Bruce Borgos's Blog

There’s a unique kind of insanity that grips a writer right before a book tour. You look at the calendar, see all the dates and cities lined up like little dominoes, and instead of thinking, Maybe I should just do a quiet launch from home, you say: “Let’s go meet strangers and talk about the imaginary people who live in my head.”

This is, of course, ridiculous. Writing is one of the most solitary, internal, neurotic professions a person can choose. We hole up for months—years, sometimes—rewriting scenes, chasing character arcs, researching obscure minerals or firearm calibers, and talking to ourselves in parking lots to work out dialogue. And then, when the book finally comes out, we somehow decide it’s a great idea to put on real pants and tour the country like we’re Springsteen with a plot twist.

It takes a special kind of conceit to assume anyone wants to hear you ramble in person about a fictional sheriff from eastern Nevada. And yet, here I am, booking flights, checking the tire pressure, and wondering if I should pack the black shirt or the other black shirt.

But here’s the truth: I love it.

Because for all the self-deprecating jokes and logistical headaches, the book tour is the moment when writing stops being solitary. It becomes shared. It becomes human. I get to hear how a scene made you laugh, or how a character reminded you of someone you once knew, or how reading The Bitter Past made you look up Cold War history in the middle of the night. That’s the magic of this whole crazy thing we call storytelling.

Also: sometimes baked goods are involved.
So I’m hitting the road again, this time with The Blue Horse in tow—a book I pored a lot of heart into. Charlie, my golden retriever, won’t be making the trip, but rest assured she’s supervising from home (and demanding royalties).

If I’m coming to your town, I hope you’ll stop by. If I’m not, I’ll be the guy updating you from hotel rooms with suspicious carpeting and cheap wine that tastes like regret. Either way, I’ll be writing, signing, and quietly marveling at the fact that this life—however absurd—is real.

See you on the road :)The Blue HorseThe Blue Horse

So here’s something that’ll make my fellow mystery fans shake their heads:
I’ve been on Goodreads for years — three Porter Beck books, countless dead bodies (fictional, mostly), a couple suspicious crop circles — and I just now discovered the “Ask the Author” feature.

That’s right. You could’ve been firing questions at me this whole time (some of you were!) :

“Where did Porter Beck come from?”

“How many bad guys does Columbo the dog actually take down?”

“Is The Blue Horse based on a real horse? Did it demand royalties?”

“Does Beck really have a ringtone that plays Taps?” (Yes, he does, and he’s not changing it.)

And I would’ve answered you. But instead, I sat here oblivious, nodding along like I had all the Goodreads stuff figured out. I did not.

So, my sincere apologies to every reader who thought, “Hey, I’d love to ask this Borgos guy a question,” only to find out I had that door bolted shut like a Nevada sheriff’s office during a UFO convention.

Good news: the door is open now. Ask me anything. The weirder the better.

Want to know how many cups of hot chocolate it takes to write a Porter Beck chapter?

Curious how close the real Nevada is to the fictional one?

Need to confirm whether Beck irons his jeans? (He does not. He’s not a psychopath.)

I’ll answer the best questions on my Goodreads page — so feel free to test my knowledge, my memory, or my ability to dodge spoilers with style.

Hit me up Ask the Author.

And thanks — seriously — for reading Beck’s stories, asking questions, and keeping this whole ride more interesting than I ever imagined. You folks are the real detectives.

#BetterLateThanNever

Really enjoyed doing this interview with the folks over at ManyBooks! https://bruceborgos.wordpress.com/201...

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Nice write-up of Holding Fire by the folks at Kirkus Reviews. If you know anyone who hasn’t read my book yet, please pass this along.

Kirkus Reviews

 

Thanks, RJ!

http://www.reviewjournal.com/view/literary-las-vegas-bruce-borgos

Holding Fire Spreads Like a Virus. . . the Good Kind

That’s right, folks…so far sales are outpacing the rocket program Kim Jong-un has going. Again, I appreciate all your help and support…don’t forget to post a review of the book on Amazon if you like it. And you can post any comments or feedback for me either on this site or on Facebook.

Wow, never thought this was actually going to happen. Holding Fire 13 May 2016

The paperback version is now available on Amazon. Kindle version to follow in the next few weeks. Hard at work on my second novel now–can’t tell you how hard it is to sit at a computer for a couple of hours following my normal workday doing the same thing. Hope to have that ready this time next year. We shall see!

You know, (or probably don’t) I started researching my novel about 15 years ago. Cliven Bundy had been mentioned in many newspaper articles as the southern Nevada equivalent of a rancher named Cliff Gardner from the northern part of the state, who, as I recall, seemed to be leading his own little rebellion at the time. Regardless of whose side you come down on, you have to admit that these men are colorful characters and believe in fighting for their interpretation of the Constitution. Food for thought…that’s all I’m sayin’. So just to give you a sense of how long this has been going on (and it goes back way before this), check this out from 2002…

Meet Cliff Gardner