Giovanni Gelati's Blog – November 2011 Archive (59)

Ladies and gentleman, and I use that term loosely as I know many of you, a new anthology is about to hit the world smack in the face, “Dark Pages-Volume 1” !

The idea for this came from the brilliant and fertile minds of two people, on opposite sides of the world: Paul D. Brazill in Poland and B.R. Stateham in the U.S.A.

The idea and the challenge: to find the finest Noir/Hard-Boiled authors the world has to offer and find out what it means in different parts of the world. To…

I have never looked at the number 11 in this manner, the hard way. But once you get into it, you will see that the title is apt. Eleven stories that have edge, moxie, and a bit of punch in the face reality that will satisfy any reader looking for a single yet multifaceted read. Basically Graham Smith delivers the goods not just once, twice or even three times, but one less than a dozen. This is the unbaker’s dozen of  hard-boiled/noir that works as intended; it is dark, has plenty of meat…

Have you read any of the Drunk on the Moon Series yet? No, why not? I suggest you stop what you are doing and get on it then. This is the sixth installment in the series and it shows no signs of slowing down so you might as well get onboard while you can.

Paul D. Brazill and John Donald Carlucci deliver one of the richest, fullest reads the series has delivered. Roman gets fleshed out even more, if that is possible for a werewolf, and has some fun doing what he does best, being a…

The next two days of posts for me will all be works from authors that reside overseas. I wanted to start off the fun with Darren Sant. His work on this digital short series is nothing short of spectacular. He is able to get down, dirty and into the heads of those that reside on the other side of the tracks. The attitude, the manner, the fabric of what everyday life must be…

There are at least 12 new releases this week from the authors of Trestle Press. A wide variety of genres and included in the bunch is one incredible anthology-“Dark Pages-Volume One”, and a new edition to the #1 Best-Selling Short Story Series in the World-“Amish Knitting Circle”.

Here is the lineup of new releases for this week:

Tanya Contois- “Wicked Little…

Earlier this year I attended the Harrogate Crime Festival and in my role as a reviewer for crimesquad.com I had been asked if I would conduct a few interviews. I had done it the year before and had interviewed lots of my favourite authors, including such names as Mark Billingham, Jeff Lindsay and Jeffery Deaver.

So I had a look at the line-up of authors…

  I write a short story series about an atypical hit man.  The series is called Call Me Smitty.  The stories are atypical in that he does things you least expect from a professional killer. And it is this unexpected, unanticipated quirk in the man's personality which I want to discuss briefly. Specifically I want to discuss three stories I am particularly fond of

In…

Other than my son-in-law, nobody in our family really enjoys Monty Python or Benny Hill. My daughters did make the recent Royal Wedding quite the event though. Hey, I have 7 daughters, remember?

The last six months or so though, I have come to grip with the fact that I have been trying to vary my reading as much as possible. I have even tried to read some romance dare I say it. Okay I just did. One thing that has become a staple of my reading has been authors from Europe. I don’t want…

How Characters Drive Plot

Following is an excerpt from Character Development from the Inside Out by Scott Morgan, Copyright 2011 and published by Open Door Publications, Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

I understand what people mean when they refer to plot-driven versus character-driven stories. They define “plot-driven” as something like a mainstream thriller, such as a James Patterson story, whereas they define…

I have my wife hooked on these things, these little novels around this time of year. Melody Carlson is beginning to become a tradition here at Casa de Gelati. My wife reads the story and then tells me to read it. I know I will enjoy it so I do and did, then my daughters form a line and the book goes from one to the other till they have all read it. Pretty good mileage on this novel.

What is not to like? The cover just rocks, the content is just as good if not better which is a true…

I have been reading a lot of death and mayhem lately so I was lucky enough to dig this out of the reading pile and get to it. Just the cure for a respite from cars blowing up, end of the world scenarios and terrorists, unless of course you count nice old ladies coming into bookstores terrorists; they come in all shapes and sizes you know.

Dan Walsh delivers a very twist on a classic theme and does it with a very nice deft touch and plenty of panache. These are not words I usually get…

Since a monster surge of traffic ate my website's generous November bandwidth in less than 12 days (crimefictionbook.com), I've no choice but to make this extremely important announcement right here, right now. I need your full attention. This could be the most significant few sentences of your entire life. One that will blow everything you thought about being human on this planet out of the water.

Yes, that's right. Santa is real.

And not in some "he's real in our hearts,…

Hey, another busy week of interviews has us going Monday through Saturday this week with plenty of incredible authors to listen to and learn from. Here are the days, times and lineup of authors:

Monday – Angelique LaFontaine and Paul Guthrie- 5pm EST

Tuesday- Les Edgerton- 6pm EST

Wednesday-Heath Lowrance-4pm EST

Thursday- Angel  Zapata-4pm EST

Friday-Frank Duffy at 6pm EST and then at 7pm EST The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Book Town

Saturday-starting…

Reading a book you already know the ending of before you start I think lends to a bit of trepidation. I had a little bit. I mean I have read other novels by the author, enjoyed his style, enjoyed the substance, have had many good experiences so why not right?

I have to say he nails this, from the first page to the last, he struck every chord, hit every note, and made a recount of events seem as real and visceral as if I was there, watching it all unfold in my face. The tales of…

Tanya Contois will be releasing “Wicked Little Lies” with Trestle Press Tuesday November 15,2011. Here is a synopsis of the story and her biography:

“Jocelyn has just turned 18 but instead of having the big celebration she was looking forward to for so long she finds out that not only is she not fully human but the people who raised her aren’t her real parents. Instead…

Why did Pharaoh accept Joseph's dream interpretations and not the others'?

When Pharaoh had his two dreams (Genesis ch. 41), he wasn't short of interpretations and meanings. "Pharaoh sent and called all the necromancers of Egypt and all its sages, and related to them his dream, but no one interpreted them for Pharaoh." Meaning, not one of them offered an interpretation which satisfied Pharaoh.

But first, here are the dreams:

Dream 1:

From the Nile were coming up…

Party Time! Yes it is. Trestle Press will be holding a number of them, in the virtual sense. Feel free to drink all you want; it is a virtual party, the drinks are on you, sorry. Trestle Press will be hosting at least four of them between now and the New Year. The dates will appear below with the Trestle Press twitter link so you can party hardy dude. I mean if you are going…

Admission I need to make before we go any further: I really had no idea that “flash fiction” could be this much fun before I got to read work from Darren Sant, Luca Veste, Sue Mydliak,  McDroll, and now Col Bury (hopefully I didn’t leave anyone out, if I did excuse me, sorry).

I am not sure what possess an author to try to tell a story in such a short word count, but for these people it works and works well. I am not just curious but totally enthralled when I read this stuff.…

UK author Hardit Singh releases the digital short story “Fast Lane’ with Trestle Press today.

“Fast Lane” synopsis and a bit on the author:

“Detective Vincent Perez operates on both sides of the law and is comfortable with doing so. However, he doesn’t realise he is slowly losing himself in the darkness, he is trying to stop.

 It is only when he endangers…

Genre

One of the difficult things for me when describing my work (either when self-publishing or when querying an agent or publisher) is to place it within a genre. My stories play with crime, some elements of noir, but not all-in in most cases. I include the supernatural when the story feels right, but it’s not quite horror, but doesn’t feel much like dark…