Writing to Music

I write to music, as I suspect many others do, too, and perhaps not just writers but anybody at an office, garage, warehouse, etc. where the drudgery of the day needs a little relief. Recently classical music has taken over for my standard go-to jazz or rock categories. In particular, my charmer introduced me to Erik Satie's "Gnossienne no. 1" which is a moody, gorgeous composition. This particular piece plays as the soundtrack in my mind when I think of the gothic poem "The Long Return" that I wrote about a missing person.

What is your preferred musical inspiration while the job is getting done?

Ice Castles and Drifters

A week of shoveling out from various winter storms and building an ice castle (inspired by FROZEN of course) for my daughter. Early mornings have been spent finishing up a Gideon Miles novella and giving a new look to The Drifter Detective series.

2/12/15 update: And STILL more white fluff ahead which makes my three-year-old pleased because her castle is becoming quite elaborate and now includes an opening at the top. She crawls up and sits on the snow-packed roof and surveys her vast kingdom which includes a nearby bird feeder and her grandpa plowing the road. And just checking Amazon all the Drifter Detective titles have been reorganized. I do like the new look. Hopefully it kicks the series in gear.

Looking Ahead to 2013

Fatherhood
To encourage my daughter more in the creative department. We do well, but we can always do better. She loves to draw, color, and create structures with her toddler construction set pieces. Secondly, to continue her love of reading. She has now memorized a large number of her books, and as she turns the pages, she ‘reads’ aloud to herself. Priceless as they say. Btw one of her current favorites is The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood with beautiful illustrations by Don Wood.

Writing
I’ll probably stay in the hardboiled western arena but branch out with some new characters. The Lawyer, featured in the anthology Protectors, comes to mind, as well as the vivacious daughter of Cash Laramie, Veranda Jane. I also have a couple of crime fiction stories to complete.

Beer
Considering switching from Corona to Yuengling but I’ll never pass on Sam Adams Summer Ale during the warm months. Any other suggestions?

Publishing
BEAT to a PULP has books from Thomas Pluck, Heath Lowrance, Wayne D. Dundee, and many more lined up. First out of the gate will be Chad Eagleton with a continuation of A RIP THROUGH TIME, followed by Hardboiled 2 which is currently under the careful editing eye of Scott D. Parker.

Connections
Post more Charles Bukowski-style ramblings on Blogger. Give some love to Google+ by posting some short-short stories. Continue on as I am annoying folks on Twitter. Upload more personal photos to Pinterest. And, maybe, add Instagram to the list. Don’t know why, but since all my friends are doing it … “If they jumped off a cliff, would you?” as Mom would have said.

Maine
Somehow find my way back to the beauty and serenity of The Way Life Should Be state. Win, lose, or draw.

Reading
To read more non-fiction: political science and history and art. I have the genre department nailed down.

And, most importantly, lose no more than three pounds. How about you? What are your plans for 2013?

Writing and Publishing Updates

I’ve got some writing and publishing updates that are mostly Western related, hence the doodle by my buddy William E.

First up: Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles will return in a story titled “Legends.” This one, co-written with Chuck Tyrell, has our heroes in 1920s New Orleans as a sequel to “The Wicked.” "Legends" will be in the upcoming issue of Pulp Modern edited by Alec Cizak. Mr. Cizak is planning to have the third issue out in a few weeks.

I received a most welcomed email from Wayne D. Dundee who wrote to say he’s started his second Cash Laramie novel. He recently made an inspirational visit to the Vedauwoo Rocks area of Wyoming where a stellar plot for the new novel will take place. It sounds like a serious rival for Manhunter’s Mountain. By the way, Mountain is still riding high on the Western chart and showing considerable determination on the hardboiled chart. Thanks, Wayne!

BEAT to a PULP: Round Two is still in the eBook works. We’re hoping it will be available later this week.

Also coming up soon is an eBook collection of mine called The Education of a Pulp Writer: 10 Crime Short Stories.

Never slow down and you never grow old, right?

That’s it for me. What are you up to?

Reading (and writing) Westerns

Heath Lowrance with a very fine blog post on Reading (and writing) Westerns.

A Post I Enjoyed

Things I've Learned Since My First Book Got Published.

Hat tip: Chris F. Holm.

Busy Week Part 1

It's been a busy week around the Cranmer homestead. Ava is eating very milky rice cereal from a spoon and rolling over with a little help from daddy. She has mastered the art of flirting when she doesn’t want to be somewhere and knows the old softy will pick her up. She finds it works on her mother as well. We’re so in trouble!

Little d, aka my charmer, is working on some images for Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles noir western collection I have coming out in the next few weeks. I found a fine artist who drew Cash, Miles, and Kid Eddie. I have decided this will be an eBook consisting of seven stories, two of them being brand-spanking new, all for 99 cents.

And, I've been eating a lot of Ben and Jerry's Maple Blondie limited edition ice cream. They have a sexy spokeswoman, but I would push the product for them--free of charge--if they asked. Although I wouldn't turn down a Maple Blondie payment.

Present Tense

Alec Cizak was asked an indirect question in the comments section of a recent post and I found the answer too good to end there. The question: "What [is] AC's problem with present tense?”

Mr. Cizak answered:

Austin, everybody has their pet peeves about writing. Mine is present tense fiction. I know it's popular. It's become more and more acceptable over the last twenty years. I just can't read it. When a piece of fiction is in the present tense, I feel a wall between the story and me.

Another way to put it is this: Stories written in the past tense allow for reflection. It's like a nice big body of water inviting me to jump in. Present tense is like jumping in and finding out it's not water but, rather, a piece of glass that won't break.

I put that in the guidelines so people know what my particular pet peeve is. One last comparison-- I first noticed that Playboy was publishing stories written in the present tense in the mid-90s. Right about the time reality television started showing up. I said, at the time (about both), "It's a trend. It will go away." Neither has. Writers, especially younger writers, love to write in the present tense. Reality television is even on Bravo and A&E. People love it. I'm the old bastard who can't stand it. I've heard all the reasons for writing in the present tense and I'm not convinced. It just feels cold to me. Luckily, most editors aren't as picky in that area, so writers of present tense fiction have nothing to worry about!

Speaking of, I put my feelings on the matter into a flash fiction piece that is supposed to appear in a print journal some time soon now. The story is called "Presently Tense" and it's about a character in a present tense story who stops the action and admonishes the author for refusing to give his characters the opportunity for reflection.

Ultimately, we must say, to each his or her own.

I'd like to open this discussion up and see what other folks think. I, for one, find myself agreeing with AC.

Fragments

Right after I had posted that I was working on "Miles in Between" for the Watery Grave Invitational, Denise, earning the big money I pay her (she just chuckled) said, "You won't be able to finish that by June 5th." My Charmer, of course, was very right. That Marshal Gideon Miles story is in the 4k range and it would take me months to bring it to a satisfactory completion. “Have anything else?” she asked.

I went to my laptop for a file called "Fragments" where I jot down all kinds of snippets whenever something pops in the rusty noodle with the thought I can expand on it in the future. One of these named "Reflections in a Glass of Maryland Rye" had one sentence after it that read, Cash Laramie brooding in a Cheyenne saloon. Simple but that’s all I needed and fingers started dancing. Three hours later, I had a very rough draft completed of a 1,100 word story. For the past week I've been polishing it and will continue to do so up to the moment when I send it off. It's very rewarding to have created something out of next to nothing.

Anybody else have fragments laying around?

Seen the game? Read the book

See how writers are entering cyberspace.

What Are You Working On?

Today was productive with the completion of two short stories. The first is a Gideon Miles adventure called "New Dog, Old Tricks" that will be part of a western anthology in July. The other is "Clouds in a Bunker" that deals with a dementia addled patient holding the police at bay in a fallout shelter. I had been working on both for months and it was rewarding to bring 'em to a close.

What are you working on?

That Was Fast

I finished a short story I’m calling “The Outlaw Marshal” and it’s the quickest I have finished a rough draft. I have several Cash and Miles stories in different stages of completion and hadn’t really planned on writing a new western in 2011. As it stands, “Cash Laramie and the Painted Ladies” will be at Crimefactory in a couple of months, then there are a couple other C&M tales already finished that will pepper the webzine landscape.

Why a new one? What happened was I had promised an editor friend a story and sent him an e-mail that I had one if he was interested. I later realized I had broken the cardinal rule by not reading his submission page first (geesh, I hate when folks do that to me) and found I was three thousand words past the limit. In that moment, I decided to write a brand spanking new story and "The Outlaw Marshal" popped out as if it had always been waiting. An hour later, I was done. Before sending it along, I will spend a few weeks polishing it up and then sit on it to see what it looks like a month from now.

What's the fastest you have written a short story? A novel? Do you believe something written fast can be good?

Luther

I finished the rough draft on a little fart named Luther. This guy cracks me up because he is the most worthless piece of mierda I've ever had the joy of writing. This is what happens when you read back to back books about serial killers and assassins. From my Word document:

BON TEMPS aka LUTHER F. HUDSON by David Cranmer (Little d and I came up with this idea on November 24, 2010 as we drove between Maine and Westfield Mass. The inspiration is Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley (and a little of Max Allan Collins’s Quarry) but I wanted to present an absolute amoral killer with lower aspirations. I began writing it over the Thanksgiving holiday in New York. I finished the rough draft on December 2, 2010 in Maine at 4:30 ish in the morning. Working title was Lucky Hudson or Albany Hudson) 2,243 words.

What is the most vile, bankrupt character you have created and take pride in. And why?

Gustave Flaubert

Flaubert was obsessive about finding *le mot juste* (the right word), and would fill up to 50 draft pages for every final one in the book, with his handwriting overflowing into the margins and onto the back of each leaf. One page could take him a week.

Source: Telegraph.

In this day and age when folks knock out stories like rabbits multiplying, it's refreshing to read that someone like Gustave Flaubert took his time. Though, admittedly, it seems he was a bit obsessive, right?

Justice Served

I hadn't planned on finishing another Cash Laramie western so quickly but an editor asked if I had a dark tale waiting in the stable. I did -- titled "Justice Served" -- yet I'm not sure that I'm ready to release it because the hero isn't cast in the best of light. Mind you, I wrote this western with the intention that heroes often fail in our eyes, don't they? Still, since I'm fond of Cash, I've decided to hold his reputation in my keyboard for the time being. And then after a few weeks of sitting on it, which I always do to see how a story ages, who knows, maybe I'll be anxious to let it go.

The Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles canon thus far: "Cash Laramie and the Masked Devil" in A Fistful of Legends | "Miles to Go" | "Kid Eddie" ( at The Western Online in two weeks) | "The Bone Orchard Mystery" (out for submission) | "The Wind Scorpion" in the Round One anthology | and "Justice Served."

What is everyone else working on?

Needle Magazine Summer Issue

John Hornor has done an excellent job with Needle Magazine's Summer Issue. My story "The Sins of Maynard Shipley" is featured and look at that, I'm on the cover!

The Bone Orchard Mystery

I'm going to borrow a page from Chris Holm and begin chronicling the history of my individual stories immediately after their completed. This is, without a doubt, more for me than anything else. Something I can look back on.

Before I start writing a new story, I put in a short note at the top of the document saying when and where I was at that moment and then I add to the note as the story progresses. "The Bone Orchard Mystery" started over a year ago in New York, I continued working on it in southeastern Europe over the winter and into spring and finally polished it up in Maine. It's a Cash and Miles western that involves the most mystery I have infused into one of these adventures. It's the fourth in the series.

The plot revolves around the wealthy McAllister family of Twin Falls, Wyoming, and the puzzling death of an estranged prodigal son from England. When a sibling commits suicide on McAllister's grave, Marshals Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles investigate the circumstances of these untimely deaths that just may include a ghost haunting the cemetery.

Today, I dropped the story in the mail and it’s on its way to NYC to one of The Big Two. It may be a little racy for them (Cash, in particular, has a propensity for calico queens) but, if rejected, I still have confidence that I've turned in a first-rate western mystery.

I'll let you know how it goes.

A Conversation With Louis L'Amour

Read the best writing you can find, and write. Write all the time. Anything you can write, anytime.

A RIP THROUGH TIME

"If one could know both the position and vector of every particle in the universe, it would be possible not only to predict the future, but to completely retrodict the past – and, my friends, that day is soon upon us.”

Dr. Robert Berlin
MIT Commencement, 2342


Chris Holm.

Short Story Length

I'm sure this question has been asked many times before in the blogoshere, but here goes. How long do you like your short stories? In the guidelines over at BEAT to a PULP, we say no more than 4000 words, though we have stretched that a few times. As a writer, I prefer the 5000-6000 range for plot and character development. On the other hand, as a reader, if I pick up an anthology of shorts, I will read the 1500-3000 yarns first and gradually get around to the others.

Your thoughts?