Books | CW Hawes

A Chance of a Ghost Review

I’m offering you a vacation. To beautiful Magnolia Bluff, Texas. In the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Beautiful scenery. Wineries. A quaint little town. With murder and ghosts.

My fellow Underground Authors, Rob and Joan Carter, have their book, A Chance of a Ghost, on pre-order for only 99¢.

It’s Book 23 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series and it’s a spooktacularly thrilling mystery.

I just finished reading an ARC. And it didn’t disappoint. What’s especially fun about A Chance of a Ghost is that we get to see how ghost “busters” actually work.

Rob and Joan are members of the Tampa Bay Spirits, a group that investigates paranormal activity. And they bring their experience to the newest murder mystery in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

Mike and Maureen Donovan, (fictional) members of Tampa Bay Spirits, depart Tampa and find themselves in Magnolia Bluff to help Mike’s cousins rid their newly renovated home of whatever it is that is making doors slam and things move.

But they no sooner arrive than Mike has a premonition that someone in town is going to die. And that’s something they hadn’t counted on.

Mike and Maureen meet Harry Thurgood, the owner of the Really Good Wood-Fired Coffee and Ice Cream Emporium (known as the Really Good to the locals), and Mike begins to suspect that Harry is the man who is to be murdered: burned to death in his own coffee shop. And probably not while roasting coffee beans.

Then the Donovans meet Bertram and George, the ghosts who have been causing all the ruckus trying to get someone’s attention to help Bertram solve a century old mystery.

The Carters take us on a twisty-turny rollercoaster of a ride as Mike and Maureen try to help the ghosts move on and prevent Harry from becoming living barbecue.

In addition, we learn how paranormal investigators actually work. How they try to contact the dead and discover what they need in order to stop haunting a house. We also discover that not all spirits are friendly Caspers.

There is plenty of suspense, action, and thrills in A Chance of a Ghost. It’s an entertaining page turner that I found regretting having to put down. You know, like to eat or sleep.

So grab your copy today! It’s on pre-order for only 99¢ on Amazon.

Then put on your deerstalker and get your infrared cameras ready.

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

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with two bestselling novels. 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

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Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles on Amazon!

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Book Review: Best Served Cold

First there was a high profile up and coming NASCAR driver. Shot and killed at close range.

Now the victim is an up and coming high profile pro basketball star.

Private detective Tony Razzolito (a.k.a. The Razzman) isn’t concerned about the latest death until his friend, Captain Rita O’Connor of homicide, asks him to help on the case.

The only problem for Tony is he has to work with his nemesis Detective John Cahill.

Once again, Joe Congel delivers a well wrought whodunit that kept me guessing all the way to the surprise ending.

I’ve read all of the Tony Razzolito mysteries. And they just keep getting better and better. A good thing getting better is a very good thing.

What I like best about Congel’s stories are his characters. They have personality. They are three dimensional. They pop off the page because they are real people.

Characters make fiction sing. We remember memorable characters. Rarely do we remember a plot.

As Ray Bradbury advised writers: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story.

And Joe Congel lets his characters do their thing. In doing so, a story is created that carries us along from beginning to end. We are right there living the story along with the characters. That’s the work of a master storyteller. And Congel is a master.

While Best Served Cold is laced with loads of humor, the story itself is dark. It is a vengeance tale reminiscent of Jacobean theater. Bloody and unrelenting. It’s a good thing the humor is there – it relieves the darkness of the mystery.

Best Served Cold is the fourth book in The Razzman Mystery Crime files. I’m already waiting for number five.

Pick up your copy of Best Served Cold on Amazon.

And if you haven’t read the other Razzman mysteries, you can find them on Amazon, too.

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!

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My Movie and Book Favorites of All Time

Four years ago I was a guest on Lisette Brodey’s Writers Chateau.

The other day I was looking over my answers to her questions. And decided if I did the interview today, I’d probably answer at least some of the questions differently. Such is the passage of time.

But it’s still a good interview. You can read it on her website.

Today, on the blog, I thought I’d take another look at one of the questions she asked me. So here goes my re-assessment.

Favorite Film of All Time

What is my favorite film of all time? This is actually a very difficult question. Mostly because I’m not a film guy. I’m a book guy.

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t watch movies because I do. Especially in the past. Today, I’d rather read a book. And the older I get, the more I’d rather read than watch.

I thought about the answer I gave Lisette. Had my opinion changed in the past 4 years? After all, there are some truly outstanding movies out there. Would I pick a different one?

Some of the great movies, in my opinion, are:

- - - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
    - 2001: A Space Odyssey
    - Metropolis
    - Frau in Mond (Woman in the Moon)
    - The Remains of the Day
    - The Graduate
    - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (You might have to be an old person to really get this movie.)

In the end, I couldn’t pick just one for Lisette. And I still can’t pick just one.

Little Big Man

I think Little Big Man is one of the most significant movies ever made.

The movie is about what is important in life. It is an indictment of the hypocrisy inherent in political, social, and cultural values. And how destructive those false values become when they are imposed on individuals and other cultures.

What is true and good is not what society ordains. Those values come from within. The ultimate truth never comes from without. It always comes from within.

Late Spring

Late Spring is one of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu’s greatest movies. And I think it is one of the greatest movies ever made.

In a totally different setting and culture, Ozu tells us the same message that we find in Little Big Man. What is true and good is not what society and culture tells us is true and good.

We need to live life for ourselves and not live our lives according to someone else’s standards.

Late Spring is a simple story, but Ozu took this simple story and made it into a powerful tale that champions the individual and condemns the society that seeks to crush that individual.

Favorite Book of All Time

This one, too, is difficult. There are so many good books. And I’ve read a number of very powerful novels and stories since I answered Lisette’s question.

A few of the works of fiction that are in the running for Favorite Book of All Time are:

- - - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
    - An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
    - On the Beach by Nevil Shute (has one of the most emotionally powerful endings I’ve ever read)
    - The Macdermots of Ballycloran by Anthony Trollope
    - “The Spotted Dog” by Anthony Trollope (a long short story that is truly gut wrenching)
    - Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
    - Wingman by Daniel Pinkwater (a kid’s book that is so incredibly emotive I think it is actually a book for adults)
    - 1984 by George Orwell (so real it scared the crap out of me)
    - Church Mouse by RH Hale (one of the most atmospheric novels I’ve ever read, with amazingly memorable characters)
    - The Boom Town Saga by Caleb Pirtle III (3 novels that actually are one long story; the series contains 2 of the most well-drawn characters I’ve ever read)
    - Last Deadly Lie by Caleb Pirtle III (this book was a great discovery: the characters are absolutely phenomenal and the storyline is a stunner)
    - Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack (the best post-apocalyptic novel I’ve ever read, and one of the best novels I’ve ever read)
    - James Vincett is a science fiction author with, so far, 5 titles, in 3 series, in his universe. Mr. Vincett’s worldbuilding is simply awesome. One of the most imaginative fictional universes I’ve read.

But given all of the above, plus the ones I didn’t list, I think I will stick with my original assessment.

Sredni Vashtar

My favorite “book” of all time is the short story “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki.

To remember a story you read 60 or so years ago and never forget it definitely means it had a tremendous impact on you.

Like my all time favorite movies described above, “Sredni Vashtar” is a story about a revolt from convention, a revolt from those who think they know what is best for us, but in the end don’t actually care about us. They simply want us to conform to their life goals and purpose. It is a story about becoming free.

And there is nothing better than being free.

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

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

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10 Favorite Private Detective Novels

People often ask me for book recommendations; especially PI mysteries, as they can be difficult to find.

A recent look at the Amazon Top 25 in the Private Investigator category had me dumping most of them because there wasn’t a shamus in sight.

When the category is Private Investigator I don’t know why Amazon allows FBI agents, amateur sleuths, DCIs, vampire hunters, and who knows what else to take over the category. ‘Tain’t right. ‘Tain’t fair.

So without further ado, I give you 10 bona fide Private Detective novels for your reading pleasure.

1. 1. This Doesn’t Happen in the Movies by Renee Pawlish. This the first book in the Reed Ferguson series, and it is a goody. A bit hardboiled, a bit noir, and a bit cozy.
  2. The Italian Affair by John Tallon Jones. The Penny Detective is fast becoming one of my favorite PI series. Moggs and Shoddy are super characters. You will love these guys. And this book is especially fun.
  3. Deadly Passion by Joe Congel. Tony Razzolito, aka The Razzman, is a great character. This is a fab series. I keep praying Joe will write faster.
  4. Turn on the Heat by Erle Stanley Gardner (as AA Fair) is one of the novels in the Bertha Cool and Donald Lam series. Not as well known as Perry Mason, the series, though, is quite good. Although, I think Gardner missed a bet by not giving Bertha a bigger role. She is a stupendous character.
  5. China Trade by SJ Rozan. I love Rozan’s Lydia Chin. A very refreshing character. Bill Smith, on the other hand, I’m not so taken with. Lydia and Bill aren’t partners. But they help each other out. Friends without benefits, one might say. Although Bill would love for their relationship to get to the benefits stage. The odd numbered books are in Lydia’s POV; the even, in Bill’s. Super series.
  6. The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout. I love the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Put me on a desert island with the Tom Barnaby Midsomer Murders and the Nero Wolfe mysteries and plenty of tea and I’m in heaven. Nero Wolfe is the yardstick by which I judge a mystery’s quality.
  7. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I just finished reading the Marlowe mysteries. They are fab. Especially the later ones. This novel is probably my fav. I’ll be re-reading these in the near future. No one can beat Chandler for uniquely engaging descriptions. Do read the Marlowe books. They are amongst the best books you’ll ever read.
  8. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Poirot is, IMO, rather one dimensional. He’s peculiar, and noticeable, but not in a way that makes him a fan favorite like, say, Sherlock Holmes. Christie’s strong suit, IMO, is her complex storylines. Not her characters.
  9. The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth. The Miss Silver mysteries are good reading. Wentworth is on par with Christie, and deserves to be more widely known.
  10. The Shoulders of Giants by Jim Cliff. Excellent mystery. My great sadness is that Mr. Cliff didn’t write more than 2.

The above are 10 gumshoe novels I very much enjoyed and I think you will too.

I’m even going to throw in an eleventh:

But Jesus Never Wept

Tina and Harry quickly find themselves immersed in a bloody murder, an online sex empire, church politics, art forgeries, and the Yakuza.

And when the bullets start flying, will they survive long enough to pin the murder on the culprit?

Head on over to Amazon and find out!

That’s all for now.

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

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

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Odds & Ends

Today’s post is a bit of a salmagundi. A collection of diverse snippets. A smorgasbord of thoughts. Enjoy!

Eulogy in Black and White

If you haven’t already pre-ordered your copy, do so. Eulogy in Black and White by Caleb Pirtle III is a terrific read. Perhaps the best I’ve read so far this year. Get it on Amazon.

Podcast Appearance

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 18th, at 1pm CT, I’ll be on the BookWorld podcast with authors CJ Peterson and Michael Scott Clifton. We’ll be talking about mysteries. Here’s the link to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bookworldtge/

And here’s the link to CJ’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoZXLhhlqpThV7dV7uNSlXw/featured

Going Wide

In preparation to my eventual leaving of the Amazon ecosystem, all of my books will be out of Kindle Unlimited by the end of June. Most of them already are.

I’ll be uploading the books to Draft2Digital for distribution to a host of vendors and eventually to the Smashwords store.

The first book I’ve uploaded to D2D is Festival of Death. I’ve done a minor text cleanup, and reformatted the book using Atticus. Here’s the new Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/mYaJPm

The Justinia Wright Private Investigator Omnibus is also live at a variety of sites. Here’s the Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/mdN55w

The Mind Game

Have you ever visited Great Sand Dunes National Park? If not, you really need to go. It is so very neat.

Here’s a pic from the park’s website:

Back in the 1960s when I was in Junior High, my parents, brother, and I visited the park on our way to Wyoming.

The day was hot, and my parents weren’t feeling well. However, my brother and I were going to climb the highest dune and promptly set off.

Unfortunately, halfway to the top, my parents called us back. They were afraid they wouldn’t be able to rescue us should something happen. Never mind, there were probably at least a hundred other people in our area climbing the dunes. Plenty of people to conduct a rescue, should one be needed.

A few years ago, my brother went back and climbed that highest dune. Good for him.

I probably never will make it back. But I don’t really need to. Because I see myself standing on top of that dune, waving to everyone below. And it feels really good.

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

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Eulogy in Black and White

I met Caleb Pirtle III on social media. And I’m glad I did. He is a wonderfully encouraging and supportive person. A valuable mentor.

He’s also an incredibly talented writer, who has been writing almost his entire life. His fiction has provided me with hours of wonderful entertainment.

He also happens to be the prime mover behind The Underground Authors. That intrepid band of writers who love writing, write fabulous fiction, and want to share their stories with a wider audience.

Storytellers are entertainers. No different from a singer, or a comedian, or the busker playing his guitar on the street corner to make a buck.

Last year, to share their stories, The Underground Authors put together an anthology of their short fiction: Beyond the Sea: Stories from The Underground.

This year, The Underground Authors took on a more ambitious project: a multi-author crime series set in the fictional town of Magnolia Bluff, Texas.

Nine authors. Nine novels. Nine pictures of life and death in a picturesque small town nestled in the Texas Hill Country.

The first book, Death Wears a Crimson Hat, by yours truly, was released last month.

This month Caleb Pirtle releases Eulogy in Black and White, Book 2 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles series. And what a wonderful book it is!

Caleb is a marvelous storyteller. Even though you know you’re reading a book, you’d swear it was real life.

He has a way of painting scenes and people that come off the page and surround you, wherever you are.

Eulogy in Black and White is a fine example of Caleb Pirtle’s artistry. A book you will not want to end, because he won’t want to leave the world he’s created for you.

Here’s a bit about the book:

Eulogy in Black and White is about murder and revenge. It’s also about life and death. It’s about what the dead know, that we, the living, don’t: how precious life is. It’s also about what’s just and unjust.

Graham Huston should have died in Afghanistan. He didn’t. His friend, Harley, did. Harley was from Magnolia Bluff, the town where someone dies every May 23rd.

And Huston, as if by Fate, has the chance to unravel the mystery of the murders plaguing Magnolia Bluff. His chance to earn redemption for the bullet that killed Harley instead of himself.

Caleb Pirtle knows how to write a powerful novel, and this is one heck of a powerful novel. It’s one heck of a whodunit, with things twisting and turning right up to the end.

You will love it. I know you will. It’s on preorder at Amazon. Reserve yourself a copy today!

I rarely read a book more than once. But I’ve read Eulogy in Black and White twice already. And will without a doubt read it again, and most likely yet again.

And you can read it, too. Starting Friday, May 20.

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

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

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Weird Fiction and the Occult Detective

The occult detective can be found in all the various categories of horror. Although, I think he is most prominent in ghost stories, creature features, and weird fiction.

We know what ghost stories are, and creature features are pretty much self-explanatory. The story features a monster that must be disposed of.

But what exactly is weird fiction? Recently, I received a story bundle email in which Robert Jeschonek provided an excellent description of weird fiction. He wrote:

Something doesn’t feel quite right. The world around you seems a little…off. Things turn strange and fluid, as if you’re trapped inside a dream…but you aren’t. Something about you might have changed in a fundamental way that you sense but can’t understand.

This is what weird fiction at its best feels like. It’s more about unsettling dread than outright terror. It’s more about the mysterious influence than the in-your-face threat. It’s more about questioning the nature of reality than wondering what’s about to jump out of the shadows at you.

Two occult detectives come to mind who primarily investigate the weird: Flaxman Low and Aylmer Vance.

Flaxman Low was the pseudonym for one of the leading psychologists of the Victorian era, so the story goes, and became the chief occult psychologist of his day. Writing as H. Heron and E. Heron, Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard and his mother, Kate O’Brien Ryall Prichard, chronicled a dozen of Flaxman Low’s occult investigations.

The stories are filled with unsettling dread. Things are a little off. Nothing is as it should be. There’s no out and out terror. There’s no gruesome gore splattering your face. You just feel uncomfortable as you follow Low. And when he uncovers the cause of our discomfort, we feel immense relief.

I very much enjoy the Flaxman Low stories. And even though they date from 1898 and 1899, they read well and will definitely make you feel uncomfortable.

The first 6 stories you can get for free from Project Gutenberg Australia. If you want all 12, you can pick them up from Amazon for $1.39, as of this writing. IMO, they are definitely worth reading. And the price is right.

Aylmer Vance was the creation of Alice and Claude Askew. He appeared in 8 spooky occult investigations back in 1914. The tales ooze that feeling of uneasiness, and subtle dread that give a story the spooky creepiness we readers of weird fiction so desire.

I very much like the Aylmer Vance stories, and regret that the Askews only wrote 8 of them. They ended up dying in the war to end all wars, as did so many writers.

The stories are not thrillers. No monsters jump out at you. Their pacing is gentle: the epitome of slowburn storytelling. They are, however, told so well you may find yourself binge reading them.

You can get all the stories in the Black Heath edition on Amazon for only 99¢. Truly a deal.

Weird fiction and the occult detective. A very spooky and unsettling combination indeed.

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

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Dirty Air — Book Review

The Razzman is back! And I’m one happy camper.

The older I get the more I find myself reaching for a private detective mystery or a horror story for my reading entertainment.

In the broad crime fiction category, cozy mysteries, thrillers, and serial killers are all the rage. The lone gumshoe, relying on observation and ratiocination, has been more or less put out to pasture.

Which is a crying shame. The murder-solving shamus has been a staple of crime fiction ever since Sherlock Holmes walked on stage and popularized the genre.

Now, Holmes never called himself a private detective. He was a consulting detective. But not too many years passed before the moniker “private” was attached to detective in order to distinguish him from the “public” variety found in the police force.

From the late 1800s through the 1950s the private sleuth was king of the mystery and crime fiction roost. But that began to change in the 1960s as thrills and spills began to be more important then good old-fashioned deductive reasoning.

Today, the thriller is hot and the amateur sleuth of the cozy has replaced the private eye.

However, if you are like me and you prefer your sleuths to be of the private gumshoe variety, then I have good news for you: Joe Congel has published a new Tony Razzolito mystery.

Razzolito, aka the Razzman, is a modern-day gumshoe. He uses information sources, observation, and deductive reasoning to get the job done. There is an air of the hardboiled detective about him, but without the nihilism or pessimism usually associated with the hardboiled detective.

Joe Congel has, in effect, contemporized the hardboiled detective — and Tony Razzolito is the result.

Dirty Air is the third novel in the series. There is also a collection of short stories that fits between books one and two and provides a transition between the events of the first and second books.

Dirty Air is set against a backdrop of NASCAR and illegal street racing. Congel deftly gives you enough of a feel for the racing world without giving you information overload.

A NASCAR driver is murdered (or is he?) And his wife hires Tony and his partner Scott to investigate his death. From that point on, there are twists and turns, thrills and spills, evidence gathering, and deductive reasoning. In other words, a rollicking good mystery.

The central crime busting trio is comprised of Tony and his partner, Scott, and their buddy, Vinnie. The characters are colorful and easy to relate to. The minor characters are also living, breathing people. All of which makes for a very fun series.

Another aspect of Congel’s writing that I appreciate is the realistic pacing. The action continues to ratchet up as the book progresses, as the plot thickens.

Dirty Air, and all of the series, are highly recommended. Check out Joe Congel’s Amazon page — you don’t want to miss this action.

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

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Guys Reading in the Wild

Last week I posited that books aren’t pink. In other words, guys read too. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a fellow reviewing a book who stated he reads 100 books a year. For proof, he referred the reader to his GoodReads account. That’s doggone incredible. He’s to be commended.

Sunday, I was in the airport. Aside from myself, I saw two guys reading while waiting for their flights, and another one carrying a book. I didn’t see a single woman reading. They were eating or talking.

Guys do read. Period. End of story.

If the data is correct that women make the majority of book purchases, then the question that needs to be asked is, how can we get more guys to buy books? Assuming, of course, that the book purchases women make are all for themselves. Which may not in fact be the case.

It could be a situation where guys are using the credit cards and accounts of their mothers, wives, sisters, or girlfriends. Which happens to be what my nephew does. It could also be the case of men such as Michael Anderle, who read 180 books a year on Kindle Unlimited before becoming a writer. One hundred and eighty books read, but not purchased.

It might also be a situation where women buy more books than men simply because they are romance readers, and romance readers are the acme of the voracious reader.

A man buys a science-fiction novel, and a woman buys half a dozen romance novels. Just looking at the statistics, women buy six times the books that men do. Never mind one man and one woman bought those seven books.

This is the kind of slight of hand the publishing industry engages in to justify whatever they wish to justify. Such as the claim they made a few years ago about the renaissance of the physical book versus the ebook. In fact, there was no renaissance of the physical book because the supposed increase was due to the coloring book fad that was occurring at the time. The industry made the claim because they don’t like ebooks. A brilliant illustration of industry bias skewing the data.

But let’s assume for the moment that the myth is true: guys don’t read or buy books. How can we change that? We need to cultivate a positive masculine image around books. Real men read books. And that message needs to be spread far and wide. Probably on the same level that we spread the news that cigarette smoking is bad for your health.

Only in this way, will we be able to counter the damage done in public schools, where boys are taught subliminally that books and reading are for girls.

Guys do read books. And this is a good thing. Reading stimulates the mind, and I think a good imagination and good mental health is important for the male of the species.

Women, encourage the men in your life to read. Men, encourage your buddies to experience a good book and share with them the good books you have read.

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

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Suspension Of Disbelief

As readers we all know that when we pick up a novel or a short story, it’s a work of fiction. Something someone made up in order to entertain us.

In other words, we know it’s a story but choose to disregard that knowledge, and instead pretend it’s real.

Lawrence Block posited an interesting thought in his book Telling Lies for Fun & Profit:

But first is it not essential that the writer suspend his own disbelief? He more than anyone knows it’s just a story… To the extent that he visualizes it first, to the extent that he has the experience of his fiction himself before he puts it on paper for someone else, his work acquires an essential reality in his own eyes. He suspends his own disbelief and makes it easier for the reader to go and do likewise.

I hadn’t thought about suspension of disbelief this way before, but I’d have to say Block is on target.

When I think about my own stories and novels, they do indeed acquire an essential reality. The characters become alive and their story becomes real.

I know objectively that Pierce Mostyn and the OUP, Tina and Harry, Bill Arthur and the world of Rocheport, aren’t real. Yet, they are very much real to me. They have lives of their own, and I’m privileged to share their lives on occasion.

The more real my characters are to me, the more I transfer that reality to my writing, which in turn transfers that reality to the reader.

I can’t help but wonder if the books I read that I find boring and fail to enable me to suspend disbelief, are the ones that, in Anthony Trollope’s words, were written by writers telling a story, instead of having a story to tell?

In the first instance, a writer tells the story because he feels he has to. Maybe he needs to pay the rent. In the second, he has a story and it’s so amazing he just has to tell someone. The first is a case of manufacturing a story and selling it to the reader. The second is a case of receiving a story, as it were, and telling it.

When a story has captured a writer to such a degree that he has to tell it, that’s when I think the writer has suspended his own disbelief and thereby enables us to suspend ours.

Of course, subject matter, genre, the writer’s skill, the writer’s style, all come in to play and impact suspension of disbelief. There are some writers who I just can’t stand, yet others love their writing. It’s the beauty in the eye of the beholder thing.

Nevertheless, I’ve read books where the writer truly needed to hire a proofreader. Yet, I read on in spite of the textual interruptions, because the writer told his story so well. My suspension of disbelief weathered the interruptions.

Lawrence Block’s observation is something to think about, and one we writers need to take seriously.

If the story we are writing is just a story, how can we ask our readers to treat it as anything else? They may enjoy it, but will they remember it? Will they even finish reading it?

But if our story is reality to us, then there’s a much greater chance our readers will be suspending their disbelief right along with us.

You can get Mr. Block’s excellent book on Amazon.

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

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