Are you hot?

You think it's hot where you are, huh? These guys are hot . . .

Copy editor hell

Some days after wading through a long and harrowing copy edit, I like to grab a beer and sit out on the front bench, watch the cars go by, and think of the nervous breakdown the copy editor who worked on Fight Club must have had . . .

Dictator's Ransom

Should have linked, huh?

Here's the book on the B&N website...

Dictator's Ransom.

And the url if that doesn't work:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Dictators-Ransom/Richard-Marcinko/e/9780765317933/?itm=1

Another Rogue trailer




Here's another version of the Fact or Fiction book vid trailer for the new Rogue Warrior book coming this fall. The only real difference from the earlier version is that the music track starts at the top.

(There are some other technical differences, but they won't be visible in the playback. The vid is just a concept rough, not a finished product, if that matters.)

The vid probably isn't going to be used as a real promo piece because the lawyer suits thinks the script is too "controversial," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. But I like it. Sets up the book pretty well.

Latest rumor (7/13) on Dictator's Ransom is that there's been a bigger pre-order response than expected and if demand continues to build they may release it to the stores or at least to people who have ordered it a few weeks early. Keep those cards and letters coming; we appreciate it.

Now watch me get in trouble for this, too...

Well, at least it's not China . . .


Just when you thought things couldn't get worse...

Anheuser-Busch Agrees

to Be Sold to InBev

Anheuser-Busch agreed on Sunday night to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev for about $52 billion, putting control of the nation’s largest beer maker and a fixture of American culture into a European rival’s hands.

No doubt they'll do for Bud what they did for Bass...

Thrillerfest

The International Thriller Writers Association held its annual dinner and group therapy session last night in New York. The Guru was there, of course, holding court in a corner of the Hyatt bar, a place where more books have been inspired and brain cells killed than any other place in Manhattan.

My only disappointment was that David Hagberg wasn't wearing a tux. On the other hand, he did have some clothes on, so I should count my blessings.

Prior to the real start of festivities downstairs, ITW gave out awards:

BEST NOVEL
The Ghost by Robert Harris (Simon & Schuster)

BEST FIRST NOVEL
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
The Midnight Road byTom Piccirilli (Bantam)

2008 ThrillerMaster Award for recognition of her illustrious body of work and many contributions to the field was granted to Sandra Brown.

But Jim Rollins' recounting of the "best" Amazon reviews ever received by members was what stuck with me. A couple (paraphrasing):

"All your books really suck, but this latest one was by far the worst..."

"This book is so bad I'd un-read it if I could . . ."

Amazing how mothers can turn on their children...

They say four, you say three, I say . . .

By now, everyone who cares has probably heard that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards tried photoshopping their way to intimidation by altering a shot of a screwup into a success, replacing a missile launch failure with a copy of a successful one. The shot on the left is the one they released first; the other is the (supposedly) real version:



A better view of the (supposedly) undoctored version:





I say 'supposedly' because everything in the image should be treated with suspicion; start with the varying trajectories and make yourself crazy from there...

I'm no analyst so we'll let the experts digest the tea leaves, but I would point out that the missile on the erector - and it would seem the others - isn't a Shahab-3, Iran's medium range ballistic missile* that's got everyone's panties in a twist. At best (worst?) that's a theater missile, with a much shorter range and smaller payload. And if that photo is real, it looks to have about as much chance of hitting its target as I have of nailing a muskrat with a headshot at half a mile with a .44 . . .

Still hurts if you get hit with with it, of course. And you might argue that Iran's ineptness only makes them more dangerous, not less . . .

* - Another weapon whose accuracy and specs remain to be proven, but we'll leave that for another day. There's no question that it is a potent missile, at least on paper, though.

The lights come on . . .

Albeit slowly.... From the NY Times:

Militant Gains in Pakistan

Said to Draw Fighters

WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.

The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, these officials say.

The American officials say the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops...

(For the whole story, click here.)

You'll pardon the shameless plug:

Well, maybe you won't. Get the story ... and a bit more...there anyway...

All part of the plan . . .

Exports to Iran Surge in Bush Years

At the same time that President Bush accuses Iran of helping terrorists and harboring nuclear ambitions, U.S. exports to that country have grown more than tenfold during his administration. The biggest product? Cigarettes.

Closer . . .

It figures that a Romance publisher would get it:

Harlequin is the first publisher to release entirely enriched eBooks

TORONTO, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Harlequin Enterprises Limited (http://www.eharlequin.com/), the global leader in series romance and one of the world's leading publishers of women's fiction, announced today the launch of their Enriched Edition eBooks. With this launch, Harlequin becomes the first publisher to offer entire eBooks that are enriched with interactive buttons that hyperlink to Web sites with more information about the content.

Won't be long now until it all comes together.

Who you callin' a dilettante???

From the wires:

White House apologizes for insulting Italian premier in press kit

The White House apologized today for a press kit that describes Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice."

"The often thick, paper-bound briefing book is issued to all members of the White House press corps who travel on international trips," ABC News reports. "The book usually includes maps, country statistics, transcripts of relevant speeches and interviews and biographies of the leaders President Bush will meet while traveling."

Here are some of the phrases it used to describe Berlusconi:

• "hated by many but respected by all at least for his bella figura (personal style) and the sheer force of his will." (via Reuters)
• "Primarily a businessman with massive holdings and influence in international media, he was regarded by many as a political dilettante who gained his high office only through use of his considerable influence on the national media until he was forced out of office in 2006." (via Bloomberg)

The Associated Press says the offending passages came from Berlusconi's entry in the Encyclopedia of World Biography.

"The sentiments expressed in the biography do not represent the views of President Bush, the American government, or the American people," presidential spokesman Tony Fratto tells the wire service. "We apologize to Italy and to the prime minister for this very unfortunate mistake."

They thought those were good things to say about him.

But really, Silvio as most controversial? In a country that gave us Nero and Mussolini? Just goes to show what a bella figura will do for a man...

Speaking of baseball . . .



Click the face, add the player. They want an email address, so give them Jerry's.

You have something under forty-eight hours...

Bean-town love...

And he seemed like such a nice fellow when he was screaming 'murder the Yankee bastards' at the Stadium the other night . . .

New Yorker Beaten on Red Sox Turf

FALMOUTH, Mass. (July 7) - A man was ordered held without bail Monday for allegedly beating a New York man with a baseball bat because he thought the man was a Yankees fan.

As it turned out, the New Yorker allegedly beaten in the land of the Red Sox isn't even a big baseball fan... (William) Nestor said he's not a particularly big baseball fan and didn't know the Red Sox were playing the rival Yankees over the weekend. He was treated and released from Falmouth Hospital.

In May, a New Hampshire woman was charged with second-degree murder and drunken driving in a fatal crash following an argument over the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Ivonne Hernandez, 43, told police she was trying to scare off a group of people who were hitting her car and yelling after they spotted a Yankees sticker on her rear windshield.

Police said Hernandez drove away from the group, then turned around and headed directly toward them. Matthew Beaudoin, 29, of Nashua, was killed, and a woman suffered minor injuries...

If you've been to a Yankees-Red Sox game at the Stadium in the past few years, you know that not only do Red Sox fans attend the games in large numbers, but they have absolutely no qualms about being as obnoxious as possible. A sizable portion attend primarily to antagonize Yankee fans. Yet no fights break out.

All right, I've seen one in the past three or four years.... things are a far cry from the days when anyone wearing a Boston cap into the stadium would leave with broken bones and little hair...

Have Yankee fans become more civilized? Older, wiser, a little less drunk? More drunk?

One thing I know - a whole bunch are paying off their car loans by selling their tickets to Boston fans looking for an easy thrill...

Rogue Warrior trailer

Just another day at the office for the Rogue Warrior . . .




That's version 1...

Laugh or cry?

Seriously, no one knew this??? . . .

China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

" . . . Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized by President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative” interrogation methods.

Several Guantánamo documents, including the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came to be employed.

But committee investigators were not aware of the chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The chart and article were from an analysis of Communist Chinese torture - um, interrogation methods - used during the Korean War to extract (false) confessions, which at least some of the commies apparently believed were truthful. (Well sure, because it's what they believed to begin with, the schmucks.)

Supposedly, the Guantánamo interrogators took the methods without knowing where they'd come from... and by implication, whether they'd work or not.

I mean, duh, even I saw the parallel. Doesn't anyone study - or even read - history any more?

Come on. I'm thinking there's more to the story, but then I'm an optimist ...

Click here for Times story

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us/02detain.html?ex=1372737600&en=727ea9eaf9d71aa3&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Stealing Cars (5)

(started 6/13)

Jeff pulled up near the steps to the train platform.

“You got your ticket?” he asked Stephen.

“I don’t need no tickey. I’m driving back.”

“The hell you are. Even if you had a car – you’re drunk, dude.”

“So many cars here.” Stephen bent his head past Jeff to survey the lot. “There’s got to be one with the keys in the ignition. Or screw it, I’ll just jump it.”

“You don’t even know how.”

“Ha. Watch me.”

“You’re drunk. Go home to your wife.”

“My wife.” Stephen dipped his head, then turned and looked in the other direction. “I think it’ll be that Nissan Z over there. What do you say?”

“I say the train will be here any minute.”

Stephen grabbed the door handle, snapped it back and got out. Then he leaned back into the car, his breath heavy with booze.

“You comin’?” he asked.

“Where? New York?”

“Steal a car.”

“Screw you.”

Stephen laughed, then slammed the door shut. The window was still open.

“See ya,” he said. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Happy B-day.”

“Happy B-day. B-day.” Stephen leaned down against the door. “I am taking a car.”

“Don’t call me when you get caught.”

"I never get caught,” he said, his voice firm. “That’s the shame of it.”

“Right.” Jeff put the car in gear.

Driving over the bridge, Jeff heard the train’s horn in the distance and wondered if Stephen was getting on.

He would.

Probably.

Maybe not.

“Always was an asshole,” Jeff said aloud. Then he turned the radio on to drown out the train.

Rogue Warrior - Fact or Fiction?

North Korea blew up the cooling tower to its big, bad nuke reactor Friday . . .



A definite step toward . . . peace?

To get the full story, you'll have to read Rogue Warrior: Dictator's Ransom this fall.

Apache attack...



Notice the layered procedure to get clearance to fire?

The longer version gives a better feel for the mission...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31d_1212789344

Of course, some of us just like the boom...

George Carlin

Stealing cars (4)

Started 6/13

“What we oughta do is steal a car,” said Stephen, pulling himself inside Jeff’s Honda. “For old time’s sake.”

“Old time’s sake? We never stole cars.”

“Why not?”

“Because we weren’t thieves.”

Jeff checked his watch. The last train out of Beacon left in twenty minutes – just enough time.

“I ain’t livin’ in the past, Jeffy. I’m movin’ forward,” said Stephen.

“The booze is what’s movin’,” said Jeff. He laughed uneasily, hoping he wasn't as drunk as his friend.

“We gotta steal a car tonight. That’s what we gotta do.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re outa your fuckin’ mind. You work on Wall Street, for christsakes. You gotta big job.”

“We gotta steal a car.”

Stephen didn’t answer. Neither spoke again until they were three-fourths of the way over the bridge.

"A fast car," said Stephen. "Not a piece of shit."

(to be continued . . .)

Who's on first . . .



Sometimes, being confused is the only sane response ...

More Abbott & Costello:

http://www.abbottandcostello.net/

Paola from Italy . . . isn't

So Dogboy calls me last night at like twelve or one or something, on my cell no less, all hot and bothered. I figured he was in jail, but no, it was a real crisis.

"Paola from Italy isn't," he said, his voice distraught.

"Isn't what?"

"From Italy. Or Paola. She's Bernice from Queens. From Queens."

"I was just talking to somebody about Queens the other day," I said. "About how it's not like a status thing or a tough-guy thing, more a self-put-down - "

"Are you listening to me? I got a personal crisis here, and you're going philosophical."

"Who's Paola anyway?"

"Bernice... Remember that web site I told you about? Remember how I was having a conversation - "

"Are you talking about a porn site?"

"You are really no help in a friggin' crisis."

The line went dead. I killed the cell and went to sleep.

Stealing cars (3)

“It’s a miracle we never got arrested, half the stuff we did.” Stephen picked up the shot glass and downed the vodka in a gulp. Then he pushed it across the bar for a refill. Skye was the best you could do here.

“We never did anything they would arrest us for,” said Jeff.

“Shit on that,” said Stephen. The bartender wasn’t responding, so Stephen took out his wallet and unfolded a hundred.

No, I’m paying,” said Jeff. “It’s your birthday.”

“Don’t sweat it, boy. I’m rich.” Stephen held his stare a second, then started to laugh.

“You ain’t rich,” said Jeff, serious, and a little offended.

Stephen laughed even harder. “Who cares?” he said, sticking the hill in the glass like a flag.

...to be continued

The Rogue speaks (YouTube version)



The marketing suits asked Dick why he didn't feel the need to be politically correct. He gave a calm, reasoned answer... before clearing the room.

The book can be pre-ordered here:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Dictators-Ransom/Richard-Marcinko/e/9780765317933/?itm=1

among other places...

Stealing cars (2)

“I can’t imagine doing that commute every day,” Stephen told Jeff when he saw him on the platform at Beacon. “Shit.”

“Shit yourself. How are you?”

Jeff gave him a bear hug and an arm punch, and they were on their way. Stephen was tense, more on edge than in the city a month ago when they’d hit the Stadium together and walked up the block for something to eat. But he shrugged when Jeff asked if something was up, and Jeff dropped it.

"Old place hasn’t changed, huh?” said Stephen as they drove to the river where the restaurant was.

Newburgh had changed a lot, Jeff thought, but he didn’t say it.

“Man, the things we used to do here, huh?” added Stephen.

“We had fun.”

“Newburgh – city of sin. But we made it out alive.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Oh yeah. You’re still a prisoner.” Stephen turned to Jeff, suddenly animated. “Go down Dobbs and over to Johnson.”

"Bullshit on that. This ain’t the place to screw around.”

"Just do it.”

“No way. I value my life.”

“Why?” said Stephen, with an edge. But he let it drop.

(to be continued)

Stealing Cars (1)

Stephen was turning 30 and Jeff decided to do something special, take him out like the old days when they were kids in Newburgh. For the past few years they’d been drifting apart – since Stephen got married mostly – but when they were kids they were tight, knew what the other was thinking by the way he squinted.

Stephen was in finance on Wall Street. He lived in the city but if he didn’t he’d have a house near the river, a big empty place where Jeff’s boss would tell him to add twenty bucks to the standard charge when he went on a maintenance call. Jeff was an AC tech for a local company, had his own truck, doing pretty good in his eyes and compared to most people he knew, except Stephen. Stephen was in a whole other class, able to score Ranger tickets where they brought the food to you and you felt the cold of the ice.

“You want to party?” Jeff asked when he sent the text. “Up here? B-Day????” It took nearly the whole day for Stephen to get back to him. “Ynot?”

(to be continued)

For all you plane buffs . . .

The folks at the Smithsonian put together a list of the top ten planes of all time for the July issue of their magazine. The list ...

1. Wright 1905 – (Note that that's NOT the first plane.)
2. Junkers F13 – Not the first airliner, but the first with a light metal skeleton. Eh...
   
3. Boeing 314 – Pan Am's 314 Clipper - this is why they serve drinks aboard planes...
4. B-29 Enola Gay – One of two specific aircraft on the list. Doesn't really fit, though they try to make a claim for the B-29 as "the first nuclear capable aircraft" and mention its pressurized cockpit.... More evolutionary than revolutionary, unlike the first swept-wing jet bomber (the almost forgotten B-47) and the first stealth bomber(the misnamed Stealth Fighter)...
   
5. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 15 – Good jet fighter, but is it really more important than the Me-262? And its superiority over the F-86 is greatly exaggerated, even if it is usually done as a compliment to U.S. pilots.
6. Sikorsky S-55 – Not the first helo used for air rescue, but it did make it routine during the Korean War.
7. Cessna 172 –Got me. There are a hell of a lot of them, though.
8. Learjet 23 – First commercially successful corporate jet. Hard to argue.
   
9. Boeing 747 – The Clipper's grandson.
   
10. General Atomics MQ-1 Predator – Not the first UAV, but certainly a successful one and one that is in the public (media's) mind. UAVs certainly are the way of the future (and the present, actually)
    

Half the fun is disagreeing. Here's a link to the magazine where the list appears. If you scroll down, you can read some of the debate over what belongs and doesn't belong on the list ...

http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Aircraft_That_Changed_the_World.html?c=y&page=1

See Dick talk

... for the new Rogue Warrior, coming out this fall ...




And guys, stop selling those bootlegged (as in stolen) advanced readers copies (as in early, unfinished and unauthorized drafts) on EBay, all right? Sheesh....

My kind of book party

The authors of Dinner Party Disasters: True Stories of Culinary Catastrophe, which Abrams published last month, saw their book’s thesis live in action at a recent dinner party, when fists flew over the presidential election just as guests were finishing their entrées.

Twenty-two movers and shakers of Litchfield, Conn., gathered last weekend at the home of a local couple for a dinner party to honor the book’s author, Annaliese Soros (first wife of financier George Soros), and her contributor, Abigail Stokes. Dinner Party Disasters promises to guide readers “through the faux pas that other hostesses have made so that you don’t make the same mistakes.” It contains instructions for putting together the “perfect mix of guests, food, décor, entertainment, and preparation, ensuring your next gathering will be a rousing success.” It is unclear whether or not the party’s hosts had read the book prior to the event.

As entrées were being enjoyed, a McCain supporter and an Obama supporter, having exhausted their verbal arguments, lunged at each other with fists flying. Eventually the kitchen staff came to the rescue and separated the two men, but not before some blood was shed and the well-heeled guests were shaken up. After a cooling down period, the rambunctious guests returned to the table (with revised seat assignments) and ate dessert.

“It’s funny now, but it wasn’t so funny then,” said coauthor Stokes. “The irony was that as the evening began we all kidded around about how someone should stage a disaster at one of these book parties—and lo and behold, it happened.”

I would've waited until after dessert to throw the first punch, but that's a personal preference.

A whole lot of 0's and 1's


From today's news :

An American military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.

How safe is your encryption?

Then again, maybe they're just going to use it to surf porn sites . . .

But no, all that stuff in Deep Black is made up....

Conspiracy



So what's the book about anyway?

Prince's party

I was always under the impression that Dogboy could barely read, and that the closest he came to the book world was the display of porn behind the gas station where he buys his smokes and ammo. Then yesterday he calls up and says he was at the year's biggest literary bash - Prince's party out at BEA in LA Friday night... and Saturday, and Sunday . . .

Me: Why were you at Prince's?
Dogboy: He parties, bro. He was rockin'.
Me: Yeah, but how'd you get an invite?
Dogboy: P Diddy invited me.
Me: The rapper?
Dogboy: He's a lot more than a rapper, dude. Now he's a literary impresario.
Me: You're white trailer trash. Why was he hangin' with you?
Dogboy: Because he knows cool. And hey, Guru was looking for you.
Me: Guru? My editor? He was there?
Dogboy: No shit. He was like, where is DeFelice? Why the hell isn't he here? But I covered for you.
Me: How?
Dogboy: I told him you were too stuck up to be at a party like this. I mean, Vana White's old house? Come on.
Me: Thanks.
Dogboy: From now on I'll just say you're in jail. Better?

Pakistan today

From today's NY Times . . .

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — With great fanfare, the Pakistani Army flew journalists to a rugged corner of the nation’s lawless tribal areas in May to show how decisively it had destroyed the lairs of the Taliban, including a school for suicide bombers, in fighting early this year.

Then, just days later, the usually reclusive leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, held a news conference of his own, in the same region, to show just who was in charge.

Here's a hint about how well Mehsud is doing - he's got a nicer truck than the army leader there . . . and he's not worrying about the price of gas.

Full story:


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/world/asia/02pstan.html?ex=1370145600&en=9c5f2e8207b51128&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Just gimme the paper . . .

So Sunday morning at God's hour the local supermarket is having a grand reopening in celebration of having relocated the lettuce to an even less convenient place and added twenty-five more aisles of pseudo-organic food right next to the potato chip aisle. They also moved the front door three feet to the right, replacing the section where they used to sell books, except of course they didn't sell any because it was right behind the door.

The store manager come up and tried to give me a cup of supermarket coffee, a bag of popcorn and a balloon. I passed on all three. The bagpipes began to play and five guys ran up with 'Can I help you' T-shirts.

Not one of them knew where they'd moved the Sunday papers to.

Under the time cards, behind the courtesy desk. Would have been nice had they been put together. But doing it myself, I ended up with two classified sections... handy bathroom reading for the guests.

One of the bagpipers did look kind of cute.

Deep Black

On Sale Tuesday . . . and Wednesday, and Thursday . . .

On Charlie Dean

The next book in the Deep Black series, Deep Black: Conspiracy, is out next week. Here are some thoughts about Charlie Dean, the series' main character . . .

The difference between fact & fiction

So Fred calls and tells me his next book is featuring Jack Pilgrim, my character from Leopards Kill.
"You can't do that," I tell him.
"Why not?"
"For one thing, he's not your character."
"So?"
"And for another thing, you write non-fiction."
There's a pause in the conversation. Then he says, "Wanna talk about the Mets?"

On the train

Stephan did something for Naval Intelligence, though what it was exactly none of us were ever sure. He came out of the Navy as an officer, in need of a job and looking after. Somebody, I think it was Paulie, got him a job on the railroad. So for a million years now he’s been a conductor, working late runs.

I saw him the other night, late coming out of Hoboken. He looked more like a ghost than he’s ever looked, which is saying something.

He took my ticket and didn’t acknowledge me. It wasn’t like the train was full of people or anything, but that’s Stephan.

Twenty minutes later he came back and sat down next to me.

“Train hit a deer last night,” he said, without any prelude. “Took the head right off. Still by the tracks. If you look carefully just after Mahwah, you’ll see it.”

“How you been, Stephan?” I asked.

“Mmmm,” he said, and got up.

I looked, but never saw the deer.

First Team interview outtakes. . .



The You Tube version. Different frame rate. Same big nose...

Just call me, Mole Man . . .

Cold blooded and impervious to pain.

From the AP . . .

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers. A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added.

Wade Payne, AP

Despite their scary appearance, naked mole rats are sweet and gentle, according to one scientist who worked with the animals.

Naked mole rats live in cramped, oxygen-starved burrows some six feet underground in central East Africa. Unusually, they are cold-blooded — which, as far as anyone knows, is unique among mammals.

Horrible photos

So I needed a passport-type photo taken and went down to the local passport-photo taker, who stood me in front of a white wall and shot me in the worst possible light with a cracked lens and numbers across my chest.
Fantastic.
I always try for the worst possible photo in those sorts of situations. Because let's face it: the only time they're really going to be useful is if some poor schmo is ID'ing you in the morgue, and you're not going to look your best there anyway . . .

Dogboy & bugs

Hadn't seen Dogboy in a while, so I went over the other day to help myself to some free beer.
"What's up?" I asked him between guzzles.
"Nutin'. Kinda slow around here lately."
"Mmmmm...."
We drank the next beer or two without saying anything. On the fourth or maybe fifth round, Dog came back to life.
"Swallowed a bug yesterday," he said.
"Really. Highlight of your day?"
"Hell yeah - got stuck in my throat and the only way I could get rid of it was to bend over and throw up."
"Uh . . ."
"Then I got thinking," continued Dogboy. "What if it was a bird? A big bird. A really big bird with scratchy feathers."
"You shouldn't think. It's hazardous to your health."

First Team



Is this thing on???

At least my nose is in focus . . .

Great sub book




And now, a shameless plug, but not for myself . . .

If you like submarine stories, nonfiction that reads like a Tom Clancy novel, or twisted tales of Cold War intrigue, this book's for you. Jerome's a friend of mine, but I'd recommend it anyway.

Here's an interview he did:

http://www.mpbn.net/radio/mainenews/080509preisler.htm

Among other things, the book reminds us all of how dangerous serving your country can be, even in a time of "peace."

Reviewers

This was in Publishers Marketplace today:

PW Cuts Reviewers Pay
The price of gold has risen sharply in commodities market, but the "gold standard" for book reviewers is headed in the other direction. The NBCC blog posts this letter received by a member from the Publishers Weekly reviews editor:

"Dear Reviewer,

We are under constraints to reduce our expenses and must reduce the fee we pay to reviewers. Any reviews assigned after June 15 will be billed at $25 per review. However, you will be credited as a contributor in issues where your reviews appear. Please know that we value the work you do for us. Your astute reading and writing are what make our magazine so valuable in the industry and we regret this necessary action. All of us here are also experiencing change but we expect that we will continue to be the gold standard in book reviewing."

I'll kick in another fifty on the reviews of my books . . . maybe even more . . .

First Team: Soul of the Assassin

So how do you buy the book, Jim?

Here's a link to the Amazon sale site:

http://www.amazon.com/Larry-Bonds-First-Team-Assassin/dp/0765307146/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210845616&sr=8-1

And Barnes & Noble:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Larry-Bonds-First-Team/Larry-Bond/e/9780765307149/?itm=1

And Merritt Books, my local bookstore . . .

http://www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/oop/click_ord/showdetail.html?sid=1967&isbn=0765307146&buyable=0

The 'real' Ferg, as if there were such a thing

One of the great things about Ferg – the real Ferg – was that he had a way of bending space entirely around him without making you mad at him.

Late one night he called me in Xxxxx, waking me up. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Ferg? WTF????
Ferg: Hey.
Me: Where are you?
Ferg: I’m in Yyyyy.
Me: You’re supposed to be in Zzzzz tomorrow.
Ferg: Yeah. Probably I won’t make it.
Me: Fug...
Ferg: I might be able to make it, if you picked me up at the train station in Aaaaa and drove me to Bbbbbb. I can catch a ride from there.
Me: What am I, your friggin’ taxi now?
Ferg: I was just saying . . .
I picked him up. The bottle he pulled from his coat only partly made up for it.

The editor/writer relationship . . .



I've had this meeting . . .

First Team, fiction & reality . . .

More on reality and fiction, and where you draw the line:

Most of Soul of the Assassin is set in Bologna, Italy. It takes place in the city center – and it really is the city center, though we had to fictionalize a few things, including some of the buildings where the action takes place. One interior in particular had to be changed around . . . well, it’s actually more or less the same, just re-purposed. And repainted.

It’s kind of cool to look at real buildings and imagine your characters moving through them. That’s one of the things that makes books different for writers than readers. There’s a scene in one of the Deep Black books where Charlie and Lia are in an elevator talking. Or not talking, which is a problem for them. It’s an emotional scene, and I’m sure readers focus on what’s going on between them.

But for me, the scene is all about that elevator, which I rode up and down in for a week while researching the book.

Damn thing made me so claustrophobic, I started taking the stairs.

Speaking Larry Bond . . .

I mentioned Larry Bond in my last post. Larry is the lead author on the First Team series, and a great, easy going guy, real easy to work with.

He once said something about collaboration – it’s the sort of art that succeeds when both people do eighty percent of the work.

I'm probably misquoting him, since he's more eloquent than that.

Anyway, I always say Larry does the eighty percent that's good . . . I put in everything else.

A bullshit tour de force . . .

Speaking of mixing fiction with fantasy . . .

(Margaret B. Jones was really Margaret Seltzer. Everything she says in this interview is completely made up, as was her “memoir.”)

Real life/real fiction

People sometimes ask how real the books are write are, meaning I guess whether the things that are described in them really happened. I usually have a lot of trouble answering because there are always many real things in the book, and it’s hard to explain exactly where the line is sometimes.

In the First Team books, for example, the lead character – Bob Ferguson – is based on a real person. Obviously, he finds himself in somewhat different situations, and this is a work of fiction, not reality. But when I’m working on the book, I see Ferg – the real Ferg – in my head.

My memory of the real Ferg pretty much guides what the character does. There are plot necessities and the like, but his attitude toward life and the rest are spot on.

Or at least I think they are.

I don’t know if that information is useful at all to the reader. Larry Bond and I once had a semi-long discussion on the relationship between real and not real characters. His take, if I’m remembering it right, was that he really didn’t want to know. He preferred to think it was all made up – it was almost as if that made the spell we fall under when we read a good yarn that much better.

And in a way, of course, the characters in novels are all made up, even Ferg. The real person is not the fictional character, no matter how close the resemblance. The novelist has to remain completely in control of the fiction, something that never happens in real life. (Especially where Ferg was concerned.) There are always differences, no matter how tightly drawn the character is, points where reality fades and fiction takes over.

The real Ferg, for example, didn’t have cancer. (That part of the character comes from someone else, actually.) And I don’t think the real Ferg could dance as well as the fictional character can, though I can't quite recall ever seeing him dance.

Same guy, though. Plop the real Ferg down in Bologna, have him target a sniper who’s actually targeting him – basically everything that happens in Soul of the Assassin would happen in real life.

Well . . . I suspect the real Ferg would have figured out what was going on by the second chapter, ending the book far too soon . . .

Larry's right - better to think of it as all made up.

Out next week:

First Team - Soul of the Assassin





. . . . except for some reason I keep hearing the title as "Sold the Assassin," which kind of puts a different spin on things.

Rock the Casbah...



Rachid Taha . . . is Algeria's coolest rocker.

The root of my problems


So I'm in the men's room, puking my guts out, and someone comes in and goes to the next stall.

"Your problem, DeFelice," says a voice I don't recognize, "is that you're writing literary work in a non-literary genre."

The toilet flushes, and I go on puking.

I told you not to play Feelings . . .

PORT CHESTER — A bride and groom arrested at their wedding reception after the bride trashed a set of conga drums in a spat with the band have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

The bride, 41-year-old Fabiana Reyes, was also accused of breaking a speaker in a dispute over the music at the April 5 reception. She has been sentenced in Village Court to the six days she already spent in jail. She also paid the band $1,500 for the damage.

Her 42-year-old husband, Elmo Fernandez, and their 21-year-old daughter, Helen Fernandez, were accused of interfering with Reyes’ arrest. They pleaded guilty Thursday and promised to stay out of trouble for a year. Both were stun-gunned by police during the fracas.

The daughter said the couple was legally married in 1986 but delayed their church wedding until last month.

High class literary talk

So I went to the Edgars* last night and learned all sorts of important things, like how to survive a three-way.

Damn, these literary discussions get serious a half-hour before the bar closes.

*Edgars = the annual awards dinner of the Mystery Writers of America. Thanks to my friends at Tor for sneaking me in.

Train talk

Overheard yesterday . . .

Guy 1: Yeah, he musta been there three or four days. Down in the basement, where he lived.
Guy2: Basement apartment?
G1: Yeah. With the dog.
G2: And it ate him?
G1: Just the soft parts, eyes, you know. Of course, three or four days like that, the body blows up a bit. Dog musta taken a few bites and said whoa. Kept on chewin' though. Hungry . . . Want another beer?

Changing your luck

So we're at the Yankee game last night with Money Guy, and it's 3-2, Detroit's favor.

"I'm gonna change their luck," says MG, and goes and gets a beer.

By the time he came back, it was 5-2.

Then I remembered he grew up a Boston fan.

Good beer, though.

WTF

Friends from hell

So we go over G-Man's house Saturday and first drink him out of beer and then offer to buy dinner but the Chinese takeout place doesn't take cash so it's all on him. The only way his wife could get rid of us was to start talking politics . . .

Poor guy oughta start hanging with a better class of people.

Bernie the plumber (8)

(this started on April 8)

Bernie rose, cocking his arm back to swing at the man in the suit

“Bernie, let’s go,” said his wife, her voice almost a whisper.

Tonight, of all nights – tonight he wasn’t going to be stopped.

“Bernie. Please.”

A lifetime passed as his muscle flooded with blood. Then the dealer began shutting down the table, the other players drifted off, and Bernie stood alone with his wife.

On the long drive home, neither spoke. Mary wondered why she felt so terrible for doing the right thing. Bernie didn’t feel anything at all.

Bernie the plumber (7)

Bernie felt his heart pumping. Finally, tonight, he was doing what he’d dreamed of so long ago, cutting loose.

It was the long moment before the wall.

He turned his cards over to double up. But as the dealer reached to deal, a hand came across the table and stopped him.

“You’re done tonight, Champ,” said the tall man in the pinstriped suit who’d grabbed the dealer’s arm. “Good night.”

“What?” said Bernie.

“Good night.”

The man put his hands on his hips. He was big – far bigger than Bernie. His neck was thick and his nose pushed off to the left.

“No,” said Bernie.

“Give him five,” the man told the dealer, pointing to the hundred dollar chips. “Then he’s gone.”

Two other men appeared behind him. They were even bigger than he was.

(more to come)

Rogue Warrior



This is the cover for the next Rogue Warrior, Dictator's Ransom. I'm not sure how close this is to the final cover, but it's in the ballpark.

You can pre-order now at Amazon, B&N, and your local bookstore.

Bernie the plumber (6)

Bernie’s wife paced near the bar, two tables from where Bernie was playing. He was acting crazy, out of control – he’d bought five thousand dollars worth of chips, using his credit card. It was money they didn’t have, money they’d have trouble repaying, given the economy.

What really bothered her was the look on his face. She’d seen him look that way only once before. It was years ago, but she remembered it vividly, as if it were acid-etched in her brain.

Someone had backed into their car and not stopped. Bernie chased him down, cutting other cars off, even going up on a curb before finally cornering the driver at a light. Bernie jumped out and pounded on the windshield, screaming at the man, who stayed put until the police came.

Bernie was the one who was almost arrested.

She looked across the room at him now. He was going to play all night. He was going to lose all their money.

And more than that.

“Excuse me,” she said to the bartender. “Who’s in charge here? I mean, really in charge?”

(more to come)

NY Comic Con




Same vid, different processing.

NY Comic Con



The content is real; the video itself is a test involving format & processing too mundane to explain...

Bernie the plumber (5)



(more to come)

Bernie the plumber (4)

Bernie got a streak going at the blackjack table. He was up a hundred bucks, then two hundred.

But that was nothing. He was going for it tonight, going all the way. He was either walking out a rich man, or broke.

Probably the latter.

He felt as if he was racing headlong toward a wall. He looked forward to the moment just before contact, the sweet grasp of fate before the oblivion of pain.

(more to come)

From the stadium . . .

Hell is sitting next to a know-nothing Boston fan as the Red Sox score six runs.

Paradise is seeing the Yankees comeback and win, 15-9.

Bernie the plumber (3)

Bernie went to work as usual the next day. Just before lunch, a building inspector gave him a hard time about the vent work on one of his houses. The inspector was full of it, just throwing his weight around, but Bernie didn’t say anything, just nodded and shrugged.

He was home by four-thirty. The kids were already at Mary’s sister’s.

Bernie shaved, put on a clean pair of jeans and a button-down shirt he hadn’t worn in years.

“You’re wearing aftershave,” said his wife when he came down.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Where we going?”

“Atlantic City,” he said, heading for the car.

(More to come. This story started April 8)

They'll try anything

Ya don't gotta be dumb to be a Boston Red Sux fan . . .

. . . but it helps



I'm gonna guess this guy'll be sitting behind me Wednesday . . .

Here's how you curse a ballpark . . .

Email screwups

So yesterday I figured out that the email accounts for the www.jimdefelice.com website have folders that I've never gone into/seen/been able to open.

Folders full of email going back several months. Well, ain't I dumbass . . .

Sorry.

The problem has been sorted out, and most of the email (except the unknown quantity that bounced) answered. I hope.

If you haven't heard from me, please accept my apology. I wasn't being a jerk, just a dumbass.

I think there's a difference. I think . . .

Bernie the plumber (2)

“We need a sitter tomorrow,” Bernie told his wife Mary when he got home.

She looked at him funny. It had been quite a while since they’d gone out on anything resembling a date – and even longer, years and years, since Bernie had initiated it.

“Great,” she said.

“Great,” he said, and got a beer from the fridge.

(more to come)

Bernie the plumber (1)

Bernie had been a plumber since he was a kid, lugging toolboxes for his dad. Now he had his own truck, own company, own helper. But lately, copper and black pipe weren’t thrilling him. Some days he’d be on a job and forget what he was doing in the middle of it. He’d wander off, go sit in the truck while his helper finished up.

Things drifted on until one morning he got in the truck and drove. Not to the worksite, just drove. He did the same thing the next day, and the day after that.

When Bernie finally made it to work three or four afternoons later, his helper gave him notice. Bernie said he was sorry to lose him, paid him off with a bonus, and took him to lunch at Burger King.

For a few weeks, Bernie was back to his old self, up early, working late, on top of his job. But then one day on his way back home Bernie put on the radio and heard a song he’d listened to when he was sixteen or seventeen, a Bruce Springsteen song, something from Darkness on the Edge of Town.

He remembered hearing it for the first time. He thought of that the whole way home, how it had felt like it had changed his life, had set him on a different course from his father.

He thought of how that hadn’t come true.

He thought of what he should have done, would have done, could have done.

It was a long drive home.

(more to come)

'Innovating' on the backs of writers

HarperCollins* last week announced a new imprint whose focus will include "innovations" in the book business. This translated, in the mainstream and business media reports, to two major items:

- no returns
- no (or very minimal) advances to writers

(To define terms for the uninitiated: returns are books that were shipped to stores but not sold. Unlike soap, books that are in stores have not actually been bought by the stores; they're in effect there on consignment and can be returned to the publisher if unsold. The model - similar to that used in the newspaper and magazine industries - has been criticized for years as antiquated, but no publisher has been able to change it.

An advance is a sum of money given to an author before the book is published. In theory, it represents the royalties that the author will be paid when the book is actually sold in the stores generally a year or two later. The relationship between royalties and advances can be more theoretical than real. Assuming a book is published, writers don't repay the advance if less than the required number of books are sold. Just because a doesn't "earn out" - or pay off its advance - doesn't mean that it hasn't made money for the publisher, though most of the mainstream press doesn't realize this.

And one other common misconception while we're at it - advances are far lower than most people believe; the majority of writers get in the low five-figures for their books, and even a best-seller may be paid barely six figures as an advance. Not bad money, except when you remember how long it takes to write a book.)

Frankly, the reporting - even in the industry press - sucked. There were few details, and frankly it would be unfair to criticize or even comment on the plan based on the reporting. But there are a lot of misconceptions, particularly over advances, embedded in the stories, and these should be pointed out. Most specifically, advances don't just benefit writers. They help publishers as well. And readers.

Now publishers have complained about giving advances to authors since Cervantes' time, so there's nothing really new there. And I'm sure Cervantes complained about the paltry advance, at least to his friends. But the system has made the modern book industry possible.

While there are exceptions, the process of writing, publishing and selling a book can take years. Even someone considered relatively fast can take a year to deliver a book. The editing process will usually stretch anywhere from a few months to another year. Then the book is set for a publishing season - give it another six months. It hits the stores and stays on the shelves for anywhere from a few weeks to . . . well, it could be forever, but generally mass market is only going to be on display for a few months.

It takes a while to account for sales, especially when you allow for returns. And publishers still follow a schedule of reporting sales back to an author every six months (some are a year) - but typically delay those reports, by contract, three months after the period ends. Current technology gives them the relevant numbers on the period nearly instantaneously, but this is the way it's been done for decades, and since it benefits the publishers . . .

All told, it could take three years for a writer to go from idea to money in the pocket if he's paid strictly on sales - and that's if he's a very fast writer and the book comes out very quickly. Four or five is probably a better average.

Now, it's possible that the original idea of an advance was completely altruistic - a publisher didn't want his friend the writer to starve, and this was a face-saving way for the writer to basically take a loan.

Right.

But assuming that is somehow true, by paying writers before a book was even finished, publishers were able to guarantee they'd have that book in the coming publishing seasons. The writer didn't have to interrupt his work by going out and getting a job at 7-11 (though it may have paid more). This stability in the publishing industry allowed publishers to set up publishing programs that could develop a consistent cash flow, as well as set the stage for blockbusters and best sellers. They were in effect developing "product" and guaranteeing that it would be around when needed.

Readers responded - and still do. They get used to regular releases by their favorite authors, and demand (apparently) a wide-ranging selection in all genres. Advances make that all possible on a regular and predictable basis - critical points in the modern marketplace.

This is rarely if ever acknowledged, and wasn't mentioned in any of the stories that I've seen. On the contrary, the reporters all managed to convey a suspicion that conniving writers are pushing conglomerate book publishers into the red.

Instead of advances, writers will supposedly share in profits of their books. This process, of course, is never explained - and it's clear from the stories that the reporters didn't pursue answers very hard. Probably because they have no clue what questions to ask.

Forget the fact that, in essence, that's what traditional royalties are supposed to represent. And I'll save the analysis on costs for some other lifetime. The bottom line is this: unless a publisher is willing to give authors a hell of a lot more access to their accounting records than they've ever done before, the system won't work in any sort of fair way. It may work, but it won't be really based on profit any more than the present system is - and very likely a lot less.

Computing overhead is everything when determining profit - and not just because of the hassles involved when it comes to trying to figure out what fraction should be used for each book. Royalty schedules based on cover price and sales - or net received, another system reporters don't seem to know about, since it's never mentioned - is simpler and more predictable for all concerned. Which is why, with all its faults - and they are legion - it's stayed in place all these years.

These so-called "innovations" and especially the media noise around them are the latest examples of the adversarial relationship that is developing between authors and publishers at a time when the opposite should be happening. Technological changes, shifts in the marketplace and the uncertain economy are stressing the entire industry. What's needed - for publishers as well as authors - is are strong voices that recognize not just the challenges but the fact that the solutions require cooperation.

Publishers Marketplace had some "elaborations" on other ideas that actually may have exactly the opposite effect of all this. But even there, they were pretty sketchy. And there was a line to the effect that writers who "make more than publishers" probably wouldn't be interested.

Ain't too many of them, believe me. And I'm going to guess that both the editor who said it and the reporter who wrote it actually know that. But the perception is that they're legion.

Hell, all the editors I know want to get good reads out to readers. So do writers. That's really the bottom line. But it's never mentioned anywhere.

And now back to our regularly scheduled mayhem . . .

* A house which has published me very well, and whose editors and staff I respect very highly. But if this pisses them off, so be it.

Wheels of progress dept.
(Rogue Warrior update)

As promised:

(The standard disclaimers apply.)

We move slowly toward the pub date of the new Rogue Warrior - Dictator's Ransom - which the publisher has now declared will "officially" be available in mid-October.

Unofficially, I've heard that bootleg excerpts, complete with all our (my*) mistakes, are already circulating. Apparently someone xeroxed part of the early/unedited manuscript for a few friends. Bad, bad, bad...

It's nice that people like it and all, etc., etc., but come on guys - it ain't finished until it's finished. And we don't get paid for this bootleg stuff. So thanks, but ...

That goes double for the after-action report (not ours). The source is supposedly being tracked down due to "client" (aka government) concerns. (A word to the wise - all the originals were coded. So if you're the one responsible, watch your back. But you should know that already . . .)

Dick's shooting some "real" promo videos this weekend about the book. (The ones already on the internet are actually test jobs, but I like 'em.) Lawyers are supposedly going to clamp down on how much he can say - ha, ha, ha, you know how much of a chance that has of succeeding.

The cover's not finalized; I'll put it up as soon as it makes its way to me. (No, I'm not holding my breath.)

That's all I know.

* - It's my job to put in the mistakes. I think it's the one part of the task that I can say without bragging that I excel at.

Advancing the cause of peace and understanding




Oh wait, peace is a Western concept...

(This is a video from a Hamas-owned television station showing a puppet killing George Bush for every alleged wrong ever suffered by any Muslim down through the millennium. It's a children's show.)

And you thought Thomas the Tank Engine was subversive...

If ya ain't rich . . .

Stay out of New York.

City Council Approves Fee to Drive Below 60th

By DIANE CARDWELL The controversial proposal to charge drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan took a major step forward on Monday, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Speaker Christine C. Quinn wrenching approval from the City Council by an unusually slim margin. Under intense pressure from the mayor, Ms. Quinn and their allies that continued almost until the voting began, council members approved the plan to charge most drivers $8 to enter a zone below 60th Street by a vote of 30 to 20, with no abstentions and one absence.

Or at least Manhattan.

More and more, New York is a city divided - you're welcome if you're wealthy and-or a tourist; all others, tough shit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/nyregion/01congestion.html?ex=1364788800&en=27b5ea0fd539404a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink