The Inside Look

The Russian Boy

2011-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

When I was fourteen, I was lucky enough to be sent on a summer study program to France. My first taste of freedom from home came when we landed in Nice, on the French Riviera, in late June of 1972. I was intoxicated by the glamourous beaches, the gorgeous landscape and the ever-present sun. Right then and there I fell in love with Nice.

I went back some years later, for the summer between my junior and senior years in college. I rented a cheap apartment a few blocks from the beach (toilet down the hall, no shower anywhere, French doors that looked out to a busy street) and sat down to write a novel. When I wasn't writing I was wandering the city on my mobilette (moped), going out into the countryside or traveling along the coast road.

I was fascinated by the huge Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Nice, on the Boulevard du Tsarevich, and to learn that there was a sizable community of Russian nobles in Nice in the years before the Russian Revolution. I kept wanting to write something set there, but it wasn't until I came up with the idea for The Russian Boy that I was able to.

It was great fun to research the period. What did they eat? What kind of underwear did the men wear? How did they celebrate the holidays?

I also had to research current-day Nice, which is a lot different from the city I remember. But as the story took shape-- a painting created in 1912 that is stolen in the current day from a restorer's studio in Paris-- I fell in love with Nice all over again-- as well as with Rowan, Taylor, Dmitri and Alexei, the four point of view characters who tell the story.

To see more about the book, and read the first chapter, go to http://www.tinyurl.com/therussianboy

Have Body, Will Guard

2011-07-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Have Body, Will Guard series am began with a daydream about running away to an exotic location, meeting a handsome guy and having an adventure. In the first book in the series, Three Wrong Turns in the Desert, Aidan Greene is dumped by his boyfriend of ten years, and on a whim he takes a job teaching English as a second language in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

He meets handsome bodyguard Liam McCullough and gets roped into helped him chase a Tuareg tribe through the desert. By the end of the book, they’re in love and Aidan decides to stay with Liam and become a bodyguard himself.

Dancing with the Tide picks up a few months later, after Aidan has attended a bodyguard training course and begun learning the business of personal protection. They are asked to protect a young Arabic pop star who has received death threats after coming out of the closet.

I wrote the first book hoping to reach a mainstream audience, so I drew the curtain on sex. But after signing with Loose Id, I knew I’d have to open those bedroom doors and show how Aidan and Liam connected. For the second book, though, I started with a bang-- literally. This new book is hot by design, and it was great fun to write.

One of the stories in the Surfer Boys anthology I edited was set in Djerba, a resort island off the coast of Tunisia, and I thought that would be a fun place to take Aidan and Liam and their client.

The guys go kite-surfing off the coast in this book as a way to work off some tension. Djerba has featured in Greek mythology and in Homer’s Odyssey, and it’s a gorgeous island of palm trees and resort hotels. Aidan and Liam explore the island while protecting their client, and the villa where they’re staying provides time for sexy encounters as well.

I was inspired by a lot of the photographs I found on line, like this one, of a turreted ruin somewhere in the Tunisian desert.

I love the bright, sun-washed look of these buildings. They remind me about the strong contrast between dark and light in these hot, sunny climates. There’s always going to be some danger in a Liam and Aidan book-- someone’s trying to kill the client, and there’s a mystery man who romances the client and then moves in. The book was a lot of fun to write, and I hope readers will enjoy it too.

In the third book in the series, Teach Me Tonight, they've been hired to protect Maks Bazarov, a spoiled teenager attending an English-language institute in Bizerte, on Tunisia's north coast, and sparks really start to fly (literally!) once they're in place. Someone really wants to kidnap Maks, and will go to great lengths to do so, even trying to set the monastery where the institute is taking place on fire.

Liam faces an opponent who represents his own dark side -- a soldier of fortune who is smart, strong and ruthless. Liam needs Joey’s help -- but will his attraction to his hunky pal damage his relationship with Aidan? Will Aidan turn his back on his burgeoning career as a bodyguard to return to his first love, teaching?
In his past life, teaching in Philadelphia and living with his ex-partner, Aidan had taken courses in massage, gourmet cooking, flower arranging, and a host of other skills, most of which proved useless in Tunis. The massage lessons, however, had been invaluable.

You can find all my Loose Id books here: http://www.loose-id.com/Our-Authors/Neil-Plakcy/

The Writer Wore Socks: Notes from Left Coast Crime

2011-03-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Left Coast Crime is a mystery fan convention which moves around the western part of the US every year. This year's was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and it was an excellent event.

The Santa Fe airport

The La Fonda,where the conference was set, is a charming hotel but sometimes you feel like Alice down the rabbit hole trying to find your way to the rooms. I didn't get my reservation in early enough so I stayed at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, around the corner, which was quite lovely.

The La Fonda Hotel, where the convention took place

My panel on Climate & Crime was up first and we had fun. Vicki Delany began by insisting that there is no severe weather in Canada, but eventually capitulated because she realized Canadians take in stride a lot of bad weather that the rest of us find intimidating. Victoria Heckman and I talked about Hawaii, and Lance Zarimba added some Mexican color (his book, Vacation Therapy is set there).

View from my hotel window

Inn at Loretto

The short story panel was also very interesting-- I really think that having lots of stories available in e-format will energize the form. On Friday I participated in a panel on diversity in the mystery. We had African-American, gay, Native American and First Nations protagonists represented, but I believe the point that we all write about all types of characters was an important one to remember.
Some of the panels were great, others so-so. I enjoyed hearing Craig Johnson tell stories on the Old West - New West panel. And it was interesting to hear St. Martins' editor Keith Kahla and Barbara Peters, owner of Poisoned Pen press & bookstore, with their views on the future of publishing.
The native dancers from a local pueblo were great; the boys looked like refugees from Where the Wild Things Are, and the floor of the ballroom shook with their rhythm.

One of the dancers

Aside from some pollen & oxygen problems (and having to wear socks every day due to the cold) I enjoyed the conference. Hanging out with writers and readers is always a great time!

Dennis Lehane's 10 Questions

2011-03-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Dennis Lehane gave a terrific keynote speech at Sleuthfest on Saturday, in which he listed ten questions to ask about your mystery manuscript.
1. Does your story start on page one? Stories should begin at the first action.
2. Does the main character act soon enough? Stasis early in a novel is death.
3. Does the main character have a recognizable want? A clear want leads to action, which leads to the revelation of character.
4. Does the main character have a recognizable need? A need is theme, a want is plot.
5. Do the actions of the main character seem believable and authentic?
6. Does the protagonist go on a journey which leads to an epiphany? The story is the journey-- the plot is the car you drive on the journey.
7. Do the events in the story have dramatic inevitability?
8. Is something at stake-- for example, a piece of the main character's soul?
9. Have you written the book you want to read? A book of mortal event, with big dire action that leads to big dire consequences?
10. When in doubt, just telling the f---ing story.

Key West Literary Seminar

2011-03-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

I wrote this report up for the food website eGullet.org, but never heard back from the editor in charge of the site, so I have given up on them and decided to post here.

Now in its 29th year, the Key West Literary Seminar focuses in 2011 on “The Hungry Muse: An exploration of Food in Literature.” Many participants will be familiar to dedicated foodies, including Ruth Reichl, Judith Jones, Frank Bruni and Molly O’Neill. The seminar has been broken into two halves; the program repeats, in slightly different format, two weekends a row in Key West.

Ruth Reichl began the conference with a talk in which she attempted to explain the reasons behind the explosion in food writing over the past twenty years or so. Her thesis was that as we have become disengaged from the production and preparation of food, we seek that connection through reading about it. Throughout the seminar she was an energetic and enthusiastic participant, with masses of dark curly hair and very skinny legs.

The rain disappeared and the first reception, at the Audubon House, went off as planned, with platters of moist turkey, an elaborate cheese table, and appetizers of grilled grouper wrapped in bacon, shrimp ceviche on toast, and lamb lollipops. The occasional raindrop filtering down through the high treetops was balanced out by liberal wine pourings.

Former poet laureate Billy Collins kicked off the Friday morning session with what was billed as “A Gravy Boatload of Poems” -- his own and others. His first choice was Mark Strand’s “Eating Poetry,” which begins with an arresting image of ink running from the corners of the poet’s mouth as he devours poetry.

Other Friday programs included a panel discussion between Jason Epstein, Darra Goldstein, Molly O’Neill and Calvin Trillin on the topic of “Transubstantiation: Madeleines, Anyone?” Sadly, as with many of the panel discussions, panelists hadn’t prepared in advance, made little attempt to stick to the topic, and rambled as they pleased. Did you know, for example, that Molly O’Neill couldn’t wait to get out of her hometown of Columbus, Ohio? I know that now-- since she mentioned it at least four or five times, pretty much during every panel where she spoke. I have to say I know an awful lot about her (I’d never heard of her before) because she pretty much repeated her biography as part of every panel she participated in.

The panelists were usually charming, with the exception of the elderly Mr. Epstein, who mumbled and fumbled and sometimes seemed confused as to where he was. But he was balanced out by the charming Judith Jones, who brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to every panel she participated in. She mentioned that she felt we have bought into the idea that cooking is work, forgetting the pleasure involved in preparing food. She noted that the generation after World War II wanted to be liberated from the kitchen, and that packaged foods facilitated that liberation.

She also told the “true story” behind the scene in the movie Julie and Julia where she cancelled her dinner at Julie’s. Julia Child was horrified at the language Julie used in her blog and asked Jones not to have anything to do with Julie, even though Jones had been planning to make her visit about protecting the publisher’s rights rather than validating Julie’s project.

In cookbooks, Jones looks for works that use words precisely and explain what’s being done. The joy of Julia Child, she said, was that Child taught you techniques which you could then use in preparing your own recipes. She is also interested in books that focus on the pleasure of eating.

The program organizers worked with a number of different Key West restaurants to set up special menus for seminar participants. I ended up at the Banana Café, a French restaurant which served us an awesome seven-course meal, from appetizers of lukewarm spring potato filled with a goat-cheese-crème fraiche mousse topped with ossetra caviar and a marinated cherry tomato filled with a crab remoulade all the way through fish, duck and cheese courses, finishing with a chocolate truffle served on a tiny spoon. Each course was accompanied by French wines, and a representative of the wine distributor came to our table to explain each wine and how it matched the food.

One of Saturday’s highlights was a presentation by Julia Reed entitled “Drinking and Other Southern Pursuits.” She had the audience laughing to stories of after parties at her parents’ home in Mississippi, and the food and drink served then. In a hit-or-miss program, she was a hit, while a twenty-minute reading of a recipe for a stuffed leg of lamb was a definite miss. Molly O’Neill, who followed that speaker, even asked the audience, “Anyone out there awake after that?”

Roy Blount Jr. and Calvin Trillin shared the stage for the concluding event of Saturday night, entitled “What ever happened to chicken a la king?” They spent a couple of minutes wondering about lost foods-- then went on to joke about a dozen topics, some of them actually related to food. But their delivery was worth the price of admission.

The concluding reception was held at the Custom House museum, featuring cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres, but with a focus on desserts including key lime pie, chocolate mousse, bananas foster and bread pudding.

The most provocative panel was one of the last, late on Sunday morning. Jason Epstein, Judith Jones, Molly O’Neill and Ruth Reichl addressed the catchall topic of “Food in America.” Epstein insisted that all you needed to learn how to cook was a cookbook and a good set of Japanese knives, though he did admit that he learned everything he knew about cooking while working in restaurants. Molly O’Neill differed with him, saying that she felt the Internet could deliver an immersive experience in demonstrating cooking techniques that a book couldn’t match.

Thinking About Grammar

2011-02-17T07:56:00.000-08:00

I’m working on copy edits for MAHU BLOOD, and a couple of things keep coming up that are challenging some of my own ideas.

The first concerns mixing past and present tense. As an English teacher, I try to hammer into my students the need to stay in one tense, usually the past tense, in their writing. I try to do that myself. But my copy editors don’t seem to agree.

I understand their point of view. If something is still true, regardless of the time of the book, they think it should be in present tense. A lot of times that comes up in my definition of Hawaiian words. For example, as the first person narrator, I might write “I knew that ohana meant family.”

The copy editor changes that to “I knew that ohana means family.”

That just sounds wrong—mixing past and present in one sentence. Easy fix; remove the words “I knew that.” New sentence reads “Ohana means family.” But it’s still a present-tense sentence in the middle of a book written primarily in the past tense.

Rather than argue, I usually just go along with the copy editor’s changes. But every time it do, it rings a little bell in the back of my head.

My hero, Honolulu homicide detective Kimo Kanapa’aka, has an undergraduate degree in English. I gave him that background deliberately, so that his voice would be articulate and sound educated. He can drop in an occasional reference to English literature-- in MAHU BLOOD he sees an older woman surrounded by knitting, and calls her Madame Defarge. His partner, Ray Donne, is a Philly cop who has a college degree, though not in English. He asks Kimo how he knows the woman and Kimo says, “It’s a long story. Called A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens.” Ray just shakes his head and says, “English major.”

So Kimo knows his grammar, but I don’t expect him to be pedantic. Will he always use “whom” properly? Will he say, “I spoke to this guy who I was able to get hold of?” Or would he say “Whom I was able to get hold of?”

He’d certainly say “A guy like me,” rather than “A guy like I am.” But where do you draw the line?

This is why English teachers (and writers) go prematurely gray.

FBI Citizen’s Academy Week 6 - Lie Detector

2010-12-02T19:06:00.001-08:00

As always, any errors here are mine, not the FBI’s.

The last part of week 6’s session was on the lie detector. The first thing the agent addressed was that you could not do a demonstration of the lie detector, because there are no consequences to the questions asked, so the physical reactions aren’t there.

There are three parts to the lie detector, or three parts to the screen at least. At the top is the record of the leads on fingers, which collect sweat. This has a stable base line, then a squirt when there is a reaction to a question.

There are two belts made of tubes which circle the chest and measure breathing. The lines for these look like hills when there is a change.

Finally there is a blood pressure cuff.

The examiner looks at three things: consistency, time line, and significance.

Is the subject’s response consistent? The same questions will be asked several times, in a random sequence. If the subject responds the same way to the question no matter when it is given, there is significance to the response.

What is the time line of the response? Does it come at an appropriate time with regard to the asking of the question? (Often the response will come a little before person actually speaks, because the person is anticipating lying, and that causes the physical response.)

Is the response significant? Is there enough of a change in the subject’s response to merit calling it a physical reaction?

If you volunteer to take a lie detector test, for example in applying for a job, and you test positive for a crime, they will prosecute you. In one case, an applicant for a job with the Border Patrol admitted to child porn during the exam and was arrested.

Who doesn’t test well?

People who are not focused-- for example due to drugs and/or alcohol. If you aren’t paying attention to the questions, your body won’t react to them.
People who can’t pay attention-- for example, those with ADD-- for the same reason.
If there is an outside issue that is more important to the subject. For example, if a suspect is being interviewed about a house break-in but actually committed a murder, he won’t react to questions about the break-in because they are less important than the murder.

There are also a couple of medications that mess with results. And of course he wouldn’t tell us which ones!

The most important part of the lie detector exam, he said, is the interview with the subject and the ability to establish a rapport. If the suspect does test positive for the crime, he will then initiate a “direct, positive confrontation.” He won’t ask if the subject did it-- he will move forward saying that he did.

Then he turns to RPM: rationalization, projection, and minimization.

He will rationalize what the subject did. Anyone would have done that thing, for example. Of course, you take a guy who needs money, and you present him with the opportunity to steal something. That’s rationalization.

Then he projects the blame onto someone else. It was really the victim’s fault, for having all that expensive stuff and not having good security.

Finally he will minimize the seriousness of the crime. At least you didn’t kill anyone, right? All you did was steal some stuff. It’s just stuff. And now you need to own up to it so you can move forward.

This encourages the suspect to admit guilt.

He doesn’t discuss the legal penalties when minimizing-- that’s not his job and he can’t make those kind of statements. And he never tapes these interviews, because he wouldn’t want a jury to hear an FBI agent saying some of these things, because out of context they would sound inappropriate.

I feel like I understand the lie detector process a lot better now, and I’d feel comfortable putting at least part of this into a book. I’m already having a police character discuss the RPM because I think it’s fascinating and a good way to get a fictional criminal to confess.

FBI Citizen’s Academy Week 6 - Violent Crime

2010-11-29T13:54:00.001-08:00

As always, any errors here are mine, not the FBI’s.

The evening began with some information about FBI hiring. Last year they hired 914 special agents and 550 analysts, with a total hiring of 1988, including all support personnel. Despite the economy and cutbacks they are planning to hire something close to that number this year.

New jobs are posted at fbi.gov on Tuesdays. Sadly, you can’t be older than 37 to start the special agent training program. That lets me out.

They also have an honors internship program for college students, who must have a 3.0 GPA and be enrolled full-time in college. The program runs from May-August in both headquarters and certain field offices, and gives students an overview of what the FBI does.

This week was the one I think is going to be most relevant to the writing of crime novels, because the agent who spoke to us was from the violent crime squad, which encompasses most of the kind of crimes we write about.

We began with a discussion of crime on the high seas, for which the FBI has sole jurisdiction. The most prevalent crimes are assault and sexual assault (primarily on cruise ships) though also investigate murder, suicide, and high-end theft cases.

They have an emergency response team (ERT), mostly comprised of former law enforcement personnel, that go out to investigate the crimes on board, usually once the ship has docked.

They also investigate cargo theft; the biggest hub for ocean-borne cargo theft is here in Miami, because the cargo is exported through the Port of Miami. In the past they have found stolen cargo including truckloads of wheelchairs, portable toilets, electronics, cell phones, TVs, and even rubber duckies.

The investigation of art theft also comes under the jurisdiction of the violent crime squad. “If it has been stolen, it comes through Miami,” the agent said-- not that the art was stolen here, but it passes through here on its way to the eventual buyer. The intrastate nature of the theft is what brings it under the FBI’s jurisdiction.

There is an art theft registry-- a database of stolen art that helps agents figure out if a piece of art has been stolen. These agents get a lotof detailed training on detecting fraud in art work. I think this is a really interesting area and might like to investigate this more and perhaps write something.

I do have an agent character in mind-- he appears in my forthcoming M/M romance Mi Amor, set on South Beach, and due out from Loose Id in early 2011. There’s a minor character in that book, a red-headed special agent named Angus Green, and something about him intrigues me. I’ve been very happy that the opportunity to attend the FBI Academy came up now, as I’m thinking about how Angus can spin off into his own book, or his own series.

Art theft is definitely a possibility, as is jewelry theft, which is another area the violent crime squad is involved with. Primarily this is crime against jewelry distributors; there is a big trade show in October and many distributors are targeted. The FBI has a task force that works with local departments on these crimes.

The violent crime squad also works on bank robberies, fugitive apprehensions, armored car robberies, and kidnappings/extortions-- though these are rare. There have been numerous armored car robberies in South Florida lately, and bank robberies are common. The criminals know that bank employees are trained to give up the money without a fight, so they are easy targets. But the statistics we were shown indicate that there’s relatively little money stolen in each case-- sometimes only a few thousand dollars. Maybe it’s low risk, but certainly low reward as well.

As an American citizen, if you go to certain countries (Mexico and Haiti among them) you are a target for kidnapping. The FBI gets involved in these cases. They work a lot of email extortion crimes-- sometimes the victim is kidnapped and then released, but threatened with additional violence if he doesn’t cooperate and pay.

They also have one squad which focuses on crimes against children, including the Innocent Images Squad, which looks at child porn.

Most crimes, the agent indicated, are solved by the evidence and forensics. He mentioned a device called a Shot-Spotter, which can detect where a bullet was shot from using triangulation. He also mentioned the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes, or NCAVC. This group provides behavioral-based support in investigations-- what I guess we would call profiling.

FBI Citizen's Academy Week 5

2010-11-27T13:03:00.001-08:00

As always, any errors here are mine, not the FBI’s.

Last week, I got some extra information from one of my fellow students at the FBI academy. I wanted to know exactly which guns we shot the week before in our trip to the Dade County police firing range.

We shot the Glock 22, with 40 caliber ammunition.

The long-barrel gun was an H &K MP5, 10 millimeter, with a long barrel. It can be used in semi-automatic or full automatic mode, though we only shot in semi-automatic.

The shotgun was a Remington 12 gauge with a 14” barrel. The shorter barrel is important because it’s easier to conceal and to carry in and out of vehicles.

Week 5 was about counter-terrorism and legal issues.

Miami is one of the top 5 offices in the country size-wise, and the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in this office has 38 participating agencies and 159 full time personnel including FBI agents, analysts, and personnel on loan from partner agencies.

The FBI’s number one priority is protection of the US from terrorist attack, and the JTTF encompasses nine counter-terrorism squads called T1 – T9. T1 focuses on Al Qaeda, T3 on Hezbollah, T4 on threat response, and T5 on extra-territorial kidnappings & other events.

The state & local officers who work with the FBI on the JTTF get the same top secret clearance as Bureau agents, and get full access to the FBI facility and all databases. They also carry cases just like the Federal agents.

The FBI defines international terrorism as criminal violations intended to intimidate, coerce or influence.

Domestic terrorism comes from many places. The right wing, such as white supremacist groups; the left wing, such as Marxist or Leninists; and those groups focused on a single issue, such as eco-terrorists, anti-abortion activitsts, and animal rights activists.

After a break we discussed the legal issues the FBI faces, focusing on the 1st and 4th amendments. The FBI can’t target someone who is exercising his 1st amendment rights, such as freedom of speech. And the 4th amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, requires the FBI to justify their case when getting search warrants.

An interesting term that arose was “curtilage,” which the agent defined as the area immediately around your property. This means that an outdoor area can be legally coupled with the property it surrounds, even though it’s not part of the structure. This is important when it comes to what you need a search warrant for. If an agent sees something in the yard, it may fall within the curtilage. Trash in a a bag next to the house, for example, would still be within the curtilage and the agent would need a warrant to search it.

Trash in a bag at the street, however, is outside the curtilage and can be seen as having been abandoned. Therefore the agent doesn’t need a warrant to search it. This is an interesting term and one I would like to explore further. I checked Wikipedia and curtilage has other uses, including with the definition of burglary.

FBI Citizen's Academy Week 2

2010-10-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

FBI Citizen's Academy Week 2

These are my notes from the second week of the FBI Citizen's Academy. As always, these are my interpretations and should not be construed to represent any policies of the FBI.

A Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) spoke to us about computer intelligence—the FBI’s number 2 priority – protecting the national security of the US. The goal is to ensure that no outsiders get materials developed here.

Theirs is a regional counterintelligence effort; there are 9 such around the country. There are six regional offices participating, in Tampa; Jacksonville; Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Jackson, MS; and Mobile, AL. They also liaise with business and educational partners.

What it costs to get the information determines its priority. They want people who have placement and access to the information that they need.

There are two kinds of intelligence officers from foreign countries—legal officers and illegal officers. The legal ones are clearly attached to the offices of a foreign government, working in an embassy and supporting the clandestine activities of the illegal officers, who have no ostensible connection either to the foreign government’s offices, or often to the foreign country itself. He gave an example that Cuban illegal officers created fake identities based on the dead children of Mexican migrant workers. These children were born in the US of foreign parents who often were illegals or returned to their home countries.

The Cubans would research in California and Texas to find birth and death records of these children. They would create whole identities for their illegal officers around these records, and thus the agent would have no connection to Cuba at all—records would show he was born in the US of Mexican parents.

It’s hard to find these agents, because they don’t have any ostensible connection to Cuba and don’t associate with other Cubans. They keep their “escape documents” somewhere other than their house—passports, tickets etc. intended for only a one-time use, to escape if their identity is compromised.

FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the FBI to collect information these illegal agents. The FBI may enter a suspect’s residence and copy his computer disks, for example. Then they use the information on those disks to track other agents, both legal and illegal.

The Cuban government often sends high-frequency radio messages to its agents after midnight. By discovering the frequency, the FBI can listen in on these messages and decrypt them.

The Cuban Intelligence Service is one of the top 5 intelligence services in the world, and 85% of their activity is directed toward us. They collect information and then either use it themselves or broker it to other hostile countries for their own political advantage. The FBI has discovered Cuban agents at Boca Chica Naval Air Station, at Southcom, and in other sensitive positions.

“Intelligence is like cabbage at the grocery story—it’s only good for a few days.” This means that intelligence must be gathered continuously to be worthwhile. The FBI will be reluctant to take an intelligence case to trial because they would have to reveal everything they have and how they got it—and that would tip off the illegal agents to the FBI’s intelligence gathering methods.

My first night at the FBI Citizen's Academy

2010-10-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

FBI Citizen’s Academy Session 1

On Thursday October 7, I began the 8-week FBI Citizen’s Academy. These are my notes from the first session. Caution: This is my own impression of what I learned, and does not in any way represent official ideas or positions of the FBI.

The Miami office covers Ft. Pierce to the Keys, as well as the Caribbean, South America and Mexico. It’s one of 56 field offices and over 400 satellite offices, along with many legats (legal attaches) at foreign embassies.

They handle domestic intelligence gathering and law enforcement of over 300 different violation classifications.

Their office is ground zero for health care fraud, close to $100 billion annually. No other region comes close; South Florida is responsible for more health care fraud than the rest of the country combined. There are a number of contributing reasons, including the large number of Medicare recipients and, unofficially, the presence of a large Cuban community. Allegedly 98% of those involved in health care fraud are Cubans, and there have been reports of money gained fraudulently going back to the island.

Operation Severed Artery investigated 11 infusion therapy clinics, who were paid $80 million in fraudulent claims. Three brothers set up these clinics providing fake treatments, and billing Medicare.

Terrorism is the FBI’s #1 threat; in South Florida that involves researching those who raise funds for terrorist organizations, and who use criminal activities to fund them.

There are six ASACs in the office—assistant special agents in charge. They handle corporate and securities fraud, bank and mortgage fraud, cyber crimes, crimes against children, and public corruption. There are two ASACs dedicated to health care fraud. They are also responsible for regional agencies in Ft. Pierce and Palm Beach.

We heard a presentation by an intelligence analyst—not an agent, and he doesn’t carry a gun. He researches statistics and gave a presentation on real estate fraud. He began by explaining that there are two types of real estate fraud, both involving lies or misrepresentations:

· Fraud for housing – where someone uses fraudulent information to obtain a house where he or she lives

· Fraud for profit—purchasing a house using fraudulent information, then flipping it

There are high returns in this area, with a low risk of being caught. Banks have been lax in their loan approvals because they knew they were just going to sell the loan forward.

One of the research tools is the SAR, suspicious activity report, provided by banks. The bank indicates on the SAR that the suspicious activity may revolve around real estate fraud. Florida is #1 in the highest amount of fraudulent loans.

He also discussed three other types of real estate fraud:

· Foreclosure rescue/loan modification scams, where someone promises to help a homeowner out of a mortgage but ends up defrauding & taking the money.

· Builder bailouts—where a builder trying to reduce an inventory of unsold property offers off-the-books incentives to buyers, such as making a year’s worth of mortgage payments, or adding a car or other property to the deal. These additional incentives are never disclosed to the mortage lender.

· Mortgage Ponzi schemes—someone collects money to be invested in mortgages but never does, and uses the cash from new customers to pay returns to the first ones.

There are several emerging threats:

· Reverse mortgage loans (HECM) – appraising a house at a higher value but not disclosing that to the elderly subject. Then the scammer takes the difference between the appraised value and the reverse mortgage.

· Insurance fraud – Distressed homeowners destroying their homes in order to cash in on insurance.

· Deed forgery – filing a false mortgage satisfaction, then selling the property as if it was unencumbered, or taking a new mortgage.

· Property flopping – A real estate broker finds a buyer for distressed property. Then he convinces the bank to sell the property to a straw buyer for less than the eventual buyer is willing to pay. Then he flips the property to the eventual buyer at the higher price.

We have a perfect storm of conditions leading to mortgage fraud:

· Unemployment rising

· Property values dropping

· High rate of foreclosure

They have a number of initiatives to fight these problems:

· Undercover operations

· A mortgage fraud task force in Miami & Palm Beach

· Suspicious Activity Reports

· Mortgage fraud intelligence initiatives, where they recruit agents, brokers etc. to provide intel.

Operation Stolen Dreams netted 125 criminals, 485 arrests, $2-3 billion in estimated losses. $10 million was seized, along with $196 million in property.

Getting Books

2007-07-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest parts of writing a book is that day when you first get the copy of the finished book.

About two weeks ago, I got some covers-- just flat sheets of paper with the front and back covers. That was really neat, because I got to see the back of the book for the first time.

Then last week, the first copies showed up in my mailbox. The page proofs I looked at didn't have the dedication or acknowledgements, so that was the first thing I turned to. Fortunately it was all good.

I'm still at that honeymoon stage when I haven't found anything wrong yet-- haven't discovered any typos, misprints, etc. Ah, but honeymoons always end!

Mahu Surfer Cover Art

2006-08-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

I just got the cover art for the new book, Mahu Surfer, which will be coming out from Alyson in August, 2007.

I think it's cool, though I wish they had been able to find a way to incorporate the Mahu logo into the cover. After all, I'm trying to develop a brand, and the logo is part of the brand identity.

James Kirkwood

2006-08-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

Vicki Van Lieu was my best friend as a teenager. We used to hang out after school and write stories, and it's through Vicki that I discovered a writer who was very influential in my development. Vicki's mother had a sleek black cat named Rajah, and Vicki and Rajah had a love-hate relationship. So when Vicki stumbled on a book called P.S. Your Cat is Dead, she picked it up immediately.

She lent it to me later, and I fell in love with it. It's the story of a struggling actor whose girlfriend has left him, and it's New Year's Eve and he's all alone. Oh, and p.s., his cat is dead.

Then a burglar breaks into his apartment. Could things get any worse? Well, how about if the burglar was gay, and awoke something dormant inside our hero?

I haven't read the book in years, though I probably should again, just to see if it stands up. But it was really meaningful to me back then, when my own sexuality was more than dormant, and I'm not sure it would have the same impact now.

However, it drove me to read everything James Kirkwood had written. And then I discovered he was the co-author of the Broadway smash A Chorus Line, which opened on Broadway in 1975, the year I graduated from high school. He ended up sharing a Pulitzer and a Tony for his work.

I quickly read everything of Kirkwood's that I could get my hands on, and the homoeroticism of his work, which was very understated, spoke to me in a big way. Like A Separate Peace, the John Knowles novel that sparked the desire to write in me, Kirkwood's work came at a time when I needed to read it, and I'll be forever grateful.

Gay Guy/Weak Guy

2006-07-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

Though I've pretty much given up on MTV's Real World (I'm just too old for all that adolescent posturing) I'm still a fan of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge. And I'm fascinated by something that Shane, the only openly gay contestant on this season's challenge, said last week.

He and his female partner had to cross this rope strung high across the water from opposite sides, cross over each other, and then continue to the other side. Not something I could do in a million years.

Shane couldn't do it either--he fell to the water below. He was clearly upset with his performance and said, "Don't mind being the gay guy. Don't want to be the weak guy."

It struck me as something that Kimo would say-- and something lots of out gay men would probably say too. We've accepted our sexuality, but don't want that to imply that we're somehow weaker than everybody else.

As a matter of fact, it's probably something Kimo will say at some point in the future. Thanks for the line, Shane.

ThrillerFest

2006-07-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

Now that I've been home from ThrillerFest for a few days, I've had a chance to think about it and process what I learned. I typed up all my notes, which were mostly on the technical panels, and I certainly feel that I learned a few things from those panels. I could have spent a whole day listening to Nick Hughes, and I'd love to get him to Sleuthfest.

First of all, if I closed my eyes it sounded like Sean Connery was talking to me-- and I could listen to him forever. But more than that, Nick had so many interesting things to talk about-- his experiences in the French Foreign Legion, work as a bodyguard, and how to survive a street fight.

The last stuff was the most relevant to my writing. I have Kimo volunteering at a gay & lesbian teen center on Waikiki, and I want him to be teaching a once-a-week course on self-esteem and self-defense. How to stand up to bullies, for example, and how to feel good enough about yourself that you can.

I loved the Arizona Biltmore, and everyone I met was very friendly. On the first day, I jumped into a caravan that went to Poisoned Pen, a bookstore in downtown Phoenix, and then out to the Scottsdale Gun Club. It was Zoe Sharp's birthday, and she wanted to shoot a submachine gun.

The rest of us got to watch her, and shoot a variety of weapons, including a 9 mm and a .357 magnum. I understood why my father's shooting jacket has a padded shoulder-- the semi-automatic rifle I fired had a real kick.

I also realized more clearly the difference between a thriller and a mystery. I don't read that many true thrillers; I hardly recognized any of the names on the panels, and those I did recognize I knew from reading mysteries and attending mystery conferences.

ThrillerFest was very well-run, though I was a bit disappointed that it was so successful-- I had been hoping for a smaller conference where there would be more opportunity to really get to know people, as I did in Toronto. Would I go back? I don't know. It will be in New York next summer, and a lot depends on where else I want to go or need to go, and how willing Marc is to let me go!

Lowered Expectations

2006-06-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

OK, I never thought Mahu was going to be a best-seller, or set the world on fire. I hoped it would find an audience, and that readers would like the book.

But I did hope for more than I got, so I'm learning to lower my expectations.

The first person I met who'd read Mahu, outside of my close friends, told me that she was a reader for Insight Out Books, that she'd loved the book and recommended it. So I kept waiting to hear from Haworth, and scanning the Insight Out catalogs that came in. I finally accepted that they had just chosen not to include Mahu in their offerings.

I was hoping to get a couple of decent reviews. Certainly I'd love the New York Times, but I knew that it could only happen by a fluke. I did think I was more realistic in getting a couple of reviews in mainstream publications, particularly my hometown newspapers.

Didn't happen. I greatly appreciate the reviews that Mahu got, which were generally quite positive, but they came from GLBT publications and websites in places like Connecticut and Minnesota. I didn't get into any of the big magazines like Out or The Advocate, and I didn't get into any newspapers in big cities.

The biggest disappointment was not making the top five finalists for a Lammy award. I thought I knew most of my competition and I was sure Mahu would stack up against them. But I didn't make it. Several people told me they thought Mahu belonged there, and that it was a symptom of how biased and/or out of touch the judges were.

I was hoping to get invited somewhere-- to speak at a conference or workshop, or visit a college. Hasn't happened yet-- but it might still, though I'm not expecting anything.

So I'm trying to be grateful for what I've gotten. Some positive reviews. Good word-of-mouth feedback. The chance to sit on a couple of panels at mystery conferences. Sales that look like they will top the publisher's expectations (though my royalties haven't yet paid back the money I've spent promoting, and probably never will.)

I've had a book published by a reputable publisher, and it opened doors for the sequel to come out in Spring 2007 (from Alyson Books) and for me to edit a collection of essays, Paws & Reflect, about gay men and their dogs. That will also be out from Alyson, in November, 2006. I now have a new agent, and I've met a lot of great writers online and through my travels.

I think any new author doesn't really know what to expect, and we should all be grateful for whatever comes out way. Now that I've gotten over my initial disappointments, I think I can be.

Pride Write

2006-06-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

When I was at Stonewall Pride yesterday, Eston Dunn (aka E. Robert Dunn, author of the Echelon's End science fiction series) invited me to join a group of other gay authors at a Borders event later in the afternoon.

I was hot and sweaty and tired and knew Marc was waiting for me at home. But I agreed to go anyway (after letting Marc know I'd be late.) And I'm glad I did.

I didn't sell a single book, and there wasn't much of a crowd. But I did get to chat a bit with Richelle, the customer relations manager. I discovered that Borders has so far sold 38 of the 50 copies they ordered for my original reading back in September. At the reading, I sold 24 copies, leaving 26 behind. So another 14 copies have sold since then.

I think that's pretty good. Most stores would have sent back all or most of the unsold copies right after the reading. I did sign the rest of the books, and Richelle gave us all some little "autographed by the author" stickers to put on the books.

I spoke to her about Paws & Reflect in the fall, and how I hoped to do some publicity with Andy Zeffer and Jay Quinn, and let her know that the new Mahu book will be out next spring. And I also mentioned that I'm hoping to get Tony Bidulka to come to Florida, and if she sets up a reading for him I will do my best to draw out an audience.

So I thought that was a pretty productive event, all in all.

Stonewall Pride

2006-06-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Today I spent a couple of hours at the Stonewall Pride Parade and festival in Fort Lauderdale. Andy Zeffer was kind enough to coordinate a table for gay authors uner the tent of his publication, Express Gay News. He and I were joined by Eston Dunn and Richard Blanco.

Our mantra was "Gay Books by Gay Authors" and "Sexy Summer Reading." When people came up, we pointed to Mahu as gay mystery, Eston's book as gay sci-fi, and Andy's book as gay Hollywood. Richard's was gay poetry-- though there wasn't that much gay about it.

I only sold two books, though Eston and Andy did much better. But I had fun hanging out at Pride and getting my name out there. Andy handed out a ton of postcards for us, and EGN advertised the event for us and made up a great poster than ran the length of the table. So there was a lot of visibility.

I met several people who'd already read the book, and I even saw a guy wearing my Mahu t-shirt. I'm still trying to figure out where he got it-- he must have bought it online. He was another walking billboard for me!

I saw so many funny, funny t-shirts out there, and was motivated again to try and take the rainbow surfboard graphic and turn it into a money maker on t-shirts. My favorite slogans were "Hi, You'll Do," and "Stop that man! I want to get off."

My high school speech teacher also showed up to say hello-- which was wild. I hadn't seen him in 31 years, though he looked an awful lot like the way I remembered.

So the message of this post is that you have to take advantage of any opportunities you have to get your name out there and sell books-- and any time hundreds of gay men and women (young, old, and in between; handsome, hideous and in between as well) see your name and the name of your book, it's got to be a good thing.

Glad Day in Toronto

2006-06-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

While I was in Toronto, I also had the chance to visit Glad Day Books, which was a huge (by my standards, certainly) gay and lesbian bookstore. My internet friend Pat Brown (her gay mystery L.A. Heat is due out from Alyson any day now, and it's terrific) had arranged for a visit by herself, Tony Bidulka and me. Pat was sick that day and couldn't join us, but Tony graciously agreed to go along with me, even though he'd been there the day before.

Glad Day had so much stock I was just overwhelmed. I met the clerk and the manager, John, and chatted a little-- but honestly, I was too into checking out the stock to spend too much time talking! I noticed they had all four books I'm in at the moment-- Alyson's My First Time 2 and Dorm Porn (in which I have a piece, but under a pseudonym) as well as Mahu and the new Cleis anthology, Cowboys: Gay Erotic Stories.

It was fun to go around and talk to the stores, and now that I've done it I think I'll feel better about doing it in other cities. I should certainly get over to the couple of stores we have in South Florida, even though they don't have that much stock. I'll have to work on that this summer!

Hand-Selling

2006-06-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Hand-selling is one of the most important parts of the whole bookselling process. A bookstore manager or sales clerk who likes a book, or knows the store's stock, can make recommendations to customers. If you as an author get to know the bookstore's staff, they can help get your books into the hands of customers.

When I was in Toronto for Bloody Words, I went to two terrific gay bookstores: Not the Rosedale Library and Glad Day. At the first, I just walked in off the street and asked to speak to the manager. I had to identify myself as an author-- not some complaining customer. Then the manager and I had a nice chat about gay books, and I told him a little about myself.

And then he hand-sold me a couple of books-- ones that his customers really seemed to like, or so he said. I just finished reading Joey Comeau's Lockpick Pornography, which I bought because the manager thought highly of it and said the store could barely keep it in stock. He knew the author's back story, too-- about how he'd started publishing online to earn enough money for college.

I was hooked. I bought the book, which I liked-- it's a very interesting riff on gender, in particular, wrapped around a sexy, funny story. I hope this manager will be pushing Mahu the same way!

Bloody Words

2006-06-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Bloody Words, a mystery writer's conference in Toronto. I think it's important to attend as many as this kind of event as you can afford when you're trying to build an audience for your book. I haven't really sold a lot of copies at events like this-- one at Bouchercon, one at Sleuthfest and one at BW. But I know I'm building my name recognition.

I also post on several list serves, such as DorothyL and Murder Must Advertise. Several people came up to me at BW and said that they recognized my name from DorothyL and wanted to say hello. It was nice to meet them, and to connect a face to some of the names I've seen online.

This morning, I made a post to DorothyL about the conference-- how well run it was, and all the people I'd met. That post served to inform the online community about the con, as well as to give me a chance to get my name out again.

Everyone I've spoken to agrees-- it's a lot of work to promote your book. But if, like me, you're in this for the long haul-- I want to make a career out of writing-- I consider it an investment in my future. And along the way, I'm having fun at conferences. I'm learning from panel discussions and from posts about writing, marketing, and mysteries. Sure, I'm not spending as much time writing as I should-- but at least this sort of thing is a lot more productive than computer solitaire!

Sleuthfest

2006-03-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

I'm finally recovering from Sleuthfest, the mystery writers' conference sponsored by our local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. I was one of the volunteer organizers, so since January I've been collecting names of people who wanted to have appointments with agents & editors, then organizing those appointments. I spent Friday and Saturday afternoon at the center of barely controlled chaos, as writers went in and out for their 10-minute appointments.

Sometimes we were ahead, and sometimes behind. It's a mystery how it all worked out, but everyone seemed happy--except for one guy. Oh, well, you can't please everyone.

Writers' conferences are great places for name recognition and networking. I think I was laying the groundwork this winter. A couple hundred other writers and I exchanged emails, and then I met most of them face to face, even if it was only for a minute or two.

I didn't sell as many books as the bookseller or I expected, but I think that's because my panels (I moderated one and spoke on one) took place on Friday morning, before I'd had the chance to meet all those writers and impress them with my charming personality. Next year, I'll ask for a Saturday panel rather than one on Friday.

But I think this is like making posts on DorothyL, or the PublishedGayAuthors list serve-- it's about hitting your potential audience with your name over and over again. And I did sell books to people who had met me, or who wanted a gift for a gay friend or relative.

Hopefully this increased name recognition will start to pay off with the next book, Paws & Reflect-- the anthology about gay men and dogs that's coming out from Alyson in September.

The Sleuthfest Raffle

2006-02-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

I've been volunteering to help my local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America with Sleuthfest, the mystery writers' conference we put on every March. This year's runs from March 2-5, and one of the features is a raffle for items donated by authors.

During the conference, you buy raffle tickets from one of the volunteers (usually women wearing pink boas) and then deposit your tickets in front of the items you want. The more you want something, the more tickets you drop in.

At the cocktail party on Saturday night, someone draws the winners for each prize. We've had some great ones-- trips and dinners as well as autographed books. MWA members were asked to donate, so I came up with the idea of a Hawaii-themed basket of goodies.

I had fun shopping for the stuff-- a platter, glasses and mugs; a bag of Kona coffee and one of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, as well as assorted leis and a ball cap patterned with blue hibiscus flowers. I threw in one of my Mahu post-it note pads as well as, of course, an autographed copy of Mahu.

This is just another promotional expense, as well as a charitable donation. Everybody who walks by the raffle items will see my name and my book's name. This is why I volunteered, too; to get my name out there.

Everyone who registers for Sleuthfest is eligible for a ten-minute pitch session with one of the agents or editors who are attending the conference, and I'm coordinating the scheduling of these appointments. A couple hundred people have been getting emails from me, and will meet me in person when they show up for their appointments.

I know from my own experience that I've bought books by authors I've met at conferences, especially people who've been nice to me. So I'm doing my best to be nice to everyone-- including putting together a fun basket of Hawaiian stuff for the raffle.

The Reader's Group

2006-02-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had a really great experience. The GLBT book group at the Barnes & Noble in Fort Lauderdale read Mahu, and invited me to join them to discuss the book. The seven folks who were there had all read the book and liked it, and I had the chance to talk about it with them-- my inspiration, my plans for the series, and so on. It was so cool to hear the things that they liked-- the Hawaiian atmosphere, Kimo's relationships with his family, the struggles he goes through as a gay man working in a macho environment.

It was also very interesting to me to react to their comments-- to try and enhance their experience of the book with some background on how it came to be.

Thanks so much to the facilitators of the group-- John Spero, who has been such a supporter, and Leigh Rosenthal, who I went to college with so many years ago. The group was such a great experience that I hope to join them and read with them for a while.

Amazon Programs

2006-01-23T08:40:00.000-08:00

I've signed up for two new marketing efforts at Amazon.com. The first is their Amazon Connect program, which allows authors to connect with readers directly. I make blog posts on the Amazon site, which are then displayed to customers who search for my books. Here's what the Mahu page looks like.

The second is Amazon Shorts, which allows me to sell short stories bsed on Kimo's further adventures. I've written about a dozen of these stories, and hope to collect them someday in an anthology-- but for now I think it will be an interesting way for people who've read Mahu to see what Kimo is up to now.

Publishing Stories

2005-12-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

One of the ways I'm trying to promote Mahu is to get some of the short stories I've written about Kimo published. I've written some non-fiction which is around on the web, and I've always attached a tagline about the novel, but I think that giving people a taste of my fiction may make them want to read the book.

At this point, I've written about a dozen Kimo stories. Most of them are straightforward mysteries, always with a gay twist, and a couple are erotica with a mystery twist. (Why does that big, sexy guy look so unhappy? Let's get into his shorts and find out!) So far I haven't been very successful. Both Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock have turned stories down without comment, and a story I wrote for the last MWA anthology wasn't selected.

But my spooky story, Refuge, is still up at Blithe House Quarterly. In it, Kimo and his friend Gunter head off to the Big Island for weekend camping and run into the spirit of a gay ghost. And I've just won second place in a "Bad Santa" contest at Mysterical-e, an onling mystery magazine. The story, "Christmas in Honolulu" takes Kimo up into the hills above Manoa (home of the University of Hawaii's main campus) to figure out who killed a man in a Santa hat.

Does this work? Time will tell. In the meantime, I'm getting my name out there and giving Kimo a little more exposure.

Hurricane Wilma

2005-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

No matter how much you plan, there are some things you just can't anticipate. Who knew a late-season category 1 or 2 storm would sweep across the state of Florida, from west to east (most go from east to west) and cause so much damage and devastation? I certainly didn't.

Wilma forced me to cancel two events-- a reading at the Stonewall Library, the gay and lesbian library in Fort Lauderdale, and a signing at Murder on the Beach, a small mystery bookstore in Delray Beach. In addition, it caused the Broward County Library to cancel publication of its monthly newsletter for November-- which was advertising my reading on November 30 at the South Regional Library.

That event, where I shared the podium with fellow mystery writers Joe Moore and Lynn Sholes, authors of The Grail Conspiracy, came off nicely, but the only audience were BCC students who were there for extra credit in their classes. The newsletter may have brought additional library patrons in.

New York, New York

2005-12-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

When I left New York in 1986 to move to Florida, I knew I'd go back some day as a published author. And I did, in November.

The seeds for this trip started nearly seven years ago, when I attended a gay & lesbian writers' conference in Washington, DC called Behind Our Masks. While there I made a number of contacts that have been very fruitful. I met Dan Jaffe, a talented writer whose background is similar to mine in many ways, and we became friends. When Dan edited an issue of Blithe House Quarterly, the online gay literary magazine, he selected a story of mine, "Refuge." And then he was kind enough to provide a blurb for the jacket of Mahu.

I also read a shortened version of "Refuge" at an open mic reading towards the end of the conference, and that made an impression on Carol Rosenfeld, a New York-based writer and attorney who is involved with the Publishing Triangle, an association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing business, and with Out Professionals, a gay and lesbian networking group.

Fast forward many years. This summer, at Saints & Sinners, I met Carol again, and she remembered that story, and was kind enough to give Mahu a good review, as an advance reader for Insight Out Books, the gay & lesbian book club. She also said she'd be willing to help me organize an event in NYC.

Fast forward again to November 2005, when I gave a reading and discussion at the gay and lesbian community center in Chelsea. Only four people showed up, but I did sell two books-- a 50% conversion rate!

I learned from this experience that I have to be very aggressive at publicity for every event, even those organized by others. I assumed that the sponsorship of several different organizations, including GOAL, the organization of gay and lesbian police officers, would draw a crowd. I did send out some press releases and get into some events calendars, but as a first-time author with a largely unreviewed book, it was hard to get any additional publicity.

Even so, I thought the event went well and I enjoyed having dinner with Carol afterward. My event on Saturday, though, was a much bigger success, mostly because I leveraged my personal mailing list to get my friends to show up. About twenty people came to a reading on Saturday night at Partners in Crime, a charming little mystery bookstore on Greenwich Avenue in the Village. The store provided a lovely space at the back, with chairs and a comfy sofa, and a fabulous poster in the window advertising the reading.

The event organizer, Chandra, did a terrific job of getting the books and poster in place, and told me that the day after the reading she'd sold two books based on the poster.

Location also mattered-- the event at the Center was in a fourth-floor room,up two flights at the back of the building, far west in Chelsea. Partners in Crime has a good location in the heart of the Village, with lots of foot traffic.

Would I go back to New York again? Absolutely-- but with lots more advance planning!

Readings

2005-09-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm still on a high from my second reading-- the big one, followed by a party. It was tonight, and seemed to be a big success.

I think readings are an important way of connecting with your audience. I love to go to readings myself, because I want to hear the author's voice, which then stays in my head as I read the book. I've gone to great readings, and I've gone to terrible ones, and I've tried to put everything I've learned together to create my own.

The first thing to do is to start scheduling your readings. You need to do that at least two months in advance, to ensure that the store has enough time to publicize the event. Many stores publish printed calendars, and now many send emails out as well. Since other authors are scheduling in advance, you need to do so as well.

My first call was to our local independent store, Books & Books, which has four branches. The main store is in Coral Gables, an elegant suburb on the south side of Miami. That store has the largest space for readings. But I'd already been invited to participate in a joint reading of alumni of Florida International University's MFA program in creative writing at that store, which will take place on Sunday, September 25.

So I asked to give a reading at the branch on Miami Beach's Lincoln Road. That's a big gay neighborhood, and I didn't want to go to the same branch twice.

I invited my friend Hannah Lasky, who is a talented painter and poet, to bring some of her art work to serve as a backdrop for me. I brought a CD of Hawaiian music for the store to play as we were setting up, a fake grass-skirt banner that reads "ALOHA," and some other small props to set the scene.

The readings I've enjoyed the most have given a sense of the author and the process of writing-- so I tried to do that. I began with about ten minutes on the Hawaiian language and culture, and how I came to write the book and get it published.

Then I read the first page of the book-- to establish the voice-- and jumped to about halfway through the first chapter, which I then read through to conclusion. After I finished, I asked for questions.

The whole process took about forty-five minutes, and I enjoyed riffing off the questions I was asked. There were about twenty people in the audience, and after the reading I signed about ten books-- one couple, my friends Eliot and Lois, had flown in from New York and bought four copies. (They are now officially my VERY best friends.)

I duplicated the process tonight, at a big Borders store in a gay neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale. The store had printed up posters for the reading, including one on the front door, and I got some great press-- nice announcements in the alternative weekly, the New Times, and in a couple of local gay papers; one, the Express Gay News, did a huge feature on me, with a teaser on the front cover and a big photo inside.

We had a capacity crowd-- thirty people sitting, and probably another dozen standing or hovering around in the background. And there were many men I didn't even know! Lots of them even bought books! I was more than thrilled.

It's wonderful to sign books for friends, colleagues, and neighbors-- but it was really terrific to feel that people I didn't know were touched and motivated to dish out $19.95 (plus tax.)

I was also helped in promotion by networking with local groups; Karen Dale Wolman, who organizes gay and lesbian writers' workshops, sent out a press release for me, and I think her credibility helped me get noticed.

In the end, both readings were great events, and I think at least part of that comes from doing my homework-- going to lots of readings myself and listening to what I liked and what I didn't, and doing as much groundwork as I could to let people-- both friends and strangers-- know about the book and the reading.

More Bouchercon

2005-09-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Overall, I had a great time at Bouchercon. In the mornings, I walked around Chicago, and during the day I sat in on panel discussions that were interesting and fun.

My own panel was less than successful. A very bossy panel moderator refused to let us do any publicity for our books, and kept a very tight rein on what we said. The star of our panel was Lee Child, who has written nine books in the Reacher series, and it was clear that most of the audience was there to see him, so though I was annoyed at the moderator's bossiness, it isn't like I lost a major opportunity to publicize Mahu.

I sold one book through a great bookseller, Rue Morgue (where I bought all my books) and autographed one program. But I met lots of great people and had fun. On the last day, I attended a program on short stories, with the editors of both Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. I made sure to go up and say hello at the end, and hand out my post-it note pads. I have stories out to both magazines; I'm hoping that the name recognition will help when those stories get read.

Bouchercon - Day 1

2005-09-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, August 31, I left South Florida for Bouchercon, the worldwide conference of mystery writers and readers. There are over a thousand people here, including a bunch from Florida, so I’m much more comfortable here than I was at Saints & Sinners. And frankly, the people here are so much nicer than the people at Saints & Sinners were. There, I thought everyone was very clique-y, yet here, everyone is much more approachable and friendly.

After I got in, I went shopping on North Michigan Avenue—hitting every chocolate shop in town, I think. Then on Wednesday night, my friend Eileen drove in from the suburbs and we went to dinner at a great – though very rich and fattening – French restaurant. Then she drove me around Chicago for a while, proving a great tour guide.

Thursday began the first day of the conference. I sat in on a panel on sex, which was actually pretty dry, then a demonstration of K-9 dogs. In Chicago, they use Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds and Dutch shepherds. The dogs are actually trained in Europe, and then purchased by the city when they are about a year and a half old. Seeing them made me want to incorporate a K-9 dog somewhere in a book or story.

I had lunch with Christine Kling and Fred Rea at a little café near the hotel, and made it back for a panel on anthologies, where I actually picked up some tips for the anthology I will be editing with Sharon Sakson. Though we haven’t gotten the official word yet, Alyson Press will be publishing a collection of true stories about gay men and the bonds they have with their dogs. It was very interesting to hear the experiences of the anthology editors.

The last panel of the day was on series characters and whether they age or not. Some characters, like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, age only a few months at a time, while others, like Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandstetter, age in real time. It was very interesting to hear the panel talk about these issues.

After some email and relaxation, I went to the Hammett Awards and welcome reception, then hung out with Chris for a while before going to the Akashic books party. Again, everyone I’ve met so far has been very nice and friendly. I think it helps that I have that little red dot on my badge that identifies me as an author—though only a little.

My first reading

2005-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I had my very first reading at Books & Books, Miami’s great independent bookstore. I was running late, speeding down I-95 at 80 mph, driving right into storm clouds and drizzle. Fortunately, the heavy rains had already passed, leaving only the humidity behind.

I had invited my friend Hannah Lasky, who is a wonderfully talented artist, if she wanted to bring some paintings over to serve as a backdrop for the reading, so I met up with her in the alley behind the store and started dragging the paintings and the wire display wall in through the back door.

I brought my own props, too—an inflatable palm tree, an ALOHA banner, and a plate of coconut macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies. When I walked in, it didn’t look like there was much of a crowd, but by the time we got everything set up, all twenty seats were filled and there were a couple of other people standing around.

Of course, I knew all but a couple of those people—but I was still delighted to see them. Classmates (and a professor) from my writing program at FIU, members of my writers’ group, and friends—it was so nice to have such a supportive group. I talked for a bit about how I came to write Mahu, and about the Hawaiian spelling and symbols I used in the book, and then I read.

I read the first page of the book, as Kimo’s moving toward a drug bust, and then jumped to the last section of chapter one, beginning as Kimo leaves the bar where he has been hanging out with his cop buddies to go to the Rod and Reel Club, the gay bar where lots of the action of the book takes place.

Then I answered questions, including “When will the book be translated into Hawaiian?” It gave me an opportunity to talk about writing in general, about the research that I did for the book. Overall, it was a fabulous experience—and I was equally excited to sign about ten books afterwards, as well as signing a half dozen stock copies. There was even one ordered by a collector.

I generally wrote “Mahalo nui loa” which means “Thank you very much” and then tried to add something personal, since I knew everyone who bought a book. Overall, I don’t think I could have asked for a better first reading experience.

Updating the Website

2005-08-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

When I first started writing Mahu, I did some research on other authors of gay mysteries. I put together a list which I used to send out along with queries, to show prospective agents and editors that this was a thriving subgenre. And I always knew that I would include this list on my website and use it to help promote Mahu.

Well, now's the time. I've had the list online for some time, and I knew there were probably a few new authors to include. So I started work yesterday, and ended up updating 6 authors, adding 9 new ones, for a total of 28 new books. Now of course, some aren't that new; they're only new to me. But it still shows that this niche is continuing to build.

Once I finished, I sent an email to two different listserves that I subscribe to-- DorothyL, which is for mystery lovers, and Blue Place, which is specifically for gay mystery, but often expands to gay literature in general. Now we'll see if I get any hits!

The Books are Here!

2005-08-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, the dog started barking-- generally a sign that we're about to get a delivery. And sure enough, by the time I got downstairs, there was a heavy box sitting just inside the gate-- the thirty books I ordered from Haworth. I get a 50% author discount-- and there was a bill right on the top of the pile.

Now I have books to carry around to readings and to sell to friends & family. Not quite sure how I'm going to handle that-- I guess if anyone asks "Where can I buy it?" I'll let them know they can buy from me.

I'm a little worried that Amazon & Barnes & Noble online still don't have the correct information and pricing-- it doesn't look available yet, and each of them has a different price. The current price should be $19.95 but neither site has been updated yet.

My First Interview

2005-08-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I had my first interview today about Mahu, with Andy Zeffer of the Express Gay News, a local paper in Fort Lauderdale. I think the interview went well; we'll see how it comes out in the paper.

But it showed me that I really need to prepare better for this publicity stuff. I threw together a press kit at the last minute, and I know I have to get a fairly nice one put together. I'm heading off to the office supply store to buy some folders, and I'm ordering more of my Mahu labels for the cover of the folder.

I need to think more about the main points I want to convey, as well-- and how I'm going to get those across. Just another step in the process, I guess.

Book in Hand

2005-08-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! I got my first copy of Mahu in the mail yesterday. It looks very cool. The cover illustration stretches around the spine, and my name and the title are high enough up on the spine that a library sticker won't obscure them.

This is a small peeve of mine. I get a lot of books from the library, and I hate it when the author's name is flush to the bottom of the spine-- so the sticker covers it.

They used the same picture I'm using for my blog on the back cover-- me looking demonic (or so Marc says) in my pink and white Hawaiian shirt. I love that shirt-- and I actually bought it at Hilo Hattie's on one of the islands, on one of my trips, so it makes sense.

Since I sent out my first email press release, I've been contacted by two local journalists who want to write about me and the book. So it's all starting!

Published at last!

2005-08-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I got an email yesterday from my publisher, the handsome and charming Bill Palmer (anyone who publishes me automatically becomes handsome and charming.) "MAHU is off press as of today. It looks great! Congratulations."

Boy, have I been waiting a long time for those words! Of course, this is just another step in the process. Now I have to start promoting the hell out of the book. After all, I've already written two sequels, and I know that Mahu has to be successful in order for those two books to see print.

Bill also noted that he was reducing the price of Mahu from $22.95 to $19.95. When I met him at Saints & Sinners in New Orleans in May, we discussed the book's pricing-- which I thought was too high. It began at $24.95 and then dropped to $22.95-- which is what all the printed materials say. I told him that I thought it would be tough for Mahu to compete with other trade paperback gay books -- and other mysteries-- at that price. And I guess I made my case.

I ran out to Office Max today and picked up some little blue circle labels, on which I printed "Now $19.95!" and spent the morning peeling and sticking them on my postcards. Then this afternoon I drove down to the post office in Hallandale and mailed them all out-- about 300, I think.

I also sent out an HTML press release to a short email list, and now I sit back and see what happens.

Waiting

2005-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

I think this may be the hardest part of the publishing process-- or at least it seems like the hardest part now. Waiting.

Mahu was originally scheduled for publication in March 2005. But then I got a letter announcing that because they had bit off more than they could chew at present, they were pushing me to July. I wasn't happy, but I shrugged and accepted fate.

But it's July 2005 now, and still no book. I know it "went to press" about two weeks ago, but no one's giving me any more information than that. "You will receive something from Haworth informing you that your title is off-press, available and ready for sale," I've been told. But I don't know when that will happen, so every day I'm checking the website, hoping the word "forthcoming" will be replaced by something like "now available."

I'm not just waiting for the books. I'm waiting for reviews-- though I've already gotten one very nice one from Gay Web Monkey. I'm waiting to schedule readings. Basically, I'm just waiting for something to happen!

An Agent

2005-07-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Like most writers, I've had a long, convoluted relationship with a series of agents. Agent N represented a couple of my faculty advisors at FIU, and when I finished Mahu I sent him a query letter, as all the writing books instruct. He wrote back "I enjoyed the writing enough to want to read the balance of your manuscript."

However, there were warning signs. N is a straight man in his sixties who lives in New York City, and perhaps has a different view of the world because of it. "There's no longer any shame in being gay," he wrote. "My first problem is in Kimo's relating to his homosexuality." He didn't seem to understand that even in a time when "gay cops even parade with other gays," a gay man can be conflicted about his sexuality-- and other people might react negatively to his coming out.

He also wasn't that excited by series mysteries. "After a couple of books, most publishers seem to abandon the work." Well, gosh, nobody told that to Ed McBain, Janet Evanovich, or Sue Grafton. Imagine being told when you submitted "A is for Alibi" -- "Sue, you'll never make it to "G is for Gumshoe" no less the current book, "R is for Ricochet."

But I really wanted an agent, and N had made some good deals for people I knew. He is a real hands-on agent, sending me pages of (generally) good advice. I went through three rewrite for him, and Mahu is a much better book because of his advice. He even suggested the title, because he felt my first title, "Death in Waikiki" sounded "too much like a category mystery."

Finally, though, he wrote, "I've decided not to take your book on." He cited three significant flaws, the most damning of which was that he felt the book was dated, because "I can't quite believe there would be so much hostility to a gay cop." At that point I didn't think it was worth sending him all the news clippings about gay men being beaten to death simply for going to a gay bar, being in the army, etc. I accepted his letter and went looking for another agent.

I'd started writing a sequel to Mahu while I thought I was represented by N. After all, I figured, when he went to sell Mahu it would help him to be able to show that I had ideas for a series. When he declined me, I stopped work on the sequel.

I sent out new query letters, and Agent M (a lesbian) requested the whole manuscript. Six months later, Agent M called me. She'd read the book a six weeks before, and the fact that it remained in her head convinced her that she should represent it. She took the book as it was, and submitted it to a selection of gay and lesbian editors.

While M was working, I finished writing the sequel, energized by my new representation. Then I got the rejection letters-- alld the agents M had queried had turned the book down. Some didn't like the writing, and some felt that it wasn't right for their house. I accepted the results.

M submitted the second book in the series to a smaller group of editors-- the ones who had liked my writing. Unfortunately none of them were interested. M was very supportive and encouraged me to write other books. I did-- a gay romance, a mainstream novel with gay characters, and a proposal for a non-fiction book. Over six years, nothing sold.

Then a couple things happened in quick succession. I went to the Miami Book Fair, and heard from Jay Quinn that Haworth (who had originally rejected Mahu because it didn't fit their line) was expanding their offerings in gay mystery. By the time I was ready to send the manuscript, though, agent M had retired from the business. So I sent the book in unagented, and probably signed a contract that was less favorable than if I'd had an agent.

But that was OK. I was getting published.

Then at Sleuthfest (the Mystery Writers of America conference in Ft. Lauderdale in March 2005) I met agent R, a straight guy who was intrigued by the idea of Mahu and its sequels (there were now 2 more in the series.) He asked me to wait, though, to query him formally, until I had a proof copy of Mahu.

I finally had that a few weeks ago, and sent it to him on a Friday with my standard query letter. Only I was so rusty at querying that I forgot to include my phone number and email address. Tuesday afternoon, he called-- first to remonstrate me for not including my phone number in the letter.

I didn't want to say "So far, nobody has called-- they usually just send the manuscript back in the mail." Instead I apologized profusely. He told me he liked Mahu and thought he could make a deal for me. By the end of the week I had signed a copy of his agreement and sent it back to him.

Let's hope this story continues in happier mode!

Setting up Readings

2005-06-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

I've started trying to set up readings for Mahu. Fortunately, my first opportunity dropped in my lap. I got my MFA from Florida International University here in Miami, and have been invited to join a group reading of alumni and students on Friday, September 30. The reading will be at Books & Books in Coral Gables, our local literary bookstore, and a real supporter of local writers.

That made it easier when I called Books & Books to set up my own reading-- the woman I spoke with already recognized my name. Since I'm already going to be reading at the Coral Gables store, I decided to have my own reading at the store on Lincoln Road on Miami Beach. The store isn't as large, but it's got a great location and there's a large gay population on the beach. I'll be there Tuesday August 30 at 8 pm.

I wish it had been so easy at Borders. I'm waiting to hear if Mahu is in their system-- or will be. If they aren't selling the book, I can't have a reading there. They have a large store at the edge of Wilton Manors, a big gay neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, with a nice reading space on the second floor. I was really hoping to have my launch party there on a Saturday night at the end of August, after school has started and everyone I know is back in town.

I went to their website, which is run by Amazon.com, and got no results when searching for my name. However, at the bottom of the page it said there were 2 results in books-- which I believe must have come from Amazon's database, not Borders'. I am in the database at bn.com-- Barnes & Noble. Right now you can buy an advance review copy from some guy on Long Island.

I may end up at the Barnes & Noble down the street from Borders-- which wouldn't be bad. They have a lovely store, too, and a big selection of gay & lesbian books. But I think this is all the readings I'll set up for now, unless another opportunity presents itself.

More Copy Editing

2005-06-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Back in February, I wrote about page proofs. An eagle-eyed copy editor at Haworth had reviewed the manuscript for Mahu and found many inconsistencies.

Well, it's like it's February all over again. I just got a six-page single-spaced Word doc from my publisher with more inaccuracies and problems in the book. A gold and diamond bracelet that morphed into gold and emerald bracelet later in the book. A drive that began in one character's car and ended in another's. Kimo wanting to be "a Hawaiian J.D. Salinger" when he really meant "a Hawaiian Holden Caulfield." Kimo asks "Do you think he shot our victim because..." when the victim was not shot, but hit on the head. And on and on.

Jesus, how many mistakes did I make in this book? I'm so grateful that these copy editors keep catching these problems-- but really-- does it ever end? I guess part of the problem is that I began the book back when there people had tapes in their cars, then changed most-- but not all--references to CDs. And changed the method of murder somewhere along the way. I was reminded that one of Kimo's brothers has a new baby in this book-- a baby who has mysteriously disappeared from the next book, which takes place a month later. Oops, got to bring that baby back.

I'm seriously grateful that Haworth has such dedicated copy editors, and I'm feeling very humble. I've always taken pride in submitting very clean copy-- no grammatical errors, no wrong facts. But obviously a whole novel is a different animal.

Press Releases

2005-05-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

My friend Steve Greenberg has been helping me put together press releases for Mahu. He says I need all different kinds of releases-- one directed to South Florida media that emphasize I'm a local resident; one for the gay media that emphasize the gay content of the book; HTML email releases with images; plain text email... the list goes on!

It's really hard to write your own copy! Steve has been helping me polish up the copy that Haworth wrote for their website, adapting it to my use.

I've been hunting for lists of book reviewers on line, and have found a couple. Those folks will be able to contact me or Haworth (I haven't figure out which yet) to get a review copy of the book.

I'm also going to send my email release out to contacts & acquaintances for whom I don't have a snail mail address to send a postcard. Hey, you never know who will want to buy a book!

Course Adoption

2005-05-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

I'm working on my marketing plan for Mahu right now. Trying to think of everything that I can do to help promote the book is a tough job! When I signed the contract with Haworth, I had to fill out a long marketing questionnaire, and I know that they have things they'll do to promote the book, but I want to do my part, too.

Haworth is mostly an academic publisher, and I don't think they have much experience promoting fiction. One cool thing they do is offer a review copy for academics, so one of my projects is going to be to send an email to people who teach gay studies or gay lit courses letting them know about the book. I think it would be great to get the book adopted for a course or two.

I think there's a real justification for this, too. I think any survey of gay lit course should include current books as well as classics, and because Mahu is a gay coming out story, I think it can fit with any survey of gay lit. Also because it crosses genres-- combines the coming out story with the mystery-- it's a unique approach.

According to the president of Haworth's book division, Bill Palmer, whom I met at Saints & Sinners, Haworth already has a list of these courses. I've been doing my own research online, to come up with my own list as well. I know from my own experience choosing books for courses I teach, it's a long process, so I'm not expecting anything to happen quickly.

In August, once the book is out and professors are returning to campuses, I'm going to send an email to as many professors as I can find explaining the book and inviting them to register for a review copy. Then we'll see what happens.

Saints & Sinners

2005-05-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was in New Orleans for the Saints & Sinners conference, my first opportunity to go to a writer's conference as a real, published author. (OK, the book isn't exactly out yet, but it felt real!)

I went to a couple of workshops (John Morgan Wilson rocks!) and picked up a couple of tidbits. I participated in a panel discussion with three other authors: Alistair McCartney, whose queer encyclopedia is coming out next year (really interesting writing); Lauren Sanders, whose book I haven't read but want to; and Aaron Krach, author of Half-Life, which I had just read before the conference.

It was a really interesting panel-- after we got past the basic stuff about how we got started and what we write, we actually talked a bit about what moves us as readers and writers, and about gay publishing and our obligations to our audience and our material.

Later in the day, I participated in a group reading with a bunch of other authors. It's the first time I wasn't really nervous when reading my own work.

T-shirts

2005-05-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Another way to publicize the book, beyond the postcards, is through a logo that I had designed last year. My friend Maury hooked me up with an artist, and the three of us brainstormed the book's title and concept to come up with a visual way to represent it.

It was a fascinating process, thinking about iconography-- the science of symbols and their meanings. There are certain symbols that say "gay"-- the rainbow, the pink triangle. Symbols that say "Hawaii"-- palm trees, leis, the hibiscus flower, volcanoes, surfboards. (Of course these symbols can have other meanings too-- other tropical locations, for example.)

John, the artist, came up with a row of surfboards in rainbow of colors, with the title, Mahu across them, and the book's website, www.mahubooks.com, underneath. It's gorgeous and powerful, and you can read that rainbow as gay if you want, or just read it is a bunch of pretty-colored surfboards.

I've started having some merchandise made up with the logo. Golf shirts (which I can wear to work, to writer's groups meetings, conferences, etc.) t-shirts, a sleeveless T I can wear to walk the dog. Labels and boxer shorts & other junk that I can give away as promotions, too. I set up a site at cafepress.com where anyone can buy the stuff, too.

Postcards

2005-05-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

I'm moving into the marketing phase for Mahu now. Haworth agreed to print up some postcards with the book's cover on the front, and info on the book on the back. I've been assembling mailing lists of labels, in two groups.

First, I went on line and found lists of gay bookstores, gay newspapers, mystery bookstores and mystery reviewers. I sent one round of postcards out to that list already, letting them know that the book will be out in July. From what I understand, they need long lead time for orders, requesting review copies, etc.

I have also started a mailing list for friends & family. First, my holiday card lists, then everyone I remember from college & business school. Anyone I have a business card from-- doctors, dentists, realtors, etc. You never know who will turn out to be a mystery fan, or need a gift for a gay or mystery reader.

I'm also taking a whole stack with me to New Orleans next week for Saints & Sinners, a gay & lesbian writer's conference, and I'll have a stack held back for Bouchercon, the worldwide mystery conference in Chicago in September. I don't know if anyone ever buys a book based on a postcard, but the whole idea is to get your name & the book's name out there. The more times someone runs across you or your book, the more opportunities they have to buy it.

Setting the Price

2005-02-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

I learned something interesting today. I've been complaining to my editor, the director of Haworth's book division, and anyone else who will listen that I think the price of Mahu is too high, at $24.95 for a trade paperback. Haworth publishes a lot of academic books, so their experience seems to tell them people will pay that much. But this isn't a text, it's a mystery novel, and an impulse purchase.

Two things happened. First, my editor emailed to tell me that the book's price is set by the word count. Running the word count over 90,000 (Mahu is about 105,000 words) means a price of $24.95. I wish I'd known this earlier; in my last rewrite before I submitted the manuscript, I shaved close to a hundred pages off the book. If I'd known 90,000 was my limit I would have edited much more harshly.

Then I got an email from the press. At my request, the book's price was being dropped to $22.95. That's certainly a step in the right direction.

We'll see where things go from here.

And another thing that happened today-- I heard from my friend Jamie that his book's sales are lagging, and I agreed to give him a shameless plug. The book is called Dionysus Logged Out, and the author is James David King. It's a pretty cool novel about a group of friends on a BBS system in the Bay area in the late 80s-- interestingly evocative of the time and the people who first began communicating via computer and modem, before the Internet, and surprisingly moving as well. Check it out, at http://www.dionysusloggedout.com.

Page Proofs

2005-02-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

It was really exciting for me when my page proofs arrived-- the first real, concrete sign that my book was coming out since the contract. Then I looked at them.

I really appreciated that the copy editor was so careful and thorough, but periodically, I'd just throw up my hands. She changed commas to dashes and added commas, spelled out numbers and "okay," and pointed out logical problems she found. I thought I could just skip through the book, looking at the changes and initialling them, but I couldn't.

I had to read the book through again in order to answer some of the more complicated problems-- why didn't the police interview the bartender, or search the victim's house? How many doors were there to the office?

All changes longer than a sentence had to be typed and attached to the appropriate page, and had to be copied onto a disk as well. Once I'd read the book through and made the changes, which took nearly two weeks, I had to spend a couple of hours on the last night printing, cutting, and stapling, then putting the package together to be returned to Haworth.

Coincidentally, I had dinner with my friend Vicki and her friend Woody, who I'd known was a surfer-- but I'd forgotten. He was able to do a last minute read on the pages that had surfer terms, and give me some really good suggestions. Now I just have to hope we caught everything!

Working with the Press

2005-02-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

In September of 2004, I had my first contact with the production process at the press. A production editor sent me some questions, mostly having to do with the spelling of Hawai'ian words in the book. I have tried to be faithful to true Hawai'ian spelling, which includes both the macron, the line over a vowel that indicates you draw that vowel out a bit, and the okina, or glottal stop, which is used between vowels, as in the word Hawai'i.

I felt these are important parts of the Hawai'ian language, and I wanted to be respectful. There are also certain words whose meaning changes with or without the macron or the okina. I had to go back and double check all my spellings, providing references. I felt like I was really working on the book, at last!

A manager at the press emailed me a little later to express concern about the book's title. Properly, mahu has macrons over both the a and the u. I had been using ascii characters to show that, and she was worried that the book's title wouldn't be searchable on line if I spelled it that way. I thought about it for a while and said that as long as the printed book looked correct, I didn't care if the website used the macrons or not. She thought that was an acceptable compromise.

Then, in December, I was sent the pre-publication announcement for the book, and Haworth added the book to its website with a great description. I was really impressed that a copywriter had read the book, figured out what it was about and how to market it, and written great copy. To read the copy, you can go to www.haworthpress.com and search for my name: Plakcy.

There was bad news, too. Haworth wanted to charge $24.95 for a trade paperback, and I thought that was way too much. I did some bookstore research on comparative prices, both for gay-themed trade paperbacks and for first mysteries, and tried to get the president of the book division to reconsider. But he ignored my phone calls and emails, so I guess I'm stuck. I sure hope they have a strategy figured out for how to sell the book at such a high price.

The Long Wait

2005-02-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

After Greg accepted Mahu, nothing happened for a long time. As part of the contract, I had to fill out a marketing questionnaire that was pages and pages long. I had to write about myself and the book, list people who might give it a blurb and list magazines and newspapers that might review it.

But the real part of marketing a book doesn't start until four to six months before the book comes out, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I decided I wanted to do some promotion during that time, so I got my friend Maury to help me design a logo that I could use. He worked with an artist, and we came up with two different designs. You can see the one I picked on my home page, at http://www.mahubooks.com/. It's basically a guy dressed as a detective, in a trenchcoat, carrying a surfboard that reads Mahu.

We decided it was the best because it said both "detective," and "surfer," and my hero, Kimo, is both. The other logo, which I really liked, showed a bunch of surfboards in a rainbow of colors, with the word Mahu across them. It was subtly gay and it showed Kimo as a surfer, but it didn't really say mystery, so I couldn't use it.

I did use the rainbow idea when building a website to show off the book. I built the site using frames, and the left frame consists of a ladder of links in the colors of the rainbow. I had to decide what I could offer on the site that would interest readers, and I came up with a couple of ideas.

When I was first researching agents and editors for Mahu, I put together a list of other mysteries featuring gay detectives. With a little updating, I put that list on my site as a way to draw people in. I began posting on gay and mystery newsgroups: Interested in mysteries with gay detectives? Visit my site. I did this a long time ago and got a lot of traffic; hopefully it will work again this year.

I also had professional quality photos of myself taken, and put them on the site for the press to use. I put together a dictionary of Hawai'ian words used in the book, and their definitions. I put up a guest book, and I started using my website address in my email signature and in postings on websites I visit.

I also started researching gay and lesbian bookstores as well as mystery bookstores, trying to decide where I could go to have readings that might publicize the book. And I considered hiring a publicist who was familiar with gay books to help me get the word out, so I had to search for appropriate people, contact them and discuss what I wanted.

I used the time to write another book in the series, too-- at least in first draft. All this stuff kept my mind off worrying about what would happen when the book finally came out!

Preparing the Manuscript

2005-02-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

Greg told me he'd prepare some comments for me, and have them to me by December 15, 2003. The contract specified that I'd have until February 1, 2004 to make the changes and submit an acceptable manuscript. Since I was by then a college professor of English, with a long Christmas vacation, I thought that would be no problem. He thought the book was too long-- because Haworth prices books based on page length, and he was worried my price would come in too high.

In November, I went back to the Miami Book Fair. On Sunday morning, I had a bad allergy attack and had to leave early. On my way out, though, I heard familiar music-- the song "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride," from Lilo and Stich. It's about surfing, and I really like it. So I stopped to watch a bunch of little kids dancing around on a stage to the song.

Something clicked, and I realized how I could cut some pages from the book. I went home, took some allergy medicine, and started to revise. By the time I was done, I had trimmed the manuscript from 450 pages to 350, changed the villain, and eliminated one murder. I thought it was a much stronger book, and quickly sent a revised copy to Greg.

I didn't hear anything from him by December 15. Finally, February 1, I emailed him again, noting that was the date I was supposed to have my revisions done by-- and I didn't even know what I had to revise. A few weeks later, he responded. He loved the new draft, and didn't think I had to change a word.

The Road to Publication

2005-02-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Once I had an editor, I set about writing a second book in the series, to give her even more to sell. Unfortunately, none of the publishers she contacted were willing to buy. Over the next few years, she tried to sell that second book, and at least two others I wrote, without success.

In the fall of 2002, I finally came to the decision that I needed a new agent. I was lazy, though, so I kept putting it off. That November I went to the Miami Book Fair International, and saw an announcement for a discussion of a book of stories about gay men in the south. I don't think of Miami as part of the south-- though we are indeed south of the Mason Dixon line, I think of us more as the capital of the Caribbean. So I wasn't planning to attend.

I was actually on my way to hear my friend, classmate and now colleague Vicki Hendricks read when I passed that discussion. I forced myself to walk in the door-- after all, you never know what you'll discover if you force yourself to go to events in your area.

The speaker was Jay Quinn, who had edited the book for the publishing house where he worked, Haworth Books. (Are you seeing where this is going yet?) During the question and answer period, I asked how he felt about gay mysteries. He said he felt there was a strong market for them, and that he was soon going to hire a sub-editor to concentrate on gay genre books-- mystery, horror, romance, etc.

I went up to him afterwards and asked if I could send him Mahu. He asked me to wait until the sub-editor was in place, and gave me his card. I followed up with him a couple of times, until in April 2003 he announced the editor had been hired and gave me his name and address.

I sent Greg Herren the book a few days later, and waited for his response. And waited. And waited. By September I'd pretty much given up; then I got a letter announcing Haworth wanted to publish Mahu.

Kimo and I Come Out Together

2005-02-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

It was only after I began the coming out process-- acknowledging to myself and the rest of the world that I was gay-- that I started to understand Kimo. I realized he'd left the force because he was gay, and started his own p.i. agency.

Then I realized that I still couldn't go back to that book-- I had to write the book in which Kimo came out, and eventually left the force. At least that's what I thought when I started writing Mahu.

The title then was still Death in Waikiki-- a very generic title. But I had this image of a body being dumped behind a gay bar, and a cop finding it who shouldn't have been there. That was Kimo, and that became the genesis for the book.

Writing and revising was a long process. When I finally thought I was finished, I approached an agent I had met at a writer's conference. He liked the sample chapters enough to request the whole book, and then gave me extensive notes toward revision. I went back to the computer and did what he asked.

Then he asked someone else at the agency to do some line edits, and she gave me pages of suggestions, including pointing out that people gave up the information to my detective very easily. She asked me to go back over those scenes and make things tougher for him-- make him actually work at detecting. This agent also suggested Mahu as a title for the book, which I thought was a great choice.

They were great comments, and the book improved tremendously because of them. Unfortunately, on a third read, the agent decided he didn't think the book worked, because so much of it was focused around Kimo's struggles to come out. This agent, who lived in NYC, thought being a gay cop was no big deal-- even though the organization of gay cops weren't allowed to march in the police-controlled St. Patrick's Day parade.

It took me another year of sending out sample chapters and outlines to agents before I got another who was interested. She called me months after getting the manuscript, long after I'd wiped her off. She said the book had stayed with her for months, and that was a sign that she should represent it.

I was delighted; she was a lesbian and got the book. I was sure she would sell it and my long-awaited career as a writer would be launched.

Beginning Mahu

2005-02-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

I began to write Mahu under the title Death in Waikiki. I created a hero, Kimo Kanapa'aka, who was a former police detective, now working as a private eye. He was called in by the manager of a hotel to investigate the suspicious death of a hotel guest.

I wrote about 200 pages and then went to the FIU Writer's Conference in Seaside, Florida. My MFA thesis advisor, Jim Hall, (James W. Hall to you mystery lovers) read and critiqued the first 40 pages. His first question was to ask how many pages I'd written. His face fell when I told him 200.

His next question was, "Why did your hero leave the police force?"

I gave him a jumbled answer about inability to accept authority, and admitted I didn't really know more than that. I said I'd hoped that the writing would tell me, but it hadn't yet.

Jim sadly advised me that I really had to know the answer to that question before the book could succeed. I left Seaside and stopped work on the book. It was another four years before I found the answer to that question and could start to write again.

Publishing a Book

2005-02-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

My first novel, a mystery featuring a gay detective, will be published in May 2005 by Haworth Press. I thought I'd record some of the steps I've gone through in getting this book published so that other writers, and people interested in gay books, can see what's involved.

I started writing Mahu, which means homosexual in Hawaiian, in 1992, after a visit to Hawaii. I had just graduated from Florida International University with an MFA in creative writing, and I was trying to find something to write a novel about.

I studied under two writers who were already writing mystery novels set in Florida, Jim Hall and Les Standiford. Other classmates, including Dennis Lehane and Barbara Parker, had staked out their territory. There was an explosion of writing set in Florida, and I despaired of finding my own turf.

Then I went to Hawaii. My father had just passed away, and my mother inherited his frequent flyer miles. I had accumulated a lot myself, flying back and forth between the northeast and Florida, so we decided to use those miles for a trip to Hawaii. It seemed like a once in a lifetime trip, so we planned to visit as many islands as we could in two weeks.

I fell in love. I'd learned so much about Florida by reading mysteries by authors like Edna Buchanan, Carl Hiaasen, and others, so I thought I'd look for the same kind of books about Hawaii. There weren't any. Aha, I thought. Market opportunity!

I discovered that what I loved about Florida was found in Hawaii too-- the mix of cultures, the contrast between light and shadow, the fragility of the environment, and the sense Hawaii, like Miami, was on the edge of the country. It was as if somebody had shaken America and all the nuts had landed at the bottom.

I thought there was novelistic possibility in what Graham Greene called "shady characters in sunny places." So I got an idea for a book and started to write.