The fourth book on my Vincent Zandri crime spree is also his newest, "Concrete Pearl." Having read and reviewed the unholy trio that put him on the map (read my reviews of…

It's Blatant Self-Promotion Time!

I'm very pleased to announce the next standalone Maynard Soloman short story, "Maynard Soloman Fixes Social Security and Eats a Pony." After two previous installments, I finally feel like this series has hit its rhythm.

Once again, Trestle Press is offering this short story as an ebook for 99…

Click here to get "Shaken: Stories for Japan" from Amazon for the…

Book three in my Vincent Zandri marathon was…

Listen to it right here on CrimeSpace. I called in to Giovanni Gelati's G-Zone podcast today. The more I do these calls, the easier it is to sound coherent. I write for a living, not talk in front of people. But I don't mind it.

I call in about halfway through. S.R. Edvalson talks about her new noir short story in the first half. Here you be:

This seems to be not isolated to my experience, since there are scores of threads online about how facebook is mismanaging its ad system. Once you open an ad account, it requires you to enter a billing method. However, I cannot close my ad account or remove that billing method. I've tried a million ways. I can't.

Seems scammy.

They also billed one of my advertising campaigns to my credit card when they should've done it to a coupon they e-mailed me. I sent no…

This is big news. I knocked the price of my collection of experimental flash fiction, "4 Killer Crime Stories in 4 Minutes," down to free.

As of this writing, it's the #2 best-selling free (that's an oxymoron) collection of short stories in all of Amazon. You can see the list here: http://tinyurl.com/3wldvkm (Note that ranking is only as of this writing, I don't know if it will still be there when you see…

Just wanted to take a time out from reading the threads and posts to say "thank you" to the CrimeSpace community. This year marked the culmination of a lot of hard work. I turned to the C'Spacers a lot during that time, and their insights helped me get to where I am today. I may not be rich or famous, but I've got a novel out I can be proud of.

Before you break out the guitars and sing, "Kumbaya," know that I'm not kissing anyone's arse in particular. It's just good to have a…

The noir genre and I have an uneasy relationship. On the one hand, pitch black noir can entertain like no other. The characters are always in varying degrees of damnation, the violence is brutal, the alcohol/drug abuse is ubiquitous and nothing about the plot is as it seems.

On the other hand, there are certain noir stereotypes that never go away. If you've read one, you've read them all. There's the PI with the tortured past who drinks too much. There's the female in need of…

Ian Ayris is not new to the crime fiction scene, but he is on the cusp of being a debut novelist. Caffeine Nights Publishing will release his crime novel, "Abide With Me," very soon.

 …

Earlier this morning, I appeared on the G-Zone live podcast show with Giovanni Gelati. It was fun to talk with the guy, and I hope he enjoyed my company.

You can listen to a recording of the podcast below. The first parts go into the stories behind my stories, like why I would choose to have a character named "Benjamin" in my novel. Enjoy!

Trestle Press green-lit this cover this morning. It's for the first standalone in the Maynard Soloman short story series (the crusty ol' bastard's first appearance being in "Who Whacked the Blogger?")

This one is called, "Maynard Soloman Solves The War on Drugs." It's a lofty claim, but the cantankerous codger wouldn't say it if it weren't sort of true.

 …

Oh man, Crimespace, it's been moving so quick on my end. Ever since I signed up with Trestle Press, I've been keeping busy with writing, promoting, networking and everything else (not bad things at all). It's time to stop and assess the situation.

Careful, you might turn into a pillar of salt.

I find I've carved out four distinct styles of writing. My various writing projects fall into one of these categories, published and…

While I am looking forward to the May 27 live podcast at 8 a.m., I drunkenly crashed the G-Zone showyesterday evening. (OK, that's a lie, I was invited to an authors roundup by the host, but "crashed" sounds more exciting, doesn't it?)

I felt like an ant next to a herd of elephants amongst the other authors. Vincent Zandri. Big Daddy…

Grease up those tongues for lashing, I'll be making an appearance on Giovanni Gelati's live podcast, "The G-Zone," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop. My live segment airs at 8 a.m. EST on Friday, May 27, 2011, at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gelatisscoop.

"Live" means live-live, not recorded-live. There will even be a number you can dial in to harass me…

Hey, you!

Buy this book, or buy this book, but definitely buy this book or just pay attention to this sentence and buy something later.

Does BSP work? Or do readers find authors organically through non-BSP means?

Rather than rent out a community center or library for a "real-world" launch party, I'm hosting one virtually via my e-mail newsletter (shout out to CrimeSpace's Clay Morgan for the inspiration, as he's a big proponent of e-mail newsletters).

But unlike a regular old "buy this buy this buy this" event, this launch party is full of exclusive fun only for newsletter subscribers. I'm including plenty of prizes, an online video game based on the novel, writing I've never shared…