I’ll Buy Anything They Write

 Last week I shared with you 10 of my favorite fictional characters. 

Today, I thought I’d share with you 13 of my favorite fictioneers. Contemporary writers who I find so very satisfying I’ll buy anything they write.

So here’s a shoutout to my Dazzling (Baker’s) Dozen.

Crispian Thurlborn

This guy can write. Weird. Fantasy. He can do so with dark wry humor. He can slowburn his way to your fear button. He can lead you down a strange and dreamy road to terror. He’s just plain good. One of my top 5 favs.

Find him on Amazon.

Richard Schwindt

Schwindt writes hilarious satire; occult detective stories laced with dark humor; poignant, introspective whodunits; humorous paranormal adventures; and fabulous literary quality short stories.

He will make you think, laugh, and cry. And that’s a pretty doggone good combo.

Find him on Amazon.

Caleb Pirtle III

Pirtle writes non-fiction by the bucket load. I’m not a non-fic guy, but I can tell you, from what I’ve read, he can spin a good yarn even writing non-fic. Doesn’t matter if he’s writing a biography of a person or a town, it will be an interesting story.

But it’s in his fiction where I think he shines. Pirtle makes the past (his favorite place to be) or the present come alive. And the people you meet in the pages of his books are just as real as your next door neighbor.

Pirtle will make you feel the heat and humidity. He’ll make you feel the hope and the despair. He will make you stop and ponder a bit of wisdom one of his people just said. He’ll make you laugh. And he’ll make you cry. He’s a magician with the written word.

I’d probably buy his grocery list. They don’t come any better than Caleb Pirtle.

Catch him on Amazon.

Joe Congel

I like well-drawn, realistic characters, who move through a realistic story. I appreciate a story that is told well. And Joe Congel does this with panache.

He writes contemporary PI novels with a hardboiled feel. And he peoples his realistic tales with well-drawn, realistic characters. 

Introduce yourself to Joe Congel. You’re in for a treat.

Check him out on Amazon.

Matthew Cormack

Cormack creates some of the best characters to ever step out of the pages of a book. They are totally lifelike.

He is the epitome of Bradbury’s dictum: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story. And what stories they are.

His books are, quite simply, a cut above.

And you can find them on Amazon.

James Vincett

Magnificent worldbuilding. Brilliant imagination. Fabulous characters. Incredible stories. These are the hallmarks of the science fiction of James Vincett.

His work is fabulous and I’m first in line to get his next book. I hope it drops soon.

Get his books on Amazon.

Andy Graham

Graham writes some of the best slowburn horror that you can buy. The suspense is oppressive. There are times I have to put the book down in order to catch my breath and get my pulse down.

Graham’s writing is simply top drawer, and you can get his books on Amazon.

Brian Fatah Steele

Steele writes incredibly imaginative modern cosmic horror. A worthy successor to old HPL himself.

I find his imagination unparalleled. He will show you dimensions you can’t even dream of.

His story “Bleak Mathematics”, IMO, is a modern classic.

Find him on Amazon.

John F Leonard

I love Leonard’s imagination. He can range from the cosmic to what’s in your pocket. Stuff you just can’t imagine comes out on the page to terrify you, or just plain scare the crap out of you.

He just might be one of the best writers you’ve never heard of. So make your acquaintance. Pronto. On Amazon.

Ray Zacek

Zacek is good. Plain and simple. Whether it’s biting satire, or terrifying horror, or spooky macabre — Zacek delivers.

His imagination will take you to places you may not in the end want to go. But you know you have to. This guy is one of the best.

Get his books on Amazon.

Garrett Dennis

Dennis’s Storm Ketchum is a truly enjoyable character. Sad to say, though, it looks like the Storm Ketchum series is complete. I hope not. Because Storm is the amateur sleuth par excellence and the supporting cast of characters is amazing.

The stories are as laid back as is Outer Banks island life, which is where the stories take place. Yet, don’t be fooled. Because when excitement is called for, Dennis delivers and you’ll find yourself on the edge of your chair.

I truly hope Mr. Dennis writes more stories of Storm and the Outer Banks. I’m standing in line waiting. On Amazon.

Terry Newman

I love Terry Newman’s Nicely Strongoak — dwarf PI. The mysteries are fun, intriguing, and suspense-filled whodunits. All set in a fantasy world that is not a whole lot different from our own. Great reading you don’t want to miss.

On Amazon.

Jack Tyler

I think Tyler can write anything. He’s that versatile. Steampunk. Epic fantasy. Occult detective. Humor. Police procedurals. Horror. It’s all there and it’s all good.

Whatever’s next on his list to publish, I’m there to buy it.

Tyler is one of the best writers you probably never heard of. And now you have. Go forth and support this guy.

On Amazon.

On Kindle Vella.

There’s my baker’s dozen of writers whose work I will buy sight unseen and will even wait in line to get.

Check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Ten Favorite Fictional Characters

 

Just like real people, we have our favorite fictional people. Characters that resonate with us, just like real people do.

So I thought I’d share with you ten of my favorite fictional characters that are not of my own creation.

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin

I was introduced to Rex Stout’s detective team in the summer of 1980. I fell in love with Wolfe and Archie immediately. There are few books that I reread. The Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin mysteries are among those that I do.

My own Justinia and Harry Wright mysteries were inspired by Stout’s characters.

Wolfe and Archie are the timeless dynamic duo.

DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Gavin Troy

Like Wolfe and Goodwin, what makes DCI Tom Barnaby and DS Gavin Troy of Midsomer Murders exceptional is the relationship and repartee between the two.

There are certain pairings that just work. The chemistry between the characters makes us laugh or cry. We see them as real. And that’s how it is with Barnaby and Troy. They are real.

Alan Snyder (TV series Colony)

In my opinion, Alan Snyder is the consummate “bad guy”. And it is not so much that he is bad, as that he is completely and totally focused on promoting Alan Snyder.

He does some good things. He does a lot of bad things. But mostly he does what will benefit himself. Regardless of the outcome for others.

If you haven’t seen Colony, give it a watch. The show only lasted three seasons. But I think it is a great SF alien apocalypse story. Unfortunately, the acting is only so-so, save for Snyder’s character. But the show is totally worth watching. A fabulous story and a great bad guy.

Solomon Kane

Robert E Howard’s 16th and 17th century. Puritan adventurer is a masterful creation.

Kane is a Christian Puritan, but isn’t overly religious. Although he does have his own very strong moral code.

He is a wanderer. He is the consummate knight errant.

In many ways, he combines the action of Conan with the introspection of Kull.

And although Conan is far more popular, I think Solomon Kane is the superior character.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson

Holmes and Watson. I first met them sometime during my elementary school years. Sixty or more years ago. And I still find the duo interesting enough to make my favorite list.

The inimitable Holmes and the faithful Watson. Their world is a man’s world. So much so, that every modern re-creation infuses women into the story and gives them a place that Holmes and Watson would never have wanted. They were two men very much at ease with each other. Comrades. And in my opinion, that’s what makes the stories work and makes them so memorable.

Rona (Church Mouse)

RH Hale’s Church Mouse is a towering modern gothic novel of incredible power.

It is the story of Rona, who becomes a servant to vampires.

In some ways, Church Mouse is one long character study. But what an exciting and terrifying study it is.

If you haven’t read Church Mouse, you really need to do so. Even if you don’t like vampires, you’ll love Rona.

Church Mouse on Amazon.

Peter (Don’t Dream It’s Over)

Matthew Cormack’s Don’t Dream It’s Over is one of the great novels you’ve probably never heard of. Like Church Mouse above.

Also like Church Mouse, Don’t Dream It’s Over is a very long and fascinating character study.

The world as we know it has come to an end. But Peter survived. From his pen we learn what the new world is like. What hopes and dreams remain. And we learn about Peter himself. He is the unlikely hero. The person all of us would like to be.

Even if you don’t like post-apocalyptic novels, you have to read Don’t Dream It’s Over. It truly is a great novel.

Don’t Dream It’s Over on Amazon.

Doc Bannister and Eudora Durant

Caleb Pirtle’s series The Boomtown Saga is a magnificent historical novel series. It is literary mystery at its finest.

The books revolve around the intertwining stories of con-artist Doc Bannister and widow Eudora Durant.

These are two of the finest characters I’ve ever met. They are real people who come alive when you open the book. So real in fact, that I may have fallen in love with Eudora.

The Boomtown Saga will transport you back in time and introduce you to two of the most intriguing people you will ever meet. Real or otherwise.

The Boomtown Saga on Amazon.

Philip Marlowe

I came to Raymond Chandler’s fiction late in life. And I’m glad I did. I’m able to much better appreciate his picturesque prose, Chandlerisms, and the introspection and observations of PI Philip Marlowe.

In many ways, Marlowe is larger than life. And that is okay. It’s his keen observations about life, his feelings for or against people, that make him such an intriguing character.

Dracula

Almost all contemporary vampires are actually spinoffs of the silent film Nosferatu. And when compared to Stoker’s Dracula are very limited creatures.

Bram Stoker’s vampire is a creature of immense paranormal power.

He can walk about in daylight, although his power is diminished.

He can shapeshift to a variety of creatures and can even assume the shape of fog.

He can change his appearance.

His power of mental telepathy and control of people from afar is phenomenal.

His strength is supernatural.

Dracula is a predator of almost unlimited power and abilities and that makes him a true force to be reckoned with.

He is the perfect bad guy because he’s almost indestructible.

And maybe that’s why modern film, TV, and fiction opt to cast their vampires in the form of Nosferatu instead of Stoker’s Dracula.

Dracula, though, is truly better. He’s much more terrifying.

Those are ten of my favorite fictional characters. Drop your 10 in the comments section below.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

The Marcel Proust Questionnaire

 

Every now and then I like to go through the questions in the Marcel Proust Questionnaire.

If you are unfamiliar with the questionnaire, you can read the Wikipedia article. It gives a serviceable explanation.

The Questions

The questions stimulate thoughts about myself, or character motivations in my fiction. The questions help me to understand the actions of other people. They also make for a wonderful party game, if you run out of ideas for things to do.

There are different versions of the questionnaire floating around and Proust himself provided two different sets of answers, answering the questions at different points in his life.

Interviews

The questions are often used as the basis for interviews, because they cover a wide range of inquiries into what makes a person tick. Here are a few of the questions:

• Which talent would you most like to have?
• What is your most treasured possession?
• What is your favorite occupation?
• What do you consider your greatest achievement?

For Writers

Writers can, of course, make great use of the questions to learn more about their characters.

For example, to the question “What’s your favorite occupation” some of my characters might answer:

Justinia Wright - reading, playing the piano, painting, collecting vintage madeira

Harry Wright - cooking wonderful meals and enjoying them, Chess

Bea Wright - Tatting, and loving Harry

Cal Swenson - fishing, sitting in a boat in the middle of a remote lake and enjoying the quiet

Harry Thurgood - a really good cup of coffee, appreciating good art, dressing well

Ember Cole - prayer

Bill Arthur - reading, drinking good tea, contemplating, loving Sally

And where did I come up with these answers? Well, a writer’s characters are amalgams of his and his acquaintances’s personalities. The above came from myself and the people I know.

Have fun with the Proust Questionnaire. And perhaps most of all, use it to understand yourself.

Comments

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Only the Good Die Young

 

Cindy Davis is back with more adventures of Bliss in that bucolic Texas Hill Country town, Magnolia Bluff.

Today is launch day for

Only the Good Die Young

Book 12 in the multi-author Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series.

Quite frankly, Bliss is one of my favorite characters in the world of Magnolia Bluff, Texas.

She’s a snarky and fun-loving person who will die for pizza and swoons over peanut butter. But most of all, she especially loves being free and independent. A rolling stone with no responsibilities.

In Only the Good Die Young, Bliss is once again back in Magnolia Bluff. Only this time she’s in town willingly — houseboat-sitting for her friend, Olivia, and helping the Doyle family celebrate Easter.

And what a celebration it is: piles of good food, and great music from the popular local band Loco-Motion.

Everything is going along just great until the lead singer picks up her favorite guitar, touches the strings, and turns into a living — and soon dead — fireworks display.

Now that Nina Warren is dead, and the logical suspect pool is Bliss’s favorite family, the Doyles, she wants to be involved in the investigation.

Of course Chief of Police Tommy Jager doesn’t want Bliss’s help.

And of course, Bliss and her friends ignore Tommy and begin poking around in the life of the late singer.

I don’t want to give away the storyline. That would spoil the mystery.

Instead, let me say that with Bliss and her adventures, Cindy Davis has hit the ball out of the park.

These are fabulously entertaining cozy mysteries. Just plain old good clean fun. With a healthy dollop of the paranormal thrown in that really spices things up.

Ms. Davis has a knack for making the paranormal seem so very normal. And she does so with a deft hand. The Bliss books are clearly Cindy Davis at her best.

You will definitely want to get in on the action, the laughs, the fun, the pizza, and especially the noggin-scratchin’ puzzler of a mystery.

Who wanted Nina Warren dead, and why? Count on Bliss to find out and end up dying for her efforts. Well, almost. Maybe.

I love the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series. Eleven writers producing some of the best mysteries and thrillers for your entertainment.

And I especially love Bliss. I think you will too.

Only the Good Die Young by Cindy Davis. On sale right now — on Amazon.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

Worldbuilding and Magnolia Bluff

 

Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is often seen as the exclusive purview of the fantasy and science fiction genres. After all, in those genres the writer is often literally building a world. Creating races of beings. And inventing all manner of things that don’t exist.

Yet, I’d submit that every writer of fiction, to a greater or lesser degree, engages in worldbuilding. After all, even the most real life setting is peopled with human beings the writer has created out of his head.

In addition, the writer may add buildings where none exist, or the reverse. He may create restaurants that have no correspondence to anything real. Yet there they exist in his “real life” setting. 

Just because a setting appears “real” doesn’t mean it actually is.

Nevertheless someone may protest, “But that’s not a world the writer is creating.”

And I counter with, “Why not?” 

The mystery writer’s world is just as made up as is the fantasy writer’s. Both worlds don’t actually exist. They’ve been built to meet the needs of the the story being told.

A Multi-Author Series

Back in 2021, I proposed to my fellow Underground Authors that we write a multi-author novel series.

We’d just published an outstanding short story collection, Beyond the Sea (get it on Amazon).

So why not go one further?

But what the heck is a multi-author novel series? Well, it’s like any other series of novels — except each book is written by a different writer.

Of course, in practice it’s not as simple as it sounds. It’s more along the lines of attempting to herd a clowder of cats. And that’s mostly due to the temperament of creative-type folks.

Nevertheless, once the idea caught fire with the Underground Authors it took hold and we had ourselves a raging creative prairie fire.

We set ground rules. And proceeded to create our world.

Magnolia Bluff

Out of thin air, we created the town of Magnolia Bluff and set it down in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. The town is very loosely taken from the actual town of Burnet, Texas. We also re-named Buchanan Lake to Burnet Reservoir. 

I found Texas state highway numbers no longer being used and used them create highways into and out of town.

We created lots of buildings and institutions, but most of all we created people. Because no town can exist without people.

Out of our imaginations, much like Athena springing from Zeus’s forehead fully dressed for battle, we created a pantheon of major and minor players.

There’s Harry Thurgood, owner of the Really Good Wood-Fired Coffee Shop, a man with a mysterious past.

There’s the Reverend Ember Cole, pastor of the Methodist Church, who also has a past she doesn’t want revealed.

Every town worth it’s salt has a newspaper. So our town has Graham Huston, owner and editor of the Magnolia Bluff Chronicle.

There’s also Bliss, who’s just passing through, but like a boomerang, keeps coming back.

There’s also vacationing Father Frank, JJ, and Jo.

Dr. Mike Kurelek is available to help people with their problems. He also teaches psychology at Burnet College.

What is a town without a library? And Magnolia Bluff has one. Caroline McCluskey is the head librarian.

And a  town can’t get by without law enforcement. So we have Police Chief Tommy Jager, Sheriff Buck Blanton, Police Investigator Reece Sovern, Conservation Officer Madison Jackson, and Judge Rutherford B Jones. All doing their duty to make Magnolia Bluff a safe place to live.

There are also those prodigal children who leave their home, sometimes for many years, but manage to find their way back. Blue Bonet is one of those.

But these aren’t the only people. There are 10,000 souls in our town, so there are a lot more folks for you to meet and greet. Not counting the funerals you might encounter while visiting. In fact, count on the funerals.

Each of the Underground Authors has his or her core characters. They are the “untouchables”. The rest of us may use them and abuse them, but we can’t kill them off.

We are now up to 12 writers. Twelve writers building one town, and its people, history, and traditions one book at a time.

Yes, sirree Bob. Worldbuilding at its finest.

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles

Book 12, Only the Good Die Young by Cindy Davis, is on pre-order now. Pick up a copy and immerse yourself in the world of Magnolia Bluff. 

You can check out the series page on Amazon. There you will discover more immersion experiences in our wonderful Hill Country town.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries on Amazon!

Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!