Another Cantelli Tale

My favorite private detective character, Rick Cantelli, and his partner Lois haunted me for a couple days until I wrote up their latest 4,500 word adventure and published it through Triond at AuthSpot yesterday. It’s a bit darker story for the two, but when Lois’s daughter Kim brokers a real estate deal up north with the wrong people, Lois drags Rick and husband Frank up there to set things right.      RICKCANTELLI, P.I. – Part 7

These two never allow writer’s block to form. The second I pause in writing my new HARD CASE sequel, Rick and Lois yammer for another long short story. It gets crowded in my head for a time while I give in to their demands.  :)  My friend and marketing partner, best selling True Crime Author RJ Parker wrote a very interesting blog on one star hit pieces. He’s also developing widgets for sales and recognition that are very neat.   Author RJ Parker

Rick's Back... Again.

Over the weekend, another humorous Rick Cantelli, P.I. tale took me over on Sunday and I churned out a very funny nearly 4,000 word part 6. I guess I’m enjoying these two because I can make them as funny as I want, and still put them in danger. Naturally, in hanging around the beginning of their seventh decade, they don’t scare at all. Here’s the link to where my new story can be found:  Rick Cantelli P.I. Part 6

Here’s the blurb for their latest adventure.

Rick and Lois go out on a bond retrieval together with the usual hilarious interaction. The lady of the night wanted for an aggravated assault warrant in LA gives up quietly. Her companion, the brother consigliore of an Eastern mob boss, takes exception to losing his companion’s company. He mistakenly thinks Lois cares.

Yep. I am under the Rick and Lois spell. I plan to make ‘Madigan and Cantelli Security and Investigations’ a well known name if I can. The best part of self publishing is I can release this series of short stories in a novel form when I get up around the 90,000 word range, and I won’t have to answer to anyone. No one will be e-mailing me that I can’t do this or you’ll have to change this scene, or that’s too episodic. I don’t even think about agents, publishers, or what they think the market is screaming for. When Wild Child Publishing e-mailed me trying to find out what I was doing to increase sales for COLD BLOODED because it was spiking suddenly, while taking 60 percent of the profits for doing nothing - that was the last lesson. Yeah, the novels have begun selling nicely for now, but as my writing friends know, this is a brutally inconsistent business. I have my publishing release schedule in mind. DEMON AT WAR, the third part in my YA trilogy will be out May 1^st. The sequel to HARD CASE will be out by July 1^st called THE LURE OF HELL. I’m figuring my Cantelli Tales with Rick and Lois will be novel length by Sept 1^st.

No more query letters, no more haunting agents sites for crumbs, and definitely no more no help publishers. They saw ‘Fifty Shades’ of sexual deviancy strike gold, and now they’re deluging the market with a million shades of the same thing. Good luck to them. I think I’ll just keep laughing along with Rick and Lois in my head, while telling tales.  :)

St. Patrick's Day Drawing and a new Rick Cantelli, P.I. Story

On the writing marketing front, my good friend, True Crime Author RJ Parker is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day drawing to garner reviews for our novels. The prize is a $100 Amazon gift certificate. It’s a fun deal which he’s also going to do in the UK.

St. Patrick’s Day Drawing

I couldn’t stay away from my Rick Cantelli, P.I. short story series. His partner Lois needs to attend an aerobics class to keep her back rehabbed. She can’t get husband Frank interested, so she recruits office secretary Shelly and double teams the redoubtable Rick into going too. He knows it’s a setup to make him into a laughing stock, but he has a couple surprises. The initially humorous escapade turns into a business opportunity with Rick’s recently weird flair for attracting female attention.

Rick Cantelli, P.I. – Part Five

The story ended up at nearly 5,000 words, and it was as usual fun to write and edit. That brought me up to over twenty thousand words for my five Cantelli tales. Rick’s doing so well in my head, he might be into novel length far sooner than I had imagined. Working on three projects at once, all very different, seems to be keeping the creative impulse flowing. The third DEMON screenplay, new HARD CASE sequel, and my Cantelli tales have been equally fun to dive around into. The only part of my writing gig that’s been missing lately is the once in a while humorous encounter at my automotive repair shop. I did get a guy who stumbled in on Tuesday morning though. I held off doing an instant blog because I thought he would be making daily ventures, but such is not the case. For this short update, my 38^th Avenue street denizen will be known as Hairof The Dog.

I had just arrived at the shop around a quarter till eight, opened the big door, and started my computer in the back room. The motion detector went off at 8:15 AM. I looked up and a guy about 5’ 6” weighing around 190 lurched in the main entrance. He’s wearing shorts and a short sleeved shirt, with some kind of sandals. Mr. Dog didn’t look too good as I walked up front to greet him. His eyes were at half mast with the head tilted back slightly as if he needed to see better but didn’t want to open his eyelids any further to get the job done. It was about 48 degrees in the shop that morning. I had on three layers of clothes and a work jacket. Hairof’s nose was running, he couldn’t stay still without losing his balance, and he was so far gone I doubt he knew where the hell he was. His age was somewhere in the 40 to 55 range. It’s hard to tell in that condition. I greeted him, and he immediately tried to put a few thoughts into words. Fail!

“Yeah… I have… this wheel.” Mr. Dog begins pantomiming a circular item with shaky hands. “It… turns… and I… it goes like this… you know… ah… has this… you know...”

No, I don’t, nor would I ever. “Sir, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Do you have a car that needs repaired? This is an automotive repair shop.”

His brows knit and his lower lip juts out along with his chin. It was obvious he wanted more compassion than I had to give. Even the thought of a blog excursion wasn’t holding my attention with Hairof.

“I…I’m trying to tell you!” The Dog emphasized for me. Hairof immediately starts pantomiming a wheel again. Oh boy. “You know… a tire… on a carriage… it has… a… you know… can you do it?”

Not having a clue what he was describing in drunken detail, I had to opt out. “No sir, I don’t do that type of work.”

Hands on hips with slimy face jutted out at me to relate Mr. Dog’s incredulity at my answer, he loses his balance from being in one position too long and stumbles forward. He corrects his flight and utters an outraged, “huh?”

“Sorry, I don’t do that type of work.” I reiterate for him.

“You don’t?!” Hairof can’t believe it. The Dog is incensed I can’t fix what he has wrong.

“No Sir, I can’t help you with that.”

“Fine!” Hairof spins too fast and has to grope around a few steps in loose limbed fashion until he sees light at the door. He hunches his shoulders and plows onward to the street and around the shop corner.

For some reason the encounter did not brighten my day. The lyrics to an old ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tears’ rock song popped into my head – ‘Don’t want to go by devil… don’t want to go by demon… just want to go naturally…’

DEMON INC

Book Two in my YA trilogy will be released later today on Amazon. I wanted to do a small preview before I add the link for it later. This YA trilogy with Mike and Demon has been the most fun I've ever had writing. I doubt I'll be able to leave these two at just a three book series. Here's the blurb for the Demon trilogy's second part - DEMON INC

Demon, Mike, and the gang continue their fight against the dreaded Haunts. Establishing a business front to generate the funds necessary to confront the dimensional invasion threat with weapons and gear, Demon Inc is born. With the SyFy channel writing checks, the teen members of Demon Inc battle the growing Haunt presence, learning the monsters have a plan to open portals through the possession of unwary human dupes playing around with Ouija boards and conjuring spells. Scarred by the Haunts and healed with holy water, Mike comes to grips with a growing darkness inside him, and unusual powers stumping even his canine partner. It’s a new wild ride for the most humorous and deadly teen crew ever assembled, led by Demon, canine Haunt killer extraordinaire.

DEMON INC is now listed officially. 

I'm sure Amazon will furnish their usual three to six chapter preview, and I add the link the moment it's published. Here's the link to Book One in the series with my favorite dog: DEMON

Book Two, DEMON INC, will be up soon. I kept the covers similar for continuity.