Frank Zafiro's Blog

Way back in 2010 (maybe even earlier -- who remembers?), I had this idea about a pair of grifters -- Sam and Rachel -- who loved each other and the game and everything else could go to hell. I envisioned a series of novellas featuring this pair, maybe four per year. I called the series A Grifter's Song.

I got busy with life and other writing projects and so this series never got its turn up to bat. I tried to get to it. I even had Eric Beetner work on some concept covers for the first episode, The Concrete Smile. 

Finally, a few years later, I was ready to get started. Around that same time, Gary Phillips invited me to be part of a novella anthology series that was intended to be released monthly, with different authors penning each episode. This project never reached publication but the idea excited me. When I pitched the series to Down and Out Books, I suggested we use the Phillips model. They accepted and A Grifter's Song was launched.

(Two quick notes:  one, I  gave Gary full credit for the formatting idea, had his blessing and also invited to write an episode in the first season... two, his model has since been used for multiple serial novella anthologies at D&O: Guns+Tacos and Chop Shop being two examples).

A Grifter's Song ran five seasons and thirty-five episodes and featured a genuine who's who of gritty crime fiction from 2018 to 2023.

In 2025, Down and Out Books shuttered its doors. I purchased the contracts and all of the material, signed the authors, and am proud to be reissuing this series in January 2026! A Grifter's Song will be published under the Code 4 Press banner.

Episodes will appear as ebooks on Amazon (and Kindle Unlimited) starting January 1st at a pace of one episode per day (with a few exceptions).

This is a great opportunity to read this series or rediscover it. Some of your favorite authors may be on this roster. I can almost guarantee that some of your new favorite authors will be.

Remember the catchy Billy Joel song? No? That's okay.

I grew up reading fantasy and science fiction. However, when I started writing fiction with a serious intent to publish (around 2004), crime fiction is most of what came out. At the time, I was still a police officer, so I used the pen name of Frank Zafiro.

Last year, I wrote my first science fiction novel (Kemper's House) under the pen name Frank Saverio. Now, I'm working on my fantasy series, SEASONS OF WITHER. The first book is called A Burnt Summer, and I am launching it via Kickstarter.

The campaign is in live preview as I write this and will launch on March 1st, running through the entirety of the month. You can check it out here.

If you or someone you know digs fantasy, I hope you'll back this project. It includes the awesome artwork of Zach McCain, as well.

 The year 2024 in publishing...

Also of note, Hope Dies Last (Stefan Kopriva #4) won the PSWA Gold Medallion for best mystery and best cover (design by Eric Beetner). This title was also an honorable mention for the Spotted Owl Award.

To provide some career perspective, to date, I've written and published 53 novels and 100 short stories. I've also appeared in 45 anthologies. That's the quantity. What about quality? Well, I'm too close to my own work to speak with any objectivity, so how about this straightforward assessment? The average rating for my books on Amazon is 4.74 stars (out of 5). When weighted for number of reviews, the rating is 4.23 stars.

So, what's up for 2025? Keep tuned in!

Get all your books at the Code 4 Bookstore:

 You can now buy your ebooks, PAPERBACKS, and AUDIOBOOKS directly from me via the Code 4 Press Store!

I am currently in the process of adding both paperbacks and audiobooks to the Code 4 Press Bookstore! Now, in addition to the ebook, you can get your books in these two additional formats.

Paperbacks. All titles in ebook (which includes almost every Frank Zafiro, Frank Scalise, and Frank Saverio work) are also available in paperback. As of this writing, I'm in the process of listing them, so if the title you want isn't there yet, it will be soon. I'm targeting the end of September for full inclusion (though it may happen much sooner -- I'm working on it!).

The high quality paperbacks are shipped by BookVault directly to your address. Individually, they are priced $2 less than retail.

Audiobooks. Most of the titles available in ebook will also be available in audio. Much like the paperbacks, I'm in the process of uploading these, so if the one you're looking for isn't there, it should be (again, by end of September or sooner). Individually, full-length audiobooks are 53% off retail.

Exceptions at the moment fall into two categories; 1) books not published by Code 4 Press, and 2) books still in the production phase. Those that fall into category #1 include River City novels 1-7 and 10, the Charlie-316 series, and the Sam the Hockey Player series, all of which are published by Books in Motion. Any other title you don't see will either be uploaded soon or is in production.

Bundles. The Code 4 Press Bookstore offers discounted bundles, many of them exclusive to the store. For instance, you can get 33% retail on bundles of six ebooks or 40% off bundles of six paperbacks. 

As you can see, getting your books from the Code 4 Press Bookstore beats buying from a retailer, for several reasons!

You save money! All titles on the Code 4 Press store are priced less than on outside retailers, so you get the best deal.Coupons! From time-to-time, there are coupons and discounts available to readers who buy here. Many of these coupons are exclusive to newsletter subscribers.Exclusive Products! There are/will be products -- special editions, for example -- that are available ONLY directly from Code 4 Press. You won't get these anywhere else!Early Access! Although the timing varies, I am committed to releasing each new title exclusively through the Code 4 Press store when it comes out. That means you can get it here much earlier than at the retailers!It's best for the author! Direct purchases means that your support of the author goes the furthest. Without retailers taking a percentage (sometimes a high one) of each sale, the author receives more for his/her work. (This also allows the author to offer a better discount to you, the reader -- everybody wins!)
Summary: You get your books for less; there are special deals, exclusive titles, early access to titles, and your support of the author goes the furthest!
It is my hope that you'll choose the Code 4 Press Bookstore to get all your Frank Zafiro, Frank Scalise, or Frank Saverio titles. But if you prefer Amazon or other outlets, that's fine, too. Thank you for your support!

Let's talk about my 2024 so far... well, it's been busy, though the releases that result in that work will mostly happen in the latter part of the year and in 2025. A few things have made it into the world already, however.

Sam & the Magic Hockey Gear, the children's book (which has a coloring book companion) was finally released after a long development process. Meant for kids under 5 who are excited about hockey.
Think of Laura (Stefan Kopriva Mystery #5) is out, too, exclusive to the Code 4 Press Bookstore until August 28. Also in Kopriva news, my short story, "A Checkered Past" appeared in Tina Wolff's anthology, Games People Play: Opening Gambit. (and related Murder to Die For podcast). "Dare or Truth," a Finch and Elias closed-room mystery, was released on the podcast as well, and will be out in the anthology, Games People Play: Final Move.
Lastly, my science fiction novel, Kemper's House, came out in May. I wrote this under a different pen name. What up with that, you might wonder? (I also "re-authored" my 2018 alternative history novel, An Unlikely Phoenix, to this pen name to align the genre).
On the podcast front, I've kept up with new episodes of Wrong Place, Write Crime . As planned, there's been one episode every two months. The most recent includes a ton of short interviews from the conference floor of the PSWA conference in Las Vegas. October will feature retired Massachusetts investigator (and author/podcaster) Bill Powers.
There is more on the horizon. By November, we'll see a new entry in two series:  Nor Shadowed Heart (River City #15) and The Silence of the Dead (Charlie-316 #6).
What else? Well, 2025 will see several sequels: All the Minor Kings (SpoCompton #6), A Hard Favored Death (Sandy Banks #3), The Sins of Somebody Else's Past (Stefan Kopriva Mystery #6), and the yet unnamed third Jack McCrae novel.
But the biggest news is that I'm delving into the fantasy series that has been hounding me for about a decade -- Seasons of Wither . I grew up on fantasy and science fiction, so it only makes sense that I'd find my way back around to those genres. I think the timing of my career really taking hold while I was working in law enforcement certainly informed my choice of crime fiction as a genre to play in for a long time. I still love it and will never leave it entirely, but I've written over fifty books and out of those, crime fiction titles number in the low forties of that figure. Stretching as a writer is important, but even more important is writing what you want to write. There's only so much time we have on this planet, right? And the benefit of being an independent author is having the latitude to make that choice.
So I'll be working A Burnt Summer , a book that will be launched with Kickstarter sometime later this year or early 2025. You can read the current draft of chapter one right now!
I hope your writing and reading journey is all you want it to be, or more.

You can now buy your ebooks directly from me via the Code 4 Press Store!

Why is this better than buying from a retailer, you might ask. Well... there are several reasons!

You save money! All titles on the Code 4 Press store are priced less than on outside retailers, so you get the best deal.Coupons! From time-to-time, there are coupons and discounts available to readers who buy here. Many of these coupons are exclusive to newsletter subscribers.Exclusive Products! There are/will be products -- special editions, for example -- that are available ONLY directly from Code 4 Press. You won't get these anywhere else!Early Access! Although the timing varies, we are committed to releasing each new title exclusively through the Code 4 Press store when it comes out. That means you can get it here much earlier than at the retailers!It's best for the author! Direct purchases means that your support of the author goes the furthest. Without retailers taking a percentage (sometimes a high one) of each sale, the author receives more for his/her work. (This also allows the author to offer a better discount to you, the reader -- everybody wins!)
Summary: You get your books for less; there are special deals, exclusive titles, early access to titles, and your support of the author goes the furthest!

So, bookmark the Code 4 Press Store for whenever you want a Frank Zafiro (or Frank Scalise or Frank Saverio) title. Also, consider signing up for the newsletter so you are notified when a new book is available--you'll get access months before the rest of the reading public sees it on the retail sites!

 How did 2023 treat you?

For me, it was productive year:

Final tally is five novels, one novella, one short story collection, and one coloring book (believe it or not, that last one was in production the longest!).

In addition to those publications, a few other cool things happened. Among them:

I edited the final six (and wrote the seventh) episodes of A Grifter's Song, which concluded its five-season, thirty-five episode run on Oct 1st.I revived my podcast Wrong Place, Write Crime , which will continue in 2024 on a monthly release schedule.I attended Left Coast Crime (LCC) in Tucson in March, Public Safety Writers Association (PSWA) in July, and Bouchercon in San Diego in August.My novels The Ride-Along and The Worst Kind of Truth won awards at the PSWA.Near year's end, I set up the Code 4 Press Bookstore for direct sales.Throughout 2023, I've had several short stories accepted for 2024 publication

So, all in all, I have to say 2023 was pretty durn good year. I hope the same was true for you, and that 2024 brings more of the same!

I'm happy to report that my short story collection, The Last Cop & Other Stories, was named to the list of the twenty-five best titles of 2023 by the Independent Fiction Alliance!

The Last Cop & Other Stories contains eleven short stories, three of them award winners. Most of them have been published elsewhere within the past two years, though I also included three pieces of flash fiction that were originally published in 2007.

What kind of stories are included? Well, imagine, if you will:

◆ The last real cop in a changing world.

◆ A bottom-feeder fighting rumors.

◆ A meticulous P.I. battling story tropes.

◆ A revenge story involving a hamburger.

◆ The bittersweet nostalgia of a mob enforcer.

◆ A street racer trying to escape a small town.

◆ The confusing last words of a rich man.

◆ A surprise at the shooting range.

◆ A familiar robber.

◆ An untimely traffic stop.

◆ The confusing nuances of contemporary policing.

So, while all are crime fiction stories, each comes at it in a different way.

The Independent Fiction Alliance is an organization that recognizes and promotes independent fiction as a professional association for independent authors and publishers. Their mission is to uphold the tenants of freedom of speech and expression.

I'm thrilled and honored to have been selected for this list. Check out the other wonderful titles also included! 

 Censorship sucks.Bullying sucks.

I will have neither.

On 10/30, my Wrong Place,Write Crime (Ep #179) interview of Alec Cizak dropped. Later that day, Ireceived an email that was, I’m sure, meant to be intimidating. It camefrom finneganbrogue44@gmail.com andread:

“Ye gothell of a nerve ta feature a wank named Cizak. Not on yer goddam life dinna kenthe man. Shameful it is sucking his doozy cock like that laddie. Ye in yers abe blackballed soon enuf comin up wi ta wank's book - plenty ye peers see tait.   Were a young laddie or lass ta ask me should they pub yeor ta dam Down & Out I'd tell em bout ye brown nosin a wank long sideBeau's story an say not on yer goddam life. Shameful the lot ye are.”

Ignoring the pidgin broguefor a second, this is clearly a threat. (It’s an ignorant one, too, threateningto make sure no one publishes me. As an indie author, there’s not a lot ofteeth there). Confused, I reached out to Alec for any insight. He explainedthat this form of harassment surrounding him has been happening for a whilenow.

This is wrong. Threateningme for interviewing a crime fiction author – something I’ve done over 178previous episodes, talking to authors of various backgrounds—is wrong. It’salso anonymous, which is cowardly.

I chose to give the emailthe attention it deserved – I ignored it. I’d already posted Ep #178 to socialmedia and the RSS feed had done its job to the platforms, so that was that.WPWC is pretty low key. I don’t run ads or re-post constantly. The episode wasfinished and I was already preparing for my next episode with Gabriel Valjan.

Then, today, I got anotheremail, this one from finneganbrogue@yahoo.com (note a differentaddy):

“Tá béalciúin séimh. Feicim nach bhfuil tú ag cur chun cinn an fhóid sin Cizak.Buachaill maith atá tú. B'fhéidir go gcoinneoidh tú do ghairm bheathascríbhneoireachta agus nach ndéanfaimid an liathróid dhubh ort tar éis antsaoil. Beidh mé ag faire ort Ladie.”

According to the gmailtranslation, it says:

“Thereis a quiet mouth. I see you are not promoting that Cizak. You are a good boy.Maybe you'll keep your writing career and we won't blackball you after all. Iwill be watching you Ladie.”

Seriously? If the idiothad left me alone after the first weird email, I’d have done the same. But theymistook my silence for being bullied and that got my ire up. They don’t get tohave that satisfaction. Moreover, if I say nothing, that only reinforces theirdelusion and encourages the behavior. Who do they try to bully and censor next?

This is truly astonishingbehavior. Forget whether or not you like Alec Cizak. You don’t get to tell meor anyone else who to interview for a podcast. If you don’t like the guest,here’s an idea: don’t listen to episode! Or here’s another thought: if you feelstrongly enough about the guest to try to bully and censor the host, how aboutengage in open discussion about why. You know, stand behind your thoughts,words, and ideas, in public, instead of trying to be some kind of crime fictiongangster.

I don’t know who“Finnegan” is. I don’t know why s/he doesn’t like Alec. Maybe it’s an excellentreason. Maybe it’s a ridiculous reason. The reason I don’t know is that,instead of speaking publicly (or even directly to me in a reasonable manner),s/he has chosen to threaten from the shadows.

I have two final things tosay about this.

The first is directly toFinnegan, whoever he/she/they may be:  go to hell. 

I didn’t change a singleaction in my life because of your threats, and I won’t. You want to “blackball”me with your little private mafia, give it your best go. I’ve been in the crimefiction writing community since 2004. That’s a long history of people knowingme and who I am as a person. I sincerely doubt many, if any, of them wouldlisten to the drivel you spew, but go for it. Anyone who would listen didn’tknow me anyway or isn’t someone I’d want in my life. So have at it.

The second is for the restof us. We live in a world that, ideally, embraces the concept of freeexpression. And we are all part of a community that has shown to be, throughoutmy career, a supportive one. That’s the very reason I launched the podcast anddid all those interviews—to support other authors and their work.

I know we are going todisagree on various topics—that is human nature. But I always thought we wereall grown-ups, who could disagree openly and discuss it with reasoned, or evenheated, debate. Actually, I still think this is the case. Finnegan, whether itis one misguided troll, or a pseudonym for some kind of cowardly cabal, doesn’trepresent the crime fiction writing community I know.

That’s why I’ve sharedthis experience. Because it’s an anomaly. Because sunlight is the bestdisinfectant.

Because censorship sucks,and so does bullying.

And, as I said, I willhave neither.

(Here are the receipts).

Katie MacLeod is arguably the core character in my River City series of police procedurals. And though I may have technically created her, the truth is that she's taught me a thing or two.

I’ve learned a few lessons from her that I’d like to share, but fair warning—I can’t completely avoid spoilers. If that’s something you want to be careful about, stop here. Bookmark this post, get the first River City novel, Under a Raging Moon, and come back when you’re finished with the newest one, All the Forgotten Yesterdays (#14), which is out tomorrow (10/4/2023).

Still here? Let’s go, then.

Life Doesn’t Always Go The Way You Plan

When I wrote Under a Raging Moon in 1995, I envisioned a four-book arc featuring Stefan Kopriva. Kopriva was a brash, young patrol officer who could handle anything thrown his way, whether it came from criminals or his own bosses. Looking back, I can see now that he was my unintentional avatar, an idealized version of who I thought I wanted to be.

Kopriva as hero was the plan I started with, but by the time Under a Raging Moon was published in 2006, things had changed. There were still four books and Kopriva was still the hero. But Katie MacLeod had become a strong secondary character. I didn’t plan that. Originally, her storyline was shared by two separate women. But I realized neither one was fully developed and so I combined them into one. Quite honestly, that might have been the smartest thing—albeit, unplanned—I ever did with this series.

When the second book rolled around, Katie’s role expanded beyond plans. Her first “big” event happened as a counterpoint to Kopriva’s biggest mistake. I thought they’d both overcome their challenges. But that didn’t happen. Katie prevailed; Kopriva failed.

And left the department.

I didn’t plan that. (Although, the positive by-product was The Stefan Kopriva Mystery series....)

I also didn’t plan that the books would continue beyond four, or that Katie would become the core of the series. But you know what? Those unplanned outcomes has been a good thing.

It’s Okay To Be Vulnerable

From the beginning, Katie has been willing to admit her own fears and doubts, at least to herself. Unlike the brash Kopriva, she recognized when she was afraid or when she was unsure of herself. When I first wrote those aspects of her character, I was twenty-seven years old. Now I’m fifty-four. I don’t remember but I have no doubt that back then, I saw those traits as okay to write into a female character precisely because they were feminine.

Only they aren’t.

They’re human.

It didn’t take long for me to recognize this. Maybe I wasn’t quite as willing as Katie to admit it, or as open about it with others, but I still learned from her that it was okay to feel those fears and doubts. They don’t make you weak.

They make you human.

Courage Is Doing It Anyway

One of Katie’s traits I’ve often heralded in interviews about River City is her grit. She’s tough, I’d say. But her courage doesn’t come from not being afraid. Her courage—which I would argue is true courage—comes from being afraid and doing what must be done anyway.

Katie does this, time and again. She faces a rapist, a Russian enforcer, a neo Nazi home invasion robber, a school shooting, a serial killer, another rapist, and a violent burglar who targets the elderly... and all of that is not to mention what she goes through with Kopriva once he's off the job. All of this is daunting, but she keeps on, regardless. She doesn’t overcome her fears so much as she strides forward in spite of them. And she gets results. Isn’t that something we can all aspire to?

Sometimes You Have To Change Things Up… Because Things Change

This is akin to the first point about plans, except that it is more of a conscious decision and/or recognition. When the River City series begins in 1994, Katie is a three-year officer on graveyard patrol who loves her job. Her aspirations are simple—catch bad guys every night. She idolizes, and is mentored by, the veteran Thomas Chisolm. If you were to ask her during those first few books, Katie would tell you that she had every intent to be a career patrol officer, working “graveyard to graveyard”—in other words, staying on graveyard shift until retirement.

But police work has a grinding nature to it. As time passes, Katie realizes that she needs a change. First she goes to day shift, where one of her former platoon mates is now a sergeant. Then she promotes to detective, all in an effort to do what is best for her psyche.

Along the way, Chisolm retires. This, and other changes, help her recognize that not only is she making changes, but things are changing all by themselves. By the time we get to The Worst Kind of Truth, the world she inhabits is a very different place. To punctuate this, a new recruit named Hattie Mayer idolizes Katie in much the same way she admired Chisolm. And now, in All the Forgotten Yesterdays, Katie is on the brink of a formal leadership role—a huge change for her.

And all of this is okay. That things are different today doesn’t change how good (or bad) it used to be. Things change. That’s just life.

People Matter

Katie MacLeod is an idealist. She is also a realist and, at times, borders on cynicism. But one constant throughout her career (fourteen years in-universe for her, twenty-seven for me in real time) has been that she cares for people. This includes the cops at her side and the people she serves in her job. Understanding that people matter is a fundamental aspect to being good at policing, and it is a baseline belief that drives every interaction and decision you make. Katie gets that. She is always there for her partners, and she does her absolute best to serve the civilians she meets.

Okay, truth time—I already knew this one. I saw it on display around me every day while I was on the job, and I believed in it myself, too. I strove to live up to the standard every moment I wore the uniform. I wasn’t perfect (who is?) but I can say without reservation that I did my best, and I most definitely cared.

So it’s possible that this is one lesson I taught Katie.

Maybe. But she is still teaching me how true it is.

What about you? Have you learned any lessons from fictional characters?