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June 17th, 2013

A Writer’s Day Off? Doesn’t Happen

What am I doing when I’m not writing? Thinking about writing. Preparing to write.

A lot going on right now and I hope it soon will be in your hands. I wrote a post for the Maine Crime Writers blog last week about what I’m up to. It starts like this:

Hey all. Gerry Boyle here to tell you what you may already know. The writer’s day off? There isn’t one.

I say this having been in a holding pattern for some time with two completed books (ONCE BURNED, McMorrow No. 10, and THE DEAD SAMARITAN, a stand-alone crime novel written with Emily Westbrooks) as we try to figure out just where the publishing industry is going. Short answer: it’s like Maine weather. Wait a minute and it will change.

But that discussion is for another day. Today we talk about what writers do when they’re not actually writing. They think about writing.

I’m headed into a new book, PORT CITY KILLSHOT, a Brandon Blake set in Portland and in a down-at-the-heels textile town a few miles to the south. I’m sketching. Plotting. Replotting and resketching. Next week or so I head down to do some location research. And then off we go.

There’s lots more so check it out. Also on that page is Paula Keeney’s shout-out to Maine mystery authors, including moi. Paula is co-owner of Mainely Murders Bookstore in Kennebunk, Maine. Great store and Paula is very knowledgeable. If you’re in K’bunk, please drop in. If you say I sent you you get, well, I don’t know what you get but try it and find out for yourself.

I’ll be back here tomorrow with upcoming events, etc. Hope you can drop by.

Tags: Brandon Blake, crime novels, Damaged Goods, Gerry Boyle, Jack McMorrow, Maine mysteries, Maine writers, mystery novels, Port City Black and White, Port City Shakedown No Comments »

March 31st, 2013

What I’m Working on. And How.

Hey all. Gerry Boyle here. A quick post this week because I’m headed for the finish line on THE DEAD SAMARITAN, a crime novel set in Ireland. This is the collaboration I’ve mentioned before. I’m here in America (most of the time). Freelance writer and blogger Emily Westbrooks (also my daughter), is on the ground in Dublin. It’s a good team. I think it’s a good book. Hope you all get to judge sometime soon.

More on the details when it’s done (I’m superstitious about talking too much about works in progress). Today’s post is about process and this one is coming together differently than any of my other mystery novels.

Every book is different, of course. I’ve written novels in one draft, one shot, no revision at all (DAMAGED GOODS). I’ve written novels where I’ve changed villains in the rewrite (DEADLINE). I’ve written novels where a third of the original ms. has been left on the cutting room floor (BORDERLINE).

But I’ve never done one like this one, which is being written in layers. I’ve been doing some video work in my magazine job, some voice over, script writing. I’ve also been watching the video editor work his magic, weaving sound and video, splicing and dicing. It’s fascinating and fun.

I’ve also been reading about painters and their process, layering on of paint, a final addition of light and color bringing the work to life.

And maybe some of that rubbed off because SAMARITAN is being written in a long burst of dialogue. Very little expository anything. Always moving. The dialogue and action driving the book along.

That’s layer one. Then comes blog posts and text messages (key to this one). Then some more Irish-izing of the dialogue (lots of Irish friends ready to help out there. Hello, Dublin northsiders!). Then some fleshing out of the landscape.

And voila. The complete story, hopefully seamless and smooth.

Will I write the next one like this? Apply this process to the next Jack McMorrow or Brandon Blake? Probably not. But we aren’t stamping out cookies here folks. And has this one been fun? It’s been grand.

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January 1st, 2013

Another Year Begins

Hey all,

Happy 2013. The world didn’t end, you’re still reading, and I’m still writing. In fact, I’m in the study right now, 16,000 words into a new stand-alone mystery novel. More on that soon. I’m also looking forward to publication of ONCE BURNED, the new McMorrow. More on that soon, too. Sorry to be so vague but there’s lots happening behind the scenes. Stay tuned.

The view from the study window, aka what I see when I'm procrastinating!

In the meantime, if you want to chat face to face, I’ll be at the Scarborough (Maine) Public Library Sunday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. This is part of the Friends of the Scarborough Library Literature Series called “Murders They Wrote. I’ll be catching people up on my doings, writings, Jack McMorrow and Brandon Blake, and whatever else comes up in the conversation. Hope to see you there.

Tags: Brandon Blake, Damaged Goods, Down East Books, Gerry Boyle, Jack McMorrow, Maine mysteries, mystery novels, Port City Black and White, Scarborough Maine Library No Comments »

October 30th, 2012

Life on the Edge

October Morning on the Lake

HThanks for stopping by. And if you’re wondering where I’ve been, I can tell you I’ve been painting the house. This involves Hey all:

Thanks for stopping by. What have you been up to? In addition to writing, I’ve been spending much of my time standing atop very tall ladders. So you may say, why don’t you hire somebody to do that? What if you fall and break your wrists and can’t write? Well, that would be a bad day. For me, especially. But sometimes a crime novelist has to live on the edge. Right now that adrenalin rush is coming from standing near the top of a 40-foot extension ladder. And hoping a bat doesn’t explode out from behind that shutter.

Anyway, I’m working on a few things. Both continuing series and something entirely new. More news on that to come shortly. I’ll post it here and on my Facebook page, which I hope you’ll visit and “like.” Also, a couple of appearances this fall (ah, I can’t say no). I was unable to make the Bangor Book Festival. Sorry about that. I will be at Rockport Public Library, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. I hope to see you there.

I’ll leave you with these

images from autumn in Maine. Today I saw sumac waving from the roadsides like red-orange cheerleaders; a garter snake that tried to cross a road and didn’t make it; a painted turtle that did; two turkey vultures feeding on a large but unidentifiable carcass in a field.

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October 9th, 2012

The lineup! Lithgow Library, Augusta, Maine

Hey all. A few of us Maine crime writers are making our way to the Lithgow Library in Augusta this month. As you can see in the library’s great poster (they go all out at this place), I’m Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m. Come and join us for a good chat, unveiling of some new work, a general fun time.

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July 13th, 2012

So many authors …

Hey all,

Saturday Aug. 14, it’s off to the Boothbay Book Fest. Forty authors, including moi. A flash mob of Maine authors of all sorts and sizes. Don’t miss it. If you do, hope to catch you later on. The list of my stops for the summer is below, or click on the “events” tab.

Tags: Brandon Blake, Damaged Goods, Gerry Boyle, Jack McMorrow, Maine Crime Writers, Maine mysteries No Comments »

July 5th, 2012

Summer in Maine

I’m writing today about the places I go that make me love this state I live in. Check it out at mainecrimewriters.com, the blog site. And don’t forget the ongoing library tour. Love to see you if you’re in the neighborhood.

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June 28th, 2012

Summer Reading, with Jack McMorrow

Hello friends,

A quick note on a summer day in Maine that can’t make up its mind: rain or sun, blue sky or dark gray clouds. I go outside, come back in, go outside, come back in. I’m in now and it’s showering so I thought I’d be in touch with you all.

Three things:

One, I’m at work on a new McMorrow, in the research stage but not long from starting to write. I’m excited about the premise. I can’t tell you because that will jinx it. Not that I’m supersititious.

Two, I’ve got a few appearances coming up. Next is the Auburn (Maine) Public Library, Monday July 2 at 6 p.m. Come join in the conversation.

Three, in my travels people have said they’ve been having trouble finding some of the early McMorrow novels. Not to worry! Just drop me an e-mail at gerry@gerryboyle.com and we’ll fix you up. We have the books in hardcover. Let us know what you need and we’ll have them signed, sealed and in the mail. Don’t want you to miss any of Jack’s adventures, or Brandon Blake’s, either.

Tags: Brandon Blake, crime novels, Damaged Goods, Jack McMorrow, Maine mysteries, Maine writers, mystery novels, Port City Black and White No Comments »

June 6th, 2012

The Summer 2012 Maine Library Tour

A quick reminder, folks. Here are upcoming stops. Hope our paths cross along the way.

June 7, 6:30 p.m., South Portland Public Library.

July 2, 6 p.m., Auburn Public Library.

July 14, 12:30-3:30, Boothbay Harbor, Books in Boothbay.

July 17, 6 p.m., Rangeley Public Library.

July 25, 5:30 p.m.,Tenants Harbor Public Library.

Aug. 9, 5:30 p.m., Newport Cultural Center.

Aug. 23, 7 p.m., Orr’s Island Public Library, with Kate Flora.

Hope I see you along the way.

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June 3rd, 2012

Why Birds Abound In My Books

A reader named Rick, who lives in Belfast, wrote recently to say he’d just finished DAMAGED GOODS. Rick bid on the book and lunch with me at a fundraiser auction. DAMAGED GOODS, McMorrow No. 9, was appropriate because it’s set in the coastal town of Galway, Maine, which is a lot like Belfast. And I mean a lot.

So Rick and I ate in Darby’s Restaurant, had a very pleasant conversation, and a stroll around downtown Belfast to see some of the locations McMorrow frequents. Rick read DAMAGED GOODS that week and was kind enough to send me a note saying that he’d liked it very much. (Authors pretend not to need this sort of positive reinforcement but most of them are lying.)

But Rick’s first reaction was interesting. He said he could tell I was a birder because there are birds all through the book. And I suppose there are, though I’ve never sent McMorrow out with his binoculars and field guide. But my reporter protagonist is aware of his surroundings, natural and otherwise, and if you live in the country it’s very likely that you’re surrounded by birds. And if you know birds at all, you can’t help but notice what’s out there.

McMorrow and I share some qualities, I guess, and this is one. When I step outside in the early morning I look up at the sky, the woods, and listen. Often there are a dozen or more birds calling at once and I run through the list as I walk to the road to get the newspaper. Orioles, various warblers, sometimes an osprey, crows, chickadees, vireos, robins, bluejays, cardinals, thrushes, woodpeckers, sapsuckers. To some people it’s just a cacaphony, I suppose, a lot of chirping and tweeting. For me and McMorrow it’s much more than that.

So that’s the explanation for the bird thing. To me birds are as much of the landscape as the clouds in the sky.

One morning last week I woke up at 3 a.m. to a wonderful hooting sound. Outside, close to the house, a great horned owl was calling. Another answered. It was a territorial call, from what I’ve read and heard, some maybe there’s a nest nearby.

It was very cool. So don’t be surprised if, in an upcoming McMorrow novel, a great horned owl awakens Jack as well. Funny how that happens. Must be because Jack and I walk the same woods.

Tags: birds in fiction, Brandon Blake, Damaged Goods, Gerry Boyle, Jack McMorrow, Maine mysteries, Port City Black and White No Comments »