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August 2nd, 2011

Me and Emmy Lou

A quick post today to catch up on a couple of things:

One, want to read how McMorrow No. 10 may be inspired by Emmy Lou Harris? Go to mainecrimewriters.com for the details. I kid you not. lt’s true.

Two, I’m going to let the PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN giveway go until Aug. 15. That gives the lucky recipient a month or to read Brandon Blake No. 1 before moving on to PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE, Brandon Blake No. 2. Just comment. Or send in your name and email and let me know you’d like to enter.

Three, I’m going to be at the Wells, Maine, Public Library Aug. 16 at 6:30 p.m. Rumor has it that we may have a few advanced copies of PC B&W on hand. I can’t wait to hold it in my hand.

Four, we’ve had some disturbing crime in my neck of the Maine woods of late. I’m still processing it. There are days when I wish I’d become a cop. More on that at the end of the week.

Take care and stay in touch.

Tags: Brandon Blake, crime novels, Down East Books, Emmy Lou Harris, Gerry Boyle, Maine Crime Writers, Maine mysteries, mystery novels, mystery writing, Port City Black and White, Port City Shakedown 2 Comments »

July 25th, 2011

Getting to Know Brandon Blake

Hey all. I spent part of Saturday chatting up Brandon Blake, both in his debut (PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, 2009) and his upcoming outing in PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE, due out in September. Some people had read SHAKEDOWN. Some were new to my young friend on the Portland waterfront. I have to say I’m excited to introduce Brandon to new readers, many of whom have read about Jack McMorrow for years. One reader predicted that the two of them will meet one of these books.

Could be, but in the meantime I’m pretty psyched about BLACK AND WHITE. I’m looking forward to getting Brandon and Mia, Brandon’s police partner Kat Malone, and the rest of the crew out into the public eye in just a few weeks. In fact, I’d like to get Brandon out there right now. So I’m going to send out signed copies of PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN to two commenters who tell me they want to get to know this guy. I’ll have one of my associates here pick the winners randomly. Blindfolded. Sworn to secrecy.

I’ve got to tell you. Brandon’s cut from a different cloth. In some ways I’m still trying to get a handle of the guy. It’s fun when you create a character who surprises you at many turns.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Tags: Brandon Blake, crime novels, Gerry Boyle, Jack McMorrow, Maine Crime Writers, mystery novels, Port City Black and White, Port City Shakedown 5 Comments »

July 18th, 2011

Down on the Waterfront

It’s been a nautical few days. Took the boat down the Kennebec River and across to Boothbay Harbor, a favorite run. Gorgeous weather. Eagles, ospreys, seals. Merrymeeting Bay and Hell’s Gate. Townsend Gut and Sheepscot Bay. Paradise.

On Saturday, July 23, it’s back to the mid-coast, though I’ll probably have to go by car. The event: Book signing at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, a very cool place right by Harbor Park. There are 10 authors on hand from noon to 4 p.m. I’m signing PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, the first Brandon Blake novel. Blue-water sailors, Brandon living on his vintage Chris Craft, the Portland Waterfront, boats and criminals galore.

It’s part of a whole weekend of festivities in a great city on Penobscot Bay. Here are directions. Come by, stop and chat. No better place to be on a summer day in Maine.

Tags: crime novels, Gerry Boyle, Maine Crime Writers, Maine Lighthouse Museum, mystery novels, Port City Black and White, Port City Shakedown, Rockland No Comments »

July 12th, 2011

Galley ho!

I know I’m supposed to be sort of cool about all this but I have to say that when galleys for PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE arrived in the mail yesterday I felt that little jump, that skip of the heartbeat that comes when you see your words in print.

I’ve been doing this for 18 years now and PC B&W, out in September, is my 11th book. No small number, but not up there in the ranks for somebody like the late Robert B. Parker, for example (whose endorsement I still wear with pride). But you’d think that after nearly a dozen books a bit of the thrill would be gone. No way. I picked up the package at the post office, saw the Down East Books label. I tore it open in the car outside and held the galleys up. Flipped through the pages. Read a passage or two or six. Recalled when all of this was just a few scrawled notes on a legal pad. And it wasn’t all that long ago.

Something there is about the printed word. I got that jolt daily when I was newspaper columnist. Now I get it in Colby magazine, where I write stories. I have to wait a bit longer for the bigger bang, the delayed gratification of an actual book.

I have a friend named Earl Smith who just sold his first mystery novel, THE DAM COMMITTEE. I’m going to remind Earl (and the same goes for any writer just setting out) to savor every success because each one follow a lot of very hard work. When the book is sold. When you see page proofs for the first time. A cover design. Galleys. Your first good review (Negative ones we dismiss). That first carton of books. Pulling them out and seeing your name on the cover. Opening it up and seeing the words you wrote.

This craft can very quickly become a business. There’s the money side of it. The marketing side. The slog of copy editing (OK, it’s a slog to me, maybe not to everybody). But I always tell myself not to become numb to the pure joy of doing this, the absolute privilege that it is. You invent characters, draw a place on a blank page, tell a story. And once published, the book has a life of its own. That’s very cool.

If you’re a published writer, you know what I mean. If you’re still working toward that goal, let this be an incentive, something to encourage you on one of those dark days. Opening that box—it’s a blast.

Tags: crime novels, Down East Books, Gerry Boyle, Maine Crime Writers, Maine writers, mystery novels, Port City Black and White, Robert B. Parker, Writing No Comments »

July 7th, 2011

Maine Crime Writers launches!

Hello friends,

This week we launched Maine Crime Writers, a group blog that features 10 writers from the mystery/crime genre, all based in the lovely Pine Tree State. Maine Crime Writers features me, Vicki Doudera, Paul Doiron, Kaitlyn Dunnett, Kate Flora (who spearheaded the project), Sarah Graves, James Hayman, Barbara Ross, Julia Spencer-Fleming, and Lea Wait. It’s a great representation of the various niches in the mystery/crime genre, with books set in different parts (in style and geography) of Maine. This is a great crew, excellent writers and good people. I think you’ll find them interesting, fun, surprising. We’re all very excited about this new venture and we hope readers will be as well.

I have my first post up this morning. It’s about shooting video for PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE with videographer Curt Chaput, and the effort to find the scenes from my imagined world of Brandon Blake. Interesting process! And some surprises along the way.

So check it out. We’re each writing three times a month, with guest bloggers and group blogs in the rotation. I’ll continue to write here (I have more to say than can fit in three blogs a month) but this will be a good way to add other mystery/crime writers to the mix. And please comment. We want to make this an ongoing conversation about a subect we all hold dear.

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July 5th, 2011

Maine crime writers get organized

Hello all. Greetings on this sunny Maine morning. Hope you had a good 4th, fun times, survived with all of your fingers.

A bit of news from this neck of the woods: I’m joining up with a half-dozen other Maine-based crime/mystery writers for a group blog site. More to come shortly (who, what, when, where, why) but I can say now that I’m looking forward to reading their posts and readers’ reactions. It’s a great mix from various parts of the genre. I think you’ll enjoy.

I’ll still be writing here (I spout off too much for the thrice-monthly schedule) but this will be a fun give and take. I’ll tell you more asap.

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June 28th, 2011

End of Story

Tying up loose ends here today. Some of you may remember earlier posts about the Bangor waterfront murder and its eery resemblance to the events in HOME BODY, the McMorrow novel. In the book, a street kid is murdered in a shack under the Veterans Bridge. In real life, Colin Koehler, 36, killed 19-year-old Tammy Boutilier in a “bum’s shack” under the bridge. Koehler slit the young woman’s throat in what was termed “a thrill killing” by prosecutors.

In my books, there sometimes is an unofficial death penalty. In real life, in Maine, there’s no death penalty so this week Koehler got life without parole. I read the coverage in the Bangor Daily News (they do a great job) with both great interest and tremendous sadness. Something there is about real life … as I’ve said.

Koehler says he didn’t do it, wasn’t there. At all. The jury didn’t buy it. At all. He’s got a long time to keep proclaiming his innocence. Maybe he thinks that will make life in prison a little easier. I doubt it. But as we bid him farewell, sent off to join the rest of the criminals who will soon be forgotten by the world on the outside, I can’t help comparing fictional justice with real justice. There was no McMorrow in the real city of Bangor, Maine. McMorrow lives in the Bangor of fiction, where crimes like these are dealt with swiftly and with certainty.

Is there something wrong with inventing stories like these, that are sad enough in real life? I don’t think so. I think we need to know there is a place where that can happen, even if it’s only in our imagination. I know I do.

Thoughts?

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June 27th, 2011

Death and Destruction

OK, sorry if I’m inflicting my bird stories on you all. But I’ve got to follow up on my last post on the robins and their travails.

There was a ruckus around the nest in the lilacs at the end of the barn on Sunday. I knew there were at least one baby in there, figured one of our cats had mustered up the energy to climb the branches and take a peek. So I went out to do some wildlife police action. Too late.

A merlin (AKA pigeon hawk) was on the ground with the last fledgling. Robins were in flinging themselves at the hawk, which, when I came around the corner, flew up into a nearby ash tree. It was followed by the robins and within a minutes, every bird within earshot. Orioles, catbirds, blue jays, redstarts, nuthatches, cardinals, and the robins, all divebombing the hawk. The hawk wasn’t flustered. He or she just kept plucking and eating, feathers flying, birds swooping and calling, and then the hawk took off, flew over the house with the robin in its talons, the rest of the birds following like swarm of bees.

The robins’ nest was on the ground at the base of the lilac. It was quiet at that end of the barn. All the careful nest tending was for naught. It was like some rampaging tribe had blown through, killed the children and old people, burned the shack, marched on.

So anyway, all of this just reinforces my belief that the successful life is one that, through pure luck, is spared any of the myriad random calamities that can befall us. If you’re one of the lucky ones, give thanks.

That’s all the bird news for today. Tomorrow it’s back to people. And crime. And mystery novels. And elusive justice.

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June 23rd, 2011

Maine, the way life should be

Last night, my shooting buddy Chuck B and I went up to the back field with a pistol and a hundred rounds.

Within the hour, we’d had our bag limit of PBR cans.

Why I love this neck of the woods.

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June 20th, 2011

Flight to the Death

We’re in the feeding phase here, shoveling food into the young ones, getting them stronger, preparing them for that day when they finally leave the nest.

Birds, I mean. Not kids. Kids are pretty independent. Birds on the other hand …

robin vertical small 109x130 Flight to the Death

Back off!

There are robins nesting in the lilacs on the north side of the house and in the lilacs at the south end of the barn. Last week I awoke to an awful screeching, chattering, general bird mayhem. I looked out, saw robins, grackles, a catbird, all circling the lilac, diving in, flying up for another run. So I pull on some shorts, go out to enforce the peace. The perp is a black and white cat, a stray. hanging by three paws, the fourth paw on the edge of nest. One baby has made a run for it, is flopping around in the grass. The birds are doing the kamikaze thing, dive-bombing the cat. I shout and he drops to the ground, heads for the woods. The birds give chase. I go back to make a cup of tea.

The next day it’s three robins chasing off a kestrel, a small hawk, jousting from above and below. Just one more example of the way parents will do anything to protect their young. Fight against all odds. Risk their lives. Save the kid or die trying.

I’ve kept this in mind as I sit in the study, the windows backing up to the edge of the woods, birds calling all day and into the night (Right now I can hear a cardinal, a catbird, a hairy woodpecker.). I’m writing Jack McMorrow No. 10. Sophie is almost five. She has a pony. Roxanne is hanging out. Jack is cutting wood, doing his freelance reporting gig. It’s all very idyllic—until someone threatens Sophie. And Jack and Roxanne turn into those dive-bombing robins. Clair is a screaming eagle.

Different species. Same instinct.

Over my dead body.

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