Michael Haskins's Blog

Today’s publish world is changing faster than I can swill a Guinness. I, like many others, have benefited from it. My last three books have been independently publish. Each has gone through the editing and cover design once offered by my traditional publisher. Two differences, I pay for the editing and cover design and like the result much better.

I have to do my own publicity, but then publishers have cut much of the PR budgets, so writers who are not on the NY Times bestseller list probably have to do that too, if they’re traditionally published. It’s time consuming until you get the routine down and then many of the markets still are hard to break into. That will change as more and more bestselling authors become independently published. The upside of going independent is the money. From Kindle I receive 70 percent and the Kindle website gives me daily sales numbers and a 30-day graph of how my sales are doing. Something the NY publishing world says they can’t do.

I still do offer my books on Amazon as POD trade paperbacks. The sales are not worth mentioning.
So why do it?

I have books to give family and friends, books to use for PR purposes and for signings. While some independent bookstores will agree to hold signings for non-traditionally published writers, here in Key West I hold my book release party for NOBODY WINS at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon in Old Town.
I don’t have to give the saloon a 40-percent cut of the sales and that's a big thing. More money for me!

I will also be at the Kilkenny House Irish Pub in Cranford, NJ on the 20th of the month, around 5 pm, and Barry, the owner let me use his pub for a few chapters in NOBODY WINS. It’s an unofficial book signing, but I’ll have a few copies so stop by if you’re in the neighborhood.in my pocket. I will be having a book release party on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2-4 pm at the Smokin’ Tuna, so if you’re in Key West, please stop by.

We’re a small community and everyone knows everyone. In this case, I know the local Budweiser man and he has donated a keg of Mich Ultra. Buy a book and get a free draft of beer. I’m not sure if anyone will be keep track of who gets the drafts, so the curious may also get a free draft. The local rep for Pilar Rum has donated a few bottles and there will be specially priced Pilar Run drinks. All this makes the book release event more of a party, Key West style.

Other than book release parties, I don’t really sell many traditional books. You would think that the big publishers would take notice. More and more writers, like me, are having good sales on Kindle. Writers that the NY publishers weren’t interested in.

While I love books, to hold it while reading, to see its spine on my bookshelf, times are changing and when my kids inherit my book collection, they will probably be inheriting antiques. The same with newspapers. I want to hold it, smell the ink and hear the rustling of pages as I turn them. Not to mention that when I spill my café con leche on the newspaper it’s still readable. Not sure what a Kindle or tablet would do with my coffee soaking it.

Last Friday NOBODY WINS was released and is now available as a trade paperback on Amazon and my website and as an eBook at the Kindle Store.

I ran into a lot of delays in writing this one. The trip to Ireland for research, helping put together the inaugural Mystery Writers Key West Fest and my job writing for the Key West Weekly.

Now I am working on an idea for my next Mick Murphy Key West Mystery and it’s going to involve a week-long road trip to the Florida Panhandle or Panama City (still deciding) and New Orleans.

I can begin writing the book soon, because the opening chapters happen in Key West and with a gruesome event that, I hope, will make all readers really hate the bad guy. Doing that from the beginning will be a new twist for me. I hope it works and doesn’t come back and bite me in the ass.

I don’t usually have another book in mind when I finish one. I get to work on a short story and it’s kind of a vacation of the mind. But this story came to me while riding and listening to ole Waylon Jennings on a CD. I can’t remember the name of the song, but it had something to do with getting out of Tulsa before sunset. Find the song, listen to it and you might have an idea of where the story plot is going. Timely and gruesome, trust me. Anyway, like I often do, I take the idea in the song and wonder “What would Murphy do?” By the time I’d returned home I had the story kind of worked out in my head and have kept adjusting it, even while still writing NOBODY WINS.

I had another surprise too. Maybe I just have too much time on my hands. I have the book following the next one kind of thought out too. I guess any short stories I had hoped to work on will have to wait. All I can tell you on the 2nd book is this time Mick has to come to the aid of his black-bag friend Norm. It’s usually Norm coming to save Mick’s butt.

Other than that, I am busying working on the 2nd annual Mystery Writers Key West Fest for June of 2015. Wanna help? What Florida writer would you like to see as our Saturday guest author and luncheon speaker and why. Would he/she be reason enough for you to come to Key
West for the event?

I am looking forward to hearing from the dedicated three readers following my posts on this one!

Oh yeah, if you buy NOBODY WINS, please write a review on its Amazon page, it really helps.

Thanks and remember, a book a day keeps the mind busy and you out of trouble . . . live vicariously through mysteries!

All right, the overall premise of the book was done in my last blog. Now it’s time to deal with the opening of the book.

“To Beat the Devil” opens differently than my other books, because it’s told in Norm’s voice. I began in Murphy’s voice, but realized what happened in the end of “Stairway to the Bottom” would have left Murphy in bad shape, both physically and mentally. So, Norm, Murphy’s black bag friend begins the story and it’s not in Key West. About 100 pages into the book, they arrive back in Key West, and we have Murphy telling the story.

So, the book opens with Norm explaining why Murphy is beating a Russian gangster with a rubber hose. There are some later torture scenes that I made up, but the practice is not fiction.

A lot of the story in the beginning deals with tracking Alexei, the person responsible for the violent ending of “Stairway to the Bottom.”

Without giving too much away, there’s a few chapters set in South Beach outside and inside a Russian “private club.” It’s true, the Russian Mafia brings over bar girls from the old Soviet Bloc and use them to entice wealthy men to come to the clubs, where they guys are usually fleeced with prices of a grand for drinks. Stories have appeared in the Miami Herald about these clubs and sometimes the owners are taken to court. But it takes a while.

There’s a few altercations with the Russians that leads Murphy to Mexico and drug gangs fighting each other. Remember, Murphy’s friend Pauly is an ex-drug smuggler and knows his way around Tampico, Mexico. Thanks to Pauly’s connections, a Mexican Navy attack to the drug compound, Murphy finds out about a possible terrorist attack about to happen.

These chapters are built around Iranians, Russians and Mexican drug cartels. Is it real? Can it happen? When I brought the chapters to my intelligence expert, he said I was right on, especially about the Iranians. To find out what I was right on about, you’ll need to read the book. But, I can assure you, the chapters concerning the Russians and their cohorts are plausible and what I have them involved in may scare you as much as it did me. Sometimes in writing fiction, the truth behind the story may be more titillating.

I’ve had a few discussions with people, some friends and others that showed up at the Smokin’ Tuna Saloon on Friday for happy hour because they read my books and know I’ll be there. The discussions are about To Beat the Devil, my latest book.

The discussions and questions didn’t happen in order of how the book unfolds, but someone I met last week thought I should talk about the questions that have been asked and follow the book. For the next few blogs here, I will do just that. If you’ve read the book and have a question about how I came up with something or if it’s possible or true, write and I’ll try to answer you.

The most often observation is that throughout the book there are two sets of bad guys. The terrorists and all their cohorts, and people in government that should know better but it would seem that they want the terrorist act to happen.

I wrote the book and made a few government officials bad guys. Men and women that shouldn’t be. Hard to believe, people have told me. If you haven’t heard about the Whitey Bulger case in Boston and the corrupt FBI agents that allowed Whitey to get away with murder because his other activities helped advance their careers, go to Google. A badge, a gun and an acronym for an employer doesn’t guarantee someone is a good guy.

How many American agents have gone to jail for spying for the enemy? How many cops have gone to jail for stealing or even for dealing? Is Snowdon a hero for exposing NSA snooping on unsuspecting American citizen and world leaders, or is he a trader? It may be a personal decision, but it’s fodder for mystery writers.

So, in To Beat the Devil, my protagonists, Mick Murphy, and his ragtag group of miscreant friends, have to seek justice because those in positions to do it won’t. In all my books, it’s about people seeking justice when the system is broke or for other reasons, the system doesn’t work.

I make up the situations in my books, but the background is there for anyone to see. All you need to do is look for it. With the fall of Communism, writers like me needed to find another enemy and we didn’t have to look far! Corruption is in all our backyards. Read the papers, that’s where I get ideas, or watch the local and network news.

To Beat the Devil is based on a scary premise of what if . . . what if the terrorists were trained in Mexico, crossed the border to attack us, using drug smugglers and what if officials in our intelligence agencies new this but turned a blind eye.

I learned things in my research that concerned me. Are we as safe as the government says? Are government agencies acting as if they are at war with each other when it comes to garnishing federal budget dollars? Would intelligence agency officials lie all the way to the White House to protect themselves? Would they let innocent people die to advance their careers or their agency?

We’ll see, in the coming weeks, what I learned and it might scare you too.

OK, it's getting pretty cold up where you are, well it probably is if you're not in or close to the tropics.
On Dec. 7, 2-5 pm, a group signing of Key West and South Florida authors will be held at the Smokin' Tuna Saloon, 4 Charles St., off the 200 block of Duval.
There will be 30+ authors from all genres, mystery, YA, memoires, etc.
So if you're in need of an excuse to escape the cold and visit Key West, here's one.
Next year, for you that like to plan ahead, on June 13-14, the inaugural Mystery Writers Key West Fest, will be held on the island, featuring a meet-and-greet the authors Friday evening, with the mayor proclaiming it Mystery Writers Weekend in KW and maybe even a bar stroll.
Saturday morning there will be two panels of writers and three panels that afternoon, with local law enforcement officials on the last one.
There's a sunset cruise aboard the Fury planned and a noir movie at the Tropic Cinema, that is included in the festival price.
A lot happening and more being added. The website, mysterywriterskeywestfest.com should be up a running any day, but it continues to be a work in progress.
The Double Tree/Grand Key Hotel has set aside a block of rooms at a KW discounted price.
Hope to see you in Key West.

Okay, GoodReads readers, I am looking for some GoodReads reviews of my newest Mick Murphy Key West Mystery "To Beat the Devil." Go to my website and read a litte from it, or you can read a little bit on Amazon.com, if you go to the book.
If you think this is a book you'd like, and you are willing to read it and put up a review on GoodReads and the book's Amazon page, email me from the website with your address and I will mail you a signed copy. Honor system for the reviews. Review in both locations help sales, so you do me a favor and I'll send you a free book. Free is usually good.

The recent news headlines out of South Florida got me to thinking about handguns. I am an endangered species in that I am a liberal Democrat that supports the right to own guns. But that’s for another time. This time I am thinking about the reality of guns and what they do and what they sound like and what they feel like when shot, when empty, when loaded and how the writer has a responsibility to portray that in his/her writing.

As a writer of mysteries, there’s a lot of gun used in my books and stories. I am fortunate to have a trained military intel person, as well as police deputy sheriffs, to go to for help and they often points out my errors.

“But I saw it on TV,” or “That’s what the website said,” are usually two of my stock comebacks.

When I moved to Key West onto my sailboat, from smoggy Southern California, I sold or gave away my few guns since there was no gun range in Key West and not much room on Mustard Seed.

About two years ago, The Big Coppit Gun Club opened and I have taken advantage of it for shooting and the owner’s knowledge of guns, as a backup source. I now have a few handguns that often appear in my books and when my characters shoot them, I know what I’m writing about.

There are things I write about that are the result of research and corroboration. The firing of guns is more personal than racing a car at 100 mph on US1, even if it’s a replica of the car Steve McQueen used in Bullet. If you can race the car, do it. If you can’t, find someone that has. A Monroe County Deputy Sheriff would be a good place to start, since most of US1 is 45 mph and in a few places 55 mph. I have chapters of that event happening on the seven-mile bridge, in “Car Wash Blues,” from Five Star.

Anyway, my point is, if you use guns in your story and, especially, if your protagonist is not a law enforcement officer, you should know how he/she feels when pulling the trigger; and I don’t mean about shooting someone. A frail 80-year old man isn’t going to shoot a .45 cal semi-automatic without some consequences. An inexperienced 18-year old isn’t going to shoot the .45 and not be surprised (as well as miss his target) at the kick.

Learn a little about the various caliber handguns and find the one that fits your protagonist. On the other hand, what about all the other people in your stories that use guns? Not everyone uses the .45. My preference is the 9mm Sig Sauer, but my array of good guys and bad guys use revolvers as well as semi-automatics.

Glocks, Sigs, Colts, Rugers, there’s no end to the number of handguns on the market and you should know which one will work for you character and some of its traits. Knowing the reputation of a certain brand will keep you from using a cheaply made replica of a Glock and know what caliber your gun is. Many come in a variety of calibers.

Did you know that Glocks & Sigs don’t have safeties? Their trigger pressure is higher than a Ruger, which has a safety. With the safety off, the Ruger requires very little trigger pressure to shoot. Glocks and Sigs require trigger pressure to shoot. Good to know this, if there’s a physical altercation while one or more people are holding a handgun. Being knowledgeable about guns will make your story more honest and gun buffs less likely to write and explain why what you did couldn’t be done!

Do you use a real city or town in your stories? If you do, you’d better know what weapons the police or sheriff’s department issues to its officers. If you get it wrong, someone will let you know and you may have lost that reader because of your inaccuracies.

The military has a 20mm cartridge that is used in fighter jets. It will penetrate certain items, such as a boat hull, and then explode like a grenade. A couple of countries make sniper rifles that shoot the cartridge. Capacity is three-round magazine and the rifle has to be on a tripod because its recoil is so strong. Lots to know. Now, I didn’t get to shoot a 20mm round, but my military intel guy got me specifics and there were videos on the internet! The bad guys use this 20mm sniper rifle in “Car Wash Blues.”

If you already search the web for research, it’s no surprise what is on there. Check out the DEA, CIA, JIATF, JSOCK and you’ll be surprised at what you find. I was! And you thought it was all secret stuff. If you find something on the weaponry your protagonist is using, keep checking, and double check your facts. The web is as good as any place to begin your research into handguns and rifles, but don’t stop there, go to the experts.

Okay, your protagonist carries a 9mm Sig. In what? Stuck in the back of his pants like all the good guys do on TV? Get a Sig, (not mine, sorry) stick it between your belt and backbone and make a mad dash down the driveway and see what happens. Looks good on TV, but unless you’ve got the right holster the guns gonna drop.

For ladies, a gun in the purse is useless. Well, it gives the perp a weapon once he/she has your purse, but that isn’t your purpose.

Women I know like the ‘pocket’ guns. Usually a .32 or .380 semi-automatic. It’s small, light and, as it says, it fits into your pocket. If your female protagonist wears dresses or skirts all the time, I don’t know what to tell you. Find an ankle holster that will adjust to her thigh. Who knows, maybe they make holster for that.

To help make a short blog longer, let me tell you of my mistake in “Free Range Institution.” Thankfully, it was caught by my military intel guy.

I’d read and seen TV news reports on scooter assassins in Colombia and how Pablo Escobar used them to kill his enemies. I brought a drug gang to Key West in the book and in an attempt to kill Mick Murphy they use two scooter assassins to chase him, Tita and two military men through old town.

I forget the weapons I chose for them, but when the chapters came back from my source, he’d written “would topple scooter.” I called him. He explained and I went with his suggestion of using an Uzi because all you need to do is point and shoot. The Uzi will spray 30-rounds instantly and that makes it a good scooter-assassin’s weapon.

We write mysteries and we kill people. Do it right! Get experience, talk to experts – I don’t suggest you murder your neighbor or significant other, but do suggest real research on the matter.

Most gun ranges rent weapons and have a knowledgeable staff. Tell them you’re a writer, and you need to find the right weapon for this or that, and you might be surprised how helpful they are. Everyone likes to feel like an expert and the go to person for a writer. Believe me, it works.

Get a feel for the weapons in your books. Discover why gun ranges – indoor like mine or outdoor like my intel’s in NC – make you wear ear protection. Once you’ve become familiar with the feel and sounds, next time a TV or movie shows an indoor gun fight, even only a few shots, and then everyone is talk about something you’ll find yourself thinking, “man, they’d be deaf as a rock after that.” You don’t want your readers saying things like that about you.

Bonus question: what’s a clip and what’s a magazine. Which goes where.
It’s a common error in books, TVs, and movies.

My books are available on Amazon.com, the Kindle Store, or at my website: www.michaelhaskins.net.