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Posts Tagged ‘Jack McMorrow’

September 19th, 2011

More quick notes

Things are rolling right along with PC B&W. Next stop is Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, N.H., Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. I’m doing a joint appearance with N.H. writer Toby Ball. He’s out there with his second noir mystery, TORCH CITY. Toby’s a good writer, very distinctive style. He’s also fun in person so if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by. I hear very good things about the store and its proprietors. Should be a good time.

Otherwise, all is well. Getting in the last boat outings of the season. Writing steadily (McMorrow No. 10). Blessed with good health, good friends, good times.

Enjoy the day,

Gerry

PS Enjoy PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE? Please drop a quick review on Amazon. I’m told this is important. I know it will be appreciated.

PSS Don’t forget to check out the group mystery writers blog, mainecrimewriters.com. Ten Maine mystery writers, blogging all the time.

September 10th, 2011

The gift that keeps on giving

A good time was had at the PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE launch event at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, earlier this week. Thanks to all who came and joined in. We had a good chat, I think. Great store. Enthusiastic group. Cupcakes where vodka was said to be a key ingredient. Portland P.D. even supplied some sort of blue-light event across Congress Street to add to the Brandon Blake ambiance.iron will shoeshine cats 84x130 The gift that keeps on giving

And there was a first. Readers bought my books. And one bought a book for me. Readers often recommend books they think I’d enjoy.  I always appreciate it, as they usually know more about what’s happening in mystery/crime fiction than I do. So after I signed books for one gentleman, he walked to the used section of the store and came back with a just-purchasd copy of THE CHICAGO WAY by Michael Harvey. He knew I was born in Chicago (father’s side of the family settled on the South Side after arriving from Ireland) and thought I’d like it. It looks good. Goes high on the stack.

And then Chris, co-owner of Longfellow, came up with another book, THE IRON WILL OF SHOESHINE CATS by Hesh Kestin. Chris, who has wide-ranging book knowledge and impeccable taste (He likes my books, after all) said this book, set in NYC in the early 60s, is a corker. My hunch is it’s noir meets 60s hipsters meets Manhattan. Can’t wait.

So thanks, guys. For the books. For coming to talk about Brandon Blake and Jack McMorrow and writing and whatever else we got on to. Nights like that are highlights in the writing biz. It’s deeply appreciated.

PS Next up is Children’s Book Cellar, Waterville, Maine, Sept. 17, 1-3 p.m. No gifts necessary. But if you’re so inclined ….

August 8th, 2011

Hey, a crime novel isn’t about PR

I’ve been thinking this of late as the release of PORT CITY BLACK AND WHITE looms. (Sept. 16). Port City is Portland, Maine, where I  nearly always have a good time. Last weekend I went to dinner (the restaurant Grace), a concert (Emmy Lou Harris), visited my daughter, and got up at 5 a.m. to take a bike ride around the downtown. The city was quiet but for the gulls calling overhead. The bay was covered in rising mist. I had the downtown to myself, except for the people picking bottles from trashcans and the homeless guys still asleep on benches in the park across from the Courthouse. I rode down Congress Street to Longfellow Square, not as far down as where the guy was shot in the chest and killed the other morning. You read about that? No arrests yet. He died in the parking lot of a convenience store at 4 a.m.Screen shot GUN 249x140 Hey, a crime novel isnt about PR

And there I go again.

When you write these books (in my case set in Portland or Waldo County, Maine, or even Boston or New  York), you take a perfectly nice place and put it through the wringer of your imagination. It’s not that you’re inventing the bad things that happen. People are murdered in these places most days. There are drug dealers and drug buyers, thieves and gropers, people who are just generally rotten. But there are thousands of good people, too, and most of them go about their business and only read about murder and mayhem in the newspaper. Those people don’t play prominently in books like these.

It’s an odd thing. I had a reader show up at a book signing for PORT CITY SHAKEDOWN, listen to my reading, and say, “But I thought Portland was such a nice place.” Well, it is. Very nice. You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer place to live. But that’s not the side of the city I write about.

It’s an odd thing, this need to insert evildoers into a story, only so you (or your heroes) can vanquish them. I find it hard to write any other way.

I was driving  through Waldo County on Sunday, coming back from a weekend away. We drove from Belfast west, up over Knox Ridge, and it was a beautiful view from the top. Rolling hills, and woods, and pastures. We remarked on how lovely it was, and then I said, ‘This is McMorrow country.” The lovely setting in those books is populated by some good people, but a lot of people you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark country road.

I love what I do. I love writing about people who do bad things. I love the push and pull of good and evil. I write about a Maine that you won’t read about in travel magazines. I long ago resigned myself to the fact that I’m not going to be the darling of the Chamber of Commerce. I once had an idea to have a book signing for passengers getting off cruise ships in Portland. I proposed it but it never happened. Go figure.

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.Port City blackŠcover 161x250 Getting to Know Brandon Blake

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.