Thoughts as 2009 comes to a close:
Brandon Blake in 09, Jack McMorrow and friends in 2010. About to start writing a new Blake, some good outside projects underway. It never gets old as long as there still are surprises, moments to go into the notebook.
The big guy in front of me in the bank today, 6-5, 280, built like a slow-moving tractor, knock-kneed, giant work boots and a hand that looked like it had been whittled out of a chunk of oak. Looked like something you’d tie a horse to if you didn’t want it to wander off.
But his voice, soft and polite: “I’d like it all in twenties, if you can.”
More for the notebook: a guy down the road intercepted en route to what was reported as a mission to kill. Twelve-gauge behind the drivers seat. Loaded. Two buddies in the car, said they didn’t want to have any part of “this.” Beyond that, nobody talking.
A night in December, snowing hard by the lake. A loon’s call cuts through the storm. Two days later, the lake froze over and the loon was gone.
Full moon driving up the coast this week. Tidal marshes piled with mosaics of ice, shining blue as sapphires.
A woman on a deserted stretch of the interstate. Car abandoned in a snowstorm. Footprints cross the median strip. Stop. She hasn’t been seen in three weeks. I can’t get her out of my head. Where is she? Why has she disappeared? Who is she? The article in the paper said she used “an alias.” Marla Moon. With Marla on my mind, into the new year I go.
In PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel, Brandon gets a full dose of bad guys. A brawl in a funeral home introduces him to Joel Fuller, a sociopathic hustler. Fuller is fresh out of jail and determined to take Brandon out—after Fuller and his sidekick Kelvin shake him down.
Rocky isn’t a tough guy. He’s a skinny little kid with crooked glasses, and he shouldn’t be homeless in Portland, Maine. When McMorrow and Roxanne pluck him from under the stomping feet of a gang of street kids, Rocky latches onto McMorrow–and drags him into a world of murder, both old and new. Why is McMorrow protecting Rocky? The cops want to know. Why is Rocky on the run? McMorrow wants to know. Why does death follow in Rocky’s wake? Jack and Roxanne need to find out before they’re added to the list. 
Facebook
Twitter
RSS