I’d read another Jo Nesbo, but he’s a good writer worth a try if you’ve not read any or if you enjoy serial killer police procedurals.  

Book signing

Sunday, April 23 Book Signing With author Harley Mazuk signing his novel, White with Fish, Red with Murder, at the Mystery Writers of America table, between noon and 3 p.m. White with Fish, Red with Murder will be for sale at the festival, or bring your copy for an autograph. http://www.harleymazuk.com/	Kensington Day of the Book Festival ──── Howard Ave. at Armory Ave., Kensington, MD ──── Harley will be signing books and discussing noir, pulp fiction, and wine with friends old and new. Noon to 3 P.M. ──── Come on by! ────   Harley Mazuk White with Fish, Red with Murder www.harleymazuk.com/ Harley.c.mazuk@gmail.com www.dayofthebook.com

The Boy Who Cried Virginia Woolf

I signed up for a Stanford Continuing Studies online writing course, “The Gripping Read.” I’m trying to work on a new piece for the workshop. It flowed along fairly well for a few days, then Saturday, I had a very difficult time moving through a scene I was trying to write. Frank (the P.I.), and Vera, ( his ex-and-present lover and assistant), are trying to question a suspect in St. Francis Wood, a posh area of large homes. They go to one built against a hillside, a bit of a Spanish style that rises up, and they walk under a carriage house into a courtyard. There they see the suspect on the patio, one flight up. After a little banter she agrees to talk to them and walks across the patio and enters at the French doors. I had inordinate trouble with this. It must have taken me an hour and a half to put down 150 or so words. I struggled getting Frank and Vera invited up, and getting my suspect off her patio, and through the French doors to receive them. Even now, I’m considering chucking what I’ve written. It just wasn’t flowing.

But I saved that work and turned to the class reading which was from Frank Conroy’s Writers’ Workshop. I hadn’t seen this before but I very much liked it. Conroy breaks writing down to its most . . . elemental . . . elements, and he caught my fancy. Then he told a story of Virginia Woolf, who I believe played bass guitar for the Bloomsbury Group. Asked how her three hours of writing had gone one afternoon, she said, “Very well. I got them through the French doors and out onto the patio.”

My characters were going the other direction, but it was my Virginia Woolf moment. 

Blog on

I have a lot of material out in the Blog-o-sphere to share with you. I’m still learning about this blog tour as I go, but it seems a number of sites have posted the interview I gave to the Dark Phantom Review:

Q: Congratulations on the release of your latest book, White with Fish, Red with Murder. To begin with, can you gives us a brief summary of what the story is about and what compelled you to write it?   

A: White with Fish, Red with Murder is the story of private eye…

Read the rest of the interview on As the Pages Turn . . . 

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Joseph Arellano, of Joseph’s Reviews gave me a very positive, generous review:

White with Fish, Red with Murder is a debut work by Harley Mazuk.  This is a mystery novel with some clever locations, quirky characters, and pitch perfect 1940s dialogue.  The narrator, Frank Swiver, is a private detective in San Francisco – circa 1948, who is eager for a paying client.  As luck would have it, Frank’s interest in wine is the ticket to a job!  Retired General Lloyd F. Thursby has planned an excursion on his private rail car with wine tasting as the entertainment.

Here's the rest of the review. 

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A number of fine sites have pushed out an excerpt from the book. Here’s one:

EXCERPT:

A few lights were on in the lounge; I could see burgundy wallpaper with dark wood trim. To my right were two dining tables, each with four seats, and on the left an upright piano with a light oak finish. Beyond that, a group of folks sat in the far end of the car. I led Vera partway down, until the man facing us spoke.

“Ah, you must be Frank Swiver,” he said.

Read the rest of the excerpt. 

The Blog Tour Continues

Here are some updates on my Blog Tour. Please support these fine bloggers who support my book:

The Story behind White with Fish, Red with Murder

by Harley Mazuk

White with Fish, Red with Murder is a noir-ish private eye tale. There’s a love triangle, tough guys, lying dames, a couple of murders, greed, lust, jealousy, and nefarious schemes. It’s the kind of stuff I like to read, and I thought I should write what I like.
It started out with my 50th birthday. Read more: 
https://thestorybehindthebook.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/the-story-behind-white-with-fish-red-with-murder/

The Writing Life with Harley Mazuk

What’s inside the mind of a mystery author?

Murder most foul. I lean toward noir stories, so lying dames, corrupt souls with depraved sensibilities, double-crosses, nefarious schemes.

What is so great about being an author?

Read my answer and more at: http://thewriterslife.blogspot.be/2017/03/the-writing-life-with-harley-mazuk.html

Talking Craft with Mystery Author Harley Mazuk at the Dark Phantom Review

Q: Congratulations on the release of your latest book, White with Fish, Red with Murder. To begin with, can you gives us a brief summary of what the story is about and what compelled you to write it?   

A: White with Fish, Red with Murder is the story of private eye Frank Swiver, who accepts an invitation to a wine tasting on a private rail car, and brings along his secretary and lover, Vera Peregrino. They’re two thirds of a love triangle. The host, Frank’s client, General Thursby, wants him to find proof that a friend whose death was ruled accidental was in fact murdered. Thursby suspects Cicilia O’Callaghan, widow of his late friend, an old flame of Frank’s, and the third leg of that triangle. But Thursby takes two slugs through the pump, and the cops arrest Vera for his killing. Frank spends his nights with Cici, and his days trying to find Thursby’s killer and spring Vera. But soon he realizes he must change his way of thinking, or risk losing both women . . . and maybe his life.
Read more: https://thedarkphantom.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/talking-craft-with-mystery-author-harley-mazuk/

Fun to see a good review from Bookloons

I’ll bet it seems like you can’t go to the Interwebs anymore with seeing “Harley Mazuk.”

A couple more stops along the way on the blog tour: 

First, a “Chapter Reveal” (an excerpt from Chap. 1):

A few lights were on in the lounge; I could see burgundy wallpaper with dark wood trim. To my right were two dining tables, each with four seats, and on the left an upright piano with a light oak finish. Beyond that, a group of folks sat in the far end of the car. I led Vera partway down, until the man facing us spoke.

“Ah, you must be Frank Swiver,” he said.

Read more: https://plugyourbook.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/chapter-reveal-white-with-fish-red-with-murder-by-harley-mazuk/ 

Then I got a swell review on Blookloons:

“Author Harley Mazuk begins a debut series with White with Fish, Red with Murder taking place in 1948 San Francisco. Protagonist Frank Swiver is at a point in his life where paying the electric bill would cut into his purchase of wine, and his fondness for the company of women.

At the moment, his romantic attention is centered on the secretary in his Private Investigator's office. When he is invited to wealthy wine connoisseur Frank Thursby's wine tasting held in the man's private railroad car, he readily accepts. To his astonishment, an ex-girlfriend is also there – the widow of a man well-known in the wine community. Cicilia has been accused of deliberately serving her husband, Rusty, eggs loaded with poisonous mushrooms.”

Read more:  http://www.bookloons.com/cgi-bin/Review.asp?bookid=19358

Book Cover Junkie

If you've seen this blog, From the Spitbucket, you've seen my book cover. What's behind it? Book Cover Junkie blog asked me these questions:

Tell us about the cover design process. Did you have a basic idea of what your book cover would be like?

My publisher, Driven Press, likes to do its covers in-house. So I talked a little with my editor/handler at DP, Suzanne Kneeves. We thought maybe an Art Deco look, with a hint of Tamara de Lempicka.

Who is your cover designer and how did you find him/her?

Suzanne says to credit Mumson Designs for the work, but I think she played a major role.

How was your experience working with the designer?

For my answer to that and more of the interview, see http://bookcoverjunkie.blogspot.be/2017/03/interview-harley-mazuk-author-of-white.html 

Release Day Is Here

After many years aborning, White with Fish, Red with Murder was released Feb. 28, 2017 by Driven Press. White with Fish, Red with Murder is the story of Frank Swiver, a private eye in a love triangle. Frank accepts an invitation to a wine tasting on a private rail car, and brings along his secretary and lover, Vera Peregrino. The host, General Thursby, wants Frank to find proof that a friend whose death was ruled accidental was in fact murdered. Thursby suspects Cicilia O’Callaghan, widow of his late friend and an old flame of Frank’s. But Thursby takes two slugs through the pump, and the cops arrest Vera for his killing. Frank spends his nights with Cici, and his days trying to find Thursby’s real killer and spring Vera. But soon he realizes he must change, or risk losing both women . . . and maybe his life.
I hope you'll read my book, and if you like it, please leave a review on Goodreads, or Amazon, or . . . ?

Close writer friend Seth Harwood noticed that this blog was not very up-to-date—last post “Pearl’s Valley” was about six months ago. I know it’s a poor performance, but interestingly, I have been blogging. In fact I’ve been on a blog tour of sorts.

This post went live March 1 on Book Publishing Secrets:

http://publishingsecretsofauthors.blogspot.be/2017/03/book-publishing-secrets-with-harley.html

This one went up Feb. 28: http://straightfromtheauthorsmouth.blogspot.com/2017/02/straight-from-mouth-of-harley-mazuk.html

Here’s a guest post I did for the inimitable SleuthSayers: http://www.sleuthsayers.org/2017/02/guest-post-harley-mazuk-author-of-white.html

And here’s one I did for Ellery Queen: https://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2017/01/25/i-know-words-the-best-words-by-harley-mazuk/