John McFetridge's Blog (18)

The Pitch

I have a new book of short stories available for the Kindle:

 

As it says on the cover, they are short stories based on TV shows I pitched to networks.

So, if you're curious what kinds of shows are, "As Not Seen on TV," here are a few adapted into short stories.

Pulp Life was pitched as a comedy-noir cable show (it has swearing and…

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Added by John McFetridge on November 18, 2011 at 12:26am — No Comments

Finally Kindle

Finally my first novel, DIRTY SWEET, is available for the Kindle for under ten bucks ($7.16 - no idea how it ended up at that).

The book was first published in Canada by ECW Press and then picked up for publication in the USA by Harcourt. A paperback version did get published just at the time Harcourt merged with Houghton Miflin but I don't know if any…

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Added by John McFetridge on December 13, 2010 at 12:38pm — No Comments

Grow House short story now available from Smashwords

A short story I wrote, Grow House, is now available for free on Smashwords, here.

The story appeared online in Demoiltion Magazine.

The description on Smashwords is:

Stand-off in a suburban grow op. Freddie is robbing the place, Victor has come to kill him, Steve is caught in the middle and Holly is looking for a quiet…

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Added by John McFetridge on July 24, 2010 at 8:35am — 1 Comment

It's Official -- The Bridge to air on CBS starting July 10th

The cop show I worked on last year in Toronto, The Bridge, has finally been officially added to the CBS summer schedule and will debut on Saturday, July 10th at 8:00 pm.



Here is the show's description from CBS:



THE BRIDGE is a drama about a tough and dedicated police officer who is voted to become the police union's dynamic leader. To serve the public as well as his 8,000 fellow officers, charismatic Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) battles criminals on the street,…

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Added by John McFetridge on May 28, 2010 at 1:03am — 6 Comments

Barbotte

A couple of years ago a short story I wrote called Barbotte appeared in Dave Zeltserman's webzine Hard Luck Stories, edited by Ed Gorman.

Now Smashwords has made it easy for me to give the story away in a bunch of different formats. I use the Stanza app to read Smashwords books on my iPod. You don't need a dedicated e-reader, the books can be read online and are also available as .pdf and text…

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Added by John McFetridge on May 21, 2010 at 7:47am — No Comments

Ending the Year on an Up Note

A review of my novel Swap that was first published in the London Free Press (that's London, Ontario) has been picked up by the Sun newspapers in Canada and ran in the Toronto Sun a couple of days ago.



The book will be published in the USA by St. Marins Press in February with the title, Let It Ride. My editor, the terrific John Schoenfelder, has left St. Martins to start up the new crime imprint at Little Brown, so I don't really know what will happen in the new year.… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on January 1, 2010 at 1:36am — 5 Comments

The Publishers Weeky Review

Here is the Publishers Weekly review for my novel, Let It Ride (which is published as Swap in Canada):



Let It Ride, John McFetridge. Minotaur, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-59948-5



Too many characters and points of view throw off the rhythm of this sprawling homage to caper-master Elmore Leonard from Canadian author McFetridge (Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere). Venard “Get” McGetty, a vet who served in Afghanistan, crosses the border from Detroit to Toronto… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on December 6, 2009 at 6:52am — 6 Comments

The Bridge - trailer

Here's the promo trailer for the TV show I'm working on, The Bridge.











The show synopsis is:



It is the role of the police to protect society - but who is there to protect them? The police union has become powerless against the politically-motivated police department and street cop Frank Leo (Aaron Douglas) is sick of it. By popular vote Frank becomes president of the 8000 strong police union but makes many powerful enemies… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on April 17, 2009 at 1:52am — 5 Comments

Lush Life and Google's Street View

Richard Price's Lush Life is a fantastic novel for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its incredible sense of place. The whole book pretty much takes place within a few blocks on New York's Lower East Side.



Now, I've never been to the Lower East Side and the book gave a complete feel of the place, but I was still a little curious to see the area, so I looked up one of the addresses given in the book, 27 Eldridge, on Google Maps and then hit the street… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on April 7, 2009 at 2:18am — 1 Comment

writing episodic TV is like writing Haiku

Two weeks into my new job as a story editor on the TV show The Bridge (premiering July 9th on CBS at 10:00 pm), one of the more experienced writers said, "Writing TV is like writing Haiku, you have to fit everything into the structure," and I thought, yeah, that's right, people don't complain that Haiku is too formulaic.



Then he said you could also use dirty limericks as the example, but that's not as classy.



The writers' room is a very funny place and a fun place… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on March 8, 2009 at 2:40am — 8 Comments

Swap - trailer

Here's a trailer for my novel, Swap, coming out this fall.



The question is, does this get you interested in the… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on January 17, 2009 at 5:09am — 3 Comments

Bouchercon meta-fiction

Before heading off to Bouchercon this year I started to write a bit of fiction about the trip. I present the beginning of it here and will post the rest of it over the next few weeks.



Remember, it's fiction. It's all made up. All of it.





The Ten Rules





When I wrote my novel, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, I used Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing, and I’m pretty sure that Declan Burke used them when he wrote his novel, The Big… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on November 25, 2008 at 4:23am — No Comments

Free e-book - Flash


I've collected a bunch of my flash fiction and short stories (and a few interviews) into an e-book which is available for free on my website.

Please let me know what you think.

Added by John McFetridge on October 2, 2008 at 5:35am — No Comments

Hard Luck Stories



Isn't that cool? It's the illustration by Jean-Pierre Jacquet for my story in Hard Luck Stories.



Dave Zelsterman and Ed Gorman did a fantastic job editing what will, for now anyway, be the final issue of Hard Luck (never say never, guys) and it's a tribute to the pulp era. James Reasoner's story is a great south seas noir (now that's a sub-genre) and Bill Crider's story is also terrific.… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on June 27, 2008 at 3:48am — 1 Comment

I got a Kirkus review

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is out this week in Canada and comes out in July in the US and last week got a review in Kirkus. And it's starred.



I'm humbled and shocked and thrilled. I don't even have anything to say, so here it is:







It’s refreshingly hard to tell the good from the no-good in this helping of cops and robbers, Canadian style.



Sharon MacDonald, smart, attractive, a loving mother, wears one of those metallic adornments around… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on May 6, 2008 at 12:56am — 6 Comments

Genre vs. Lit - everybody's talking about it

Recently on the Elmore Leonard discussion forum, someone posted this about the novel, Pagan Babies:



"I was a bit uncomfortable at the use of a horrific, real-life tragedy within a crime novel."



Of course, almost every crime novel is inspired by some real-life tragedy. In this case it's the scale of the thing.



Pagan Babies opens five years after the Rwandan genocide with a description of forty-seven bodies, "... turned to leather and stains," in a… Continue

Added by John McFetridge on April 11, 2008 at 12:43am — No Comments

Blurbs

The advance copies of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere are being sent out and blurbs have started to come in. This is very exciting.

“McFetridge has a verteran’s way with dialogue and prose, and the pages fly by like greased lightning. You’ll love every word, from the very first windshield splat, all the way to the dynamite end. Who’d have thought there was such a seedy side to Toronto, and McFetridge is the perfect guide. Everyone Knows this is awesome!”—Victor Gischler,…

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Added by John McFetridge on December 14, 2007 at 5:26am — No Comments

Flash Fiction

Lately I've become a fan of flash fiction. I find it the perfect format to read online and it's often a good introduction to an author's writing style.

I've posted flash stories on Muzzle Flash, Powder Burn Flash and Shred of Evidence, they're all good.

Added by John McFetridge on October 11, 2007 at 7:38am — No Comments

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