Two things

 YouTube vidy of my reading a couple weeks back at Magers & Quinn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-J00OamnU

And, Amazon's got a relatively new feature for a series that is much nicer than their Author Page:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FFDLBRD

Oh, Weill

A very intimate affair last night. I guess I could blame it on the StarTribune (see previous post) and their confusion over the title of my book. Or I could blame it on the Pioneer Press and their misspelling of my name:

But I won't.

On May 23

Come Monday, May 23, I'll be reading at Golden's Lowertown with Ethna McKiernan and other fine local writers as part of Cracked Walnut's Spring Literary Festival. “Detached” is the theme and I'll try to be that.

Never did blog about my Lowertown Pop experience. I managed to sell 23 books, doubling my yearly total to that point (not counting those read through Amazon's library set-up). A successful and interesting endeavor to be sure.

My work-in-progress, The Great American Scrapbook, is turning into pretty much of a regional novel, as it's set mainly in south Minneapolis and the Uptown Bar back in 2003-04, though trips to Mount Rushmore and back into the 50s connect it with the other four books in my Americana series. I'm about halfway through it and, I must admit, have no idea where it's really heading.

HANK FENN on sale!

My latest novel, The Adventures of Hank Fenn (Americana Book 4) is out in paperback and digitally at Amazon. Paperbacks are also available in store & online at Magers & Quinn, Uptown Minneapolis. It goes like this:

For Hank, Sam never became Mark Twain. As a riverboat pilot, Sam saved young Hank from the crushing paddle wheels as the boy stowed away on the City of Memphis. Sam returned Hank to Minnesota when news reached downriver that Hank's mother was on trial for killing the father Hank had run away from. Years later, in a barber's chair prior to his mother's funeral, Hank reads a frog story that's awful close to a tall tale Sam once told. The magazine claims it's written by a fellow named Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Hank Fenn sends Hank searching the West—and then the East—for Mr. Twain. All along he and Sam exchange letters and make plans that never seem to get them together—Twain always on the road or abroad. Hank does find hatred and brutality while railroading and mining throughout this new frontier. He finds Calamity Jane in a Wyoming mining camp and Custer breaking treaties. He finds the Emperor of these United States. Ultimately Hank finds love, boys to raise and gold to unearth on a Black Hills mountaintop.

Thanks, Will

PS: An interview from last month concerning an earlier novel, Bonus Man.

Eight days left for HANK FENN

So my Kindle Scout campaign winds down. Only 8 days left to nominate The Adventures of Hank Fenn. Click here to do so.

 

They say: “The more nominations your book receives the more likely it will get the attention of our Kindle Scout team and be selected for publication.” This gives me hope that it's not strictly a matter of popularity, that merit might come into play. If not, I haven't lost anything. Did I mention there's a $1,500 advance hanging in the balance?

How It Works

Thanks for lending a hand. In any case, The Adventures of Hank Fenn (Americana Book 4) should be out early January of '16.

On the Radio

NO HAPPIER STATE (Americana #2) is set to be read and recorded for airing on Radio Talking Book (a part of the MN Services for the Blind) by legendary Twin Cities' actor William P. Studor. RadioTalking Book is a network for people with impaired vision. They have special receivers which allow them to listen to books recorded by volunteers.

No timetable just yet, but I'm honored to have the book be part of such a wonderful program.

Also: Special thanks to Satish P. Jayaraj, Cracked Walnut and everyone involved in Fractured Fairy Tales at The Lift Garage (see May 21 post). I, for one, had a great time!

On to BONUS MAN

My third novel, BONUS MAN (Americana #3), will be out May 15 (on Kindle, followed shortly by the paperback, also available on Amazon). It goes like this:

BONUS MAN explores the life of Adam “Bonus Man” Bonifacius, a former Great War medic and participant in the Bonus Army March of 1932. The march, a gathering of veterans in Washington D.C. protesting compensations promised but not paid, is ultimately turned back by the U.S. Government with tanks and tear gas. Bonus Man hits the road determined to find a way into medical school—the bonus would've done the trick—and maybe a little revenge along the way.

The thing about revenge is, well, he's just not very good at it. He is good at removing bullets, a skill acquired under fire during the war and put into practice when Bonus Man runs smack into a John Dillinger prison break—leading to a gunpoint invitation to stay on as sawbones to the gang. It may not be medical school but it's certainly an education.

And Bonus Man falls in love. Twice. If that doesn't complicate things enough, the FBI has an agent on his trail who is convinced not only of Bonus Man's complicity in the Dillinger escape but also in the Lindbergh kidnapping. 

Also: May 15 & 16, my second novel, NO HAPPIER STATE, will be FREE (Kindle version). 

Paperback & Kindle

NO HAPPIER STATE (Americana #2) is now available in paperback, as well as Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UJW5FOA

While the menfolk carve Mount Rushmore above, Pêche Appleton sells her own tiny sculptures to the Depression-era onlookers below. Some find them offensive, particularly Taft-Stuck-in-a-Bathtub, the Cancan-Dancing-Presidents, and the whole Jefferson-and-the-Slave-Girl series. Pêche is married to Ernie, star shortstop for the town team, and NO HAPPIER STATE is their story of love, small town scandal and national political outrage.

Their love is at first sight when they're twelve. The scandal revolves around the baby. The outrage involves their friends: Steinke, a German-born Jew, sent to an internment camp because the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Bad Glove Hand, a Lakota Sioux, heads for Hollywood only to be blacklisted as a Communist—but not before implicating actor Ronald Reagan in the same plot.

Despite their own personal burdens—and the Depression and a World War—love and friendship prevail in NO HAPPIER STATE (Americana #2).

On pre-order

My second novel, NO HAPPIER STATE, is now on pre-order here, with a release date set for March 18. The paperback will also go on sale on that date. It goes like this:

While the menfolk carve Mount Rushmore above, Pêche Appleton sells her own tiny sculptures to the Depression-era onlookers below. Some find them offensive, particularly Taft-Stuck-in-a-Bathtub, the Cancan-Dancing-Presidents, and the whole Jefferson-and-the-Slave-Girl series. Pêche is married to Ernie, star shortstop for the town team, and NO HAPPIER STATE is their story of love, small town scandal and national political outrage.

Their love is at first sight when they're twelve. The scandal revolves around the baby. The outrage involves their friends: Steinke, a German-born Jew, sent to an internment camp because the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Bad Glove Hand, a Lakota Sioux, heads for Hollywood only to be blacklisted as a Communist—but not before implicating actor Ronald Reagan in the same plot.

Despite their own personal burdens—and the Depression and a World War—love and friendship prevail in NO HAPPIER STATE (Americana #2).

Also, ALICE AND HER GRAND BELL (Kindle version) is FREE March 12 & 13. Plus, we just received a new Amazon review!

On sale for $0.00

With sales hovering somewhere between lackluster and dismal, it's time for a promotion. FEBRUARY 20 & 21, ALICE AND HER GRAND BELL (Kindle version) will be FREE on Amazon! 

Yours for the taking!

On being in Saint Paul Almanac

EDIT (7/1/14): Got confirmation that my story will indeed be in the 2015 Almanac. They sent me the proof and they've inserted a couple cool old photographs. Looks very nice.
 
Found out yesterday that an excerpt from Bonus Man will be included in 2015 Saint Paul Almanac. Very happy about that (I think they even pay!). This ends a streak of seven straight stories published by magazines/editors outside the U.S.—two in Australia, three in UK/France, one in Canada and one selected by an Irish guest editor at a Wisconsin mag. Nice to know my particular form of Americana finally works in America.