Anyway, this post is meant to serve notice that I’m working on my next book. A lot of people (by which I mean my mom and some guy in the NYC subway who thought I was Brad Meltzer) have asked me when my next novel would be ready and what the plot would be. My answer so far has been, later and something with JD and Danny. The guy in the subway didn’t dig that at all. Sorry, homes.

The more realistic answer is that the new book will likely be finished sometime in early 2014. That’s a fairly ridiculous statement, given that I’ve only just started. But one of the things I’ve discovered about myself is that I need deadlines, preferably tight ones, in order to do my best work. This is a common affliction among journalists and creative types in general, so it doesn’t worry me at all. It’s just how I do.

So, on to the plot. That’s a little trickier. I’m not going to give it up here, at least not yet. But in general I’ll say that the story involves Danny and JD working together and that Caroline is still in the picture. I know that will make my friend Tara and Aunt Pam happy, which is very important. A lot of people also have asked about Reggie the dog. I’m going to save my comments on that for another post entirely, but let’s just say that I can’t guarantee the safety of any character in my books, canine or otherwise.

If you’d like to stay updated on the progress of the new book, follow me on the Twitterz at @dennisf or email me at admin at motherlesschildrenbook dot com and I’ll be sure you’re in the know. Happy reading.

I’ve been pretty happy so far with the wide range of people who have read the book, including people from all over the world: Russia, Romania, UK, Ireland, Canada, etc. Hell, even Texas. But I’m not satisfied with that. I want every damn one to have a chance to read the book, and so I’m going to do something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen another author do before: guarantee my book.

If you buy Motherless Children and get through it and feel like you didn’t get your money’s worth, I’ll refund your purchase price. Me, not Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Ya heard?

Obviously, I’m pretty confident that people will like the book or I wouldn’t do this. But it’s more than that. I just want people to give it a chance, and if they feel like it wasn’t worth the money, then I don’t want them to be mad about spending their money on it. So there are a few conditions for this offer:

1. This only applies to new purchases, from today forward. If you already bought the book and didn’t like it, sorry.
2. The offer only applies to the Kindle edition of the book.
3. You need a PayPal account. I’m not sending a bag of coins through the mail.
4. You need proof of purchase. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I can’t have a bunch of fools asking for their three dollars back when they didn’t buy the book. Proof can be a screenshot of your Kindle, a confirmation email from the seller, a photo of the book in your hands or something else like that.
5. I reserve the right to tell you your proof is BS. But unless it’s obvious garbage, I’m gonna send you the money.
6. Email: dennis at motherlesschildrenbook dot com for questions or to ask about the refund

I realize this is sort of a nutty idea, but I also know how disappointed I feel sometimes when I buy a book with high expectations and then feel like it was a waste of time. No one has told me that they thought reading Motherless Children was a waste of time, so I’m hoping no one takes me up on this offer.

The Kindle price is $2.99. What have you got to lose? Go here to buy Motherless Children now!

Some of the most frequent feedback that I’ve gotten from readers is how much they like the characters. People really seem to have connected with Danny and Tex especially, and, depending on the reader, JD and Caroline as well. That’s always gratifying to hear because I spent a lot of time making sure that they were all real people, not cardboard cutouts or stereotypes of their respective places in the story. I had not interest in creating another helpless heroine who attaches herself to the big, brave cop. What I wanted were characters who you could envision actually meeting in real life. I hope that’s what I achieved.

Given that the story is mainly concerned with the murders of several women and the police investigation that follows, it’s easy to just tell people it’s a crime novel or murder mystery and be done with it. But I think that’s probably inaccurate and sells it short in some ways. The way that I’ve come to think about the book now is as a story about the relationships between Danny, Tex and JD. There is a lot of shared history with the three of them and as the events in the plot unfold, that backstory informs their motives, influences their actions and ultimately dictates their futures in large part.

I’m not sure whether there’s a nifty little name for books like that (three men and a lady?) and I’m positive it’s not something I can describe to people in one sentence at a cocktail party. But that’s what it is, and I think it’s the most accurate and effective way to describe the story. So there.

Pelecanos is as good as one writing today. I don’t mean just in crime fiction or whatever genre you want to place him in. He’s at the top of the game in American fiction. Period. People always want to qualify conversations about things such as writing, music, humor or movies by saying that they’re subjective topics. One man’s art is another man’s trash and all that.

Sorry, but you can sell that somewhere else. You know good writing when you see it, and Pelecanos’s books are flat-out great. There is no one who writes better or more natural dialogue than he does, in any genre. He captures the patterns of the DC dialect so well that his characters’ exchanges read like recorded conversations between real people. Read any random page of dialogue in any of his books and then go read something from a Dan Brown or James Patterson book. You’ll get the idea.

Perhaps the most interesting thing, at least to me, that Pelecanos says in the interview is that he’s trying to leave a record with his writing. He wants people to look at his books 100 years from now and be able to see what life in DC was like in the 20th and 21st centuries. He’s done that already, and he’s still got a lot of productive years ahead of him.

Listen to the interview. It’s 45 of the best minutes you’ll ever spend.

If you weren’t one of the winners, don’t despair. I have a little something something for y’all too. If you’d like a signed copy of Motherless Children, simply email me at the address below and I’ll send you details privately on how to get one. The book lists for $16.95 and I’ll send anyone who references the Goodreads contest a signed copy for that same price. I know what you’re thinking: Wow, that’s a value of, like, $497 for just $16.95! You’re right, of course.

But I’ve gotten pretty good at writing with a pen over the years, so I’m willing to put that unique talent to work for the people and sign a whole mess of books. I’m not sure how many books are in a “mess”, so you should probably get on this quickly before I figure it out and it’s too late.

Contact me at dennis (at) motherlesschildrenbook (dot) com

Now, this offer obviously will have some limitations. But not many. I live in New England and I can get to pretty much anyplace in the area within a few hours. So if there’s a book club of reasonable size in the area that will commit to buying and reading my book, I will commit to coming and talking to you about it. What’s reasonable size? I don’t know. I’m flexible, but let’s just say that if your book club consists of you and your Aunt Tilly, we may have to discuss a different solution.

Also, if you’re in Yellow Knife or Albuquerque or Key West, it might be a little tough. (Actually, I’ll go to Key West anytime.) But I travel a lot, so let me know, and if I’m in your area, we’ll see if we can make it happen.

We may have to work on the timing and dates, but I’m willing to make this work. I’m interested in supporting people who support my book, so get the word out. Tell your friends, co-workers, enemies, friends with benefits and whoever else you know and then go to CreateSpace or Amazon and buy the book.

You can contact me at dennis (at) motherlesschildrenbook.com.

Some of these copies are already earmarked for people who helped me with the writing and editing process, promotion, etc. And some others will be going to close friends and family members. But I’ll have a few left over and one of the things I decided to do is run a giveaway over on Goodreads. If you’re already a member, head over there and enter the contest. If not, get on the ball and sign up. All the cool kids are doing it.

I’m giving away three signed copies of the book, and as they sell for $16.95 on Amazon, the signed ones must be worth at least $735 each. Roughly.

Thanks to everyone who has already  bought a copy. If you haven’t bought yet, what are you waiting for?! Go get your copy and feed your head!

For those people who have read or are reading the book, I’d like to ask that you consider writing a review on Amazon once you’ve finished. The reviews are a huge factor in the success of a book, especially for a self-published one like mine. If you like the novel, please let other folks know with a review, a note on your facepage, a message on Twitter or some sort of billboard on the freeway if you’re so inclined.

If you don’t like the book, please just copy and paste one of the positive reviews and move on with your life. No one likes negativity.

Buy now at Amazon!

A huge part of that was the cover of the book. As someone who loves books, the cover is as important to me as any aspect of the story. I spend a lot of times in airports and I often find myself wandering through the bookstores looking for something to read. And one of the things that always strikes me is how similar so many of the covers look. If you’re interested in historical fiction, you can tell by glancing at a handful of books which ones fit that description. The same holds true for romance, thrillers, vampire and zombie stories and whatever other genre you want to name.

Publishers do this for a reason: they assume readers are dumb.

The publishers don’t want to have their poor lost lambs meandering through the aisles of some bookstore (such as they are) or clicking through the pages of Amazon, wondering where they can find the angsty teen novellas or Snooki’s guide to life. They want to hit you over the head with it, and that starts and ends with the cover. I’ve never been in one of these meetings where publishers, art directors and–maybe–the author discuss cover ideas. But here’s sort of how I imagine they go.

Interior, glass-walled conference room on 69th floor of GiantRandomPublisherCorp headquarters in New York. MacBook Airs and empty Crystal Light bottles litter the mahogany table.

Art director: So what kind of story is it?

Author: Well, it’s a murder mystery, but there’s a major subplot about global warming and-

Art director: Murder mystery? Gun on the cover, bullethole through the overleaf. Sepia tones and some red leaking off the bottom of the page.

Author: But there’s no guns. The victim dies from eating genetically modified pork belly.

Publisher: Great! Thanks everyone.

There might be some small talk about lunch orders, but you get the idea. I am about as interested in this happening as Sammy Hagar is in discussing David Lee Roth’s musical legacy. Luckily for me, I have some hugely talented family members, so I had a better option. I knew from the beginning that I wanted the swamp to be on the cover in one form or another, mostly because I thought of it as one of the main characters in the story. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted it to look like, so this winter I asked my brother-in-law Ryan to go out to the swamp with me and shoot some pictures and just see what he came up with.

Ryan is a self-taught photographer and he’s perhaps the most talented shooter I’ve seen who isn’t doing it professionally. I know plenty of newspaper and magazine shooters who don’t do nearly the level of work Ryan does, so I had no question he’d come up with something great. And he did. We spent about an hour or so out there that day, and I’d say that about 90% of the shots he showed me could’ve been on the cover. But the one we picked captures the mood of both the swamp and the book itself perfectly. It could not be better.

The cover design was a little trickier because I had no idea what I wanted it to look like, aside from having Ryan’s photo on it. I knew what I didn’t want it to be, but that’s not so helpful for a designer. So I turned the design itself over to my sister-in-law Lisa, who is a professional graphic designer, but hadn’t done anything like this before. I gave her some ideas of covers I did like, and then she went away and worked on it. What came back is almost exactly what we used. Her initial ideas were so strong and so on the mark for what I was thinking, that I made maybe two small suggestions. That was it.

I got exactly the cover I wanted, with no compromises, no concessions and no arguments. And in the end, the cover conveys precisely the tone and mood of the book, which is all I could ask for.

You can check out Ryan’s work on his site. And you can see the front cover of the book in the image gallery. The small thumbnail doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea.

A lot of aspiring writers spend time studying established authors’ processes, digging out little nuggets about how they write, what time of day they work, whether they write longhand or use a computer and any other detail they can find. I never did much of that, mostly because I wasn’t convinced that it would really help me. I figured that I’d either be able to write the book or I wouldn’t. Whether I wrote at 6 a.m. or midnight or wrote on a legal pad or an Amiga wouldn’t make any difference. Either the story would come or I’d figure out it wasn’t going to work.

Whatever thought I had given the way that other writers worked centered on how they came up with their characters and then developed the plot around them. For series writers, that’s (mostly) a one-time process. You come up with a strong character, develop his back story and then mold storylines around him every year or so.

But for me, the first germ of the story came from a place rather than a character. The swamp that is on the home page of the site and shown in the gallery is what started me thinking about what developed into Motherless Children. I used to drive past it every day during my commute to Boston and at some point I started wondering why the swamp was there. I had a vague notion that it was probably an abandoned cranberry bog and that there may have been a fire there at some point. There are broken, charred trees sticking up out of the water and other oddities that made me think there must be some hidden history there. I talked to people who had lived in the are for a long time and none of them knew what had happened.

At that point, I decided to avoid any other efforts to find out the history of the place. It’s a unique spot with huge narrative possibilities, so I wanted to leave it alone. I wanted to weave my own story around it and not be constrained by what had actually occurred there. I was more interested in making the place a character in the novel, a central part of the story and that’s what ended up happening. I spent a lot of time working on the details of the setting and trying to convey the overwhelming creepiness of that swamp and I’m hopeful that it came through in the final product.

Two quick examples of how weird that swamp is. When I described the setting to a friend who has lived on the South Shore for his whole life, he shivered. He said that when his family would drive by it when he was young, he’d close his eyes until they were well past it. And, when my brother-in-law and I went to the swamp so he could shoot the cover photo, it was on a nice, sunny mid-winter day with people walking their dogs and swans a ducks paddling around in the water. We traipsed through the woods for a good hour while Ryan shot and I felt uneasy the entire time. Much of the land is a park now and has some nice trails that would be great for running, but I have no desire ever to go back there. It was not a pleasant place.

My imagined history of the swamp is one version, but there are infinite possibilities for it.