Simon Wood

Posts Tagged: the fall guy

Achtung Baby!  It’s the birth of a new book…kinda.  Today see the publication of Abwärtsfahrtaka the German language version of THE FALL GUY.  The jacket copy goes a little like this:
 
“Todd Collins ist bisher in jedem Job gescheitert. Das alles ändert sich, als er mit seiner Blechkiste rückwärts in den glänzenden neuen Porsche eines Drogendealers kracht. Als die Polizei den Dealer wegen eines kaputten Scheinwerfers anhält – dem Schaden, den Todd verursacht hat – und dabei eine Kokainlieferung findet, macht einer der Drogenbosse von der Westküste Todd dafür verantwortlich. Auf der Flucht vor dem organisierten Verbrechen entdeckt Todd seine wahre Berufung.”
 
Or for the non German speakers:
 
“When you’re down on your luck, life never wants to cut you a break. Todd Collins has failed in every job he’s ever undertaken, but that all changes when he backs his jalopy into a shiny, new Porsche belonging to a drug dealer. When the police stop the drug dealer for a broken taillight that Todd has caused and discover a cocaine shipment, a West Coast kingpin holds Todd responsible. On the run from organized crime, Todd discovers his true calling when he fights back.”
 
I’m intrigued to see what German speakers think of the book.  They seemed to have liked ABGEZOCKT when it came out a couple of years ago.
 
Anyway, I hope German speakers will give it a whirl and English speakers will recommend it to their friends.  Here’s where you can pick it up:
 

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

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Keen followers of this blog will know that THE FALL GUY and PAYING THE PIPER were snapped up for German translation last year.  Over the last few months, I’ve been working with two editing teams on the books and I’m happy to say they are both in production and have publication dates. 
 
The content hasn’t changed for either book but the titles have.  Slang and colloquialisms rarely travel.  THE FALL GUY is now Abwärtsfahrt, which translates to Downward Drive or Downfall Drive.  It’s a hard one to describe but you get where it’s going.  PAYING THE PIPER is now Die Abrechnung Des Kinderfänger, which is a little more literal as it translates to Paying the Kidnapper.
 
Obviously, a new book means cover art.  I hope you like them.  I know I do.

 

 

Abwärtsfahrt will be out at the end of April in paperback and as an eBook.  Die Abrechnung Des Kinderfänger will be out at the end of June in paperback, audio and as an eBook.  Do tell your German speaking friends to grab a copy or three.

Naturally, with a translation in a language I don’t speak, I have to put my faith in my translators that  they’ll do a good job and I won’t suffer like NewsRadio’s Jimmy James at his book reading.  This is every writer’s translation nightmare.  🙂

 

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Wives are great things, especially when it comes to pointing out your mistakes.  Last year, my little Julie came to me and pointed to my books and said, “Notice the similarity?”

I stared at my titles and saw the obvious straight away—their sheer awesomeness.  Apparently, that wasn’t what she meant.  She told me to describe them.  I did, then I groaned, then I went to mope in a corner.

Hand on heart, I do my best to be original, to think ahead, to see the big picture, but sometimes I’ll drop the ball.  In this particular case, I managed to drop the ball several times.

So what’s my big mistake—car chases.

My first novel, ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, opens with the hero being run off the road.  My second novel, PAYING THE PIPER, opens with the hero racing across San Francisco after hearing his son has been kidnapped.  My third book, WE ALL FALL DOWN, novel opens with joy riders chasing after a man only to watch him commit suicide.  TERMINATED broke the cycle with a job evaluation interview.  Then I do fall off the wagon again with THE FALL GUY and ROAD RASH which do feature cars at the beginning but don’t have chases though.

Yes, I am a car nut and we live in a car centric world, but it wasn’t my intention to open all my books with some sort of car motif.  It kind of just happened.  Blame it on my subconscious.

In my defense, my first three books may have come out in that order but they weren’t written in that order.  ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN might have been my first book, but WE ALL FALL DOWN was my second book, while PAYING THE PIPER was my fifth.  NO SHOW and a couple of other unpublished books were in between these three and none of them featured car chases, so don’t go thinking I’m a one trick pony.  Really…don’t.  I am good at this writing thing.  Just give me a chance.

The irony of ironies (in an Alanis Morrissette, ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife kind of a way) is that both of the Aidy Westlake motor racing books which would be totally legitimate in beginning with a car chase don’t!  Looking at the subsequent story lines I have planned, none of those begin with a car chase either.  That isn’t by design.  It just is.  :-/

When it comes to the opening of one of my books, I have one rule—start with a bang.  Throw the readers into the action with little or no preamble and make the opening dramatic—physically or emotionally or both.  That means cutting to the chase.  Maybe I took this chase point a little too much to heart.  I hope you’ll forgive me.  J 

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A quick update for everyone.

For keen readers of this blog will remember that I promised to donate the royalties earned on the eBook version of THE FALL GUY during the month of January to Karen Laubenstein’s family.  She’s a writer, a great champion of writers and the committee that staged Bouchercon (aka the World Mystery Convention) in 2007 in wonderful Anchorage, Alaska.  Sadly, her husband has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and the medical costs have wiped them out.  The money raised will go towards covering a trip to see a specialist in St. Louis.  
Well, it’s February which means it’s check writing time.  THE FALL GUY sold 642 copies in January, earning $360 in royalties.

I’d like to thank everyone who either bought the book or shared my earlier blog post on Twitter and Facebook.  I really appreciate it and so does Karen and her family.

If you didn’t get the chance to pick up the book last month, you may want to consider a contribution to Karen’s  GoFundMe page.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the book.

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This is a SHELF LIFE entry with a difference, so I hope you’ll indulge me.
Karen Laubenstein is someone I’ve known for a number of years now.  She’s a writer and a great champion of writers.  She headed the committee that staged Bouchercon (aka the World Mystery Convention) in 2007 in wonderful Anchorage, Alaska. 
Sadly, her husband has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and the medical costs have wiped them out.  Over Christmas, a whole host of people stepped forward with donations and help that have really turned fortunes for Karen and her family. 
And I wanted to do my bit too.  I will donate all the royalties earned on eBook version of THE FALL GUY during the month of January.  The money raised will go towards covering a trip to the Mayo Clinic scheduled in February.
I hope you’ll support me by picking up the book and even if you already own the book, I hope you’ll consider gifting a copy to a friend. You’ll be getting an entertaining read while helping someone.  I hope that seems like a fair deal.  J
Please feel free to share this appeal on your Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Alternatively there is a GoFundMe page for the family. Thanks for listening and thanks for your support.

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I’m very happy to announce that the German language rights to my crime caper, THE FALL GUY, have been picked up for print, electronic and audio editions. It’s the story of Todd Collins. He’s failed in every job he’s ever undertaken, but that all changes when he backs his jalopy in a shiny, new Porsche belonging to a drug dealer. When the police stop the drug dealer for a broken taillight that Todd has caused and discover a cocaine shipment, a West Coast kingpin holds Todd responsible. On the run from organized crime, Todd discovers his true calling.

This story has gone from strength to strength in recent years.  It first started off life as a short story called FENDER BENDER.  A publisher liked the story so much that we build the concept for my short story collection around it for WORKING STIFFS.  The editor gave me one instruction: develop FENDER BENDER into a much larger story—and THE FALL GUY was born as a short novel. Author, Scott Nicholson, urged me to release it as a standalone piece and I’m in his debt because it took off an eBook and Comet Press picked it for a paperback release. So I’m especially pleased to see it get secure its first translation contract.

I don’t have a release date for the German edition, but I’m hoping it will be before the end of the year.  At the moment, translators are being auditioned for the job.  This is always interesting to see how a translator will bring the story to life in their native tongue.  I wish I was fluent in German to see how the story will be finessed from English to German.  One thing I’m pretty sure of is that the title will change.  All my translated books have come out with totally different titles.  ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN became ABGEZOCKT(aka Scorched or Burned in English) and the Turkish edition of WE ALL FALL DOWNcame out as DEATH SONG.  So I’m intrigued to know what THE FALL GUY becomes.  J

I don’t know what the future hold for this story, but I hope it keeps on growing.  I think Todd is owed that much.

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Recently, I received one of the best reviews I’ve ever gotten. Someone called ColtsFan on Amazon wrote the following about The Fall Guy:

“Simon Wood is an up and coming mystery writer who writes like some mobster is standing over him with a cleaver, telling him to make a good story or else. He writes like his life depends on it.”

What made me very happy about the review is ColtsFan was 100% correct. I do write like my life depends on it. There is someone standing over me with a cleaver telling me to write good or else—and it’s me.

The reason for this outlook is because nothing is guaranteed in publishing. Several of my writing friends with books behind them now possess a certain expectation that everything they write will be published. I wish I shared their confidence. Despite numerous publishing credits, Magazines still reject my short stories and publishers have passed on manuscripts. Publishers and magazines have folded. Editors have changed their minds. There have been months with an R in them. The list of reasons/calamities is endless, but the result is the same—manuscripts I’ve been very passionate about have not made it to the bookshelf.

Currently, I’m very lucky to find myself in the fortunate position of having contracts with books still on them. However, that could all come to end when I turn those manuscripts in. Then what? Sure, I’ll do my best to find a new publisher or a magazine interested in my stories, but it still doesn’t mean they’ll get published. That means I can’t just write a good manuscript. I have to write the very best manuscript I possibly can and not just once, but every time, again and again. Those works still might not see publication, but I’ve given them best shot I can possibly give them.

Telling stories is my passion and my job. So yeah, I write like my life depends on it, because it does. Shouldn’t every writer think this way? 🙂

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Recently, I received one of the best reviews I’ve ever gotten. Someone called ColtsFan on Amazon wrote the following about The Fall Guy:

“Simon Wood is an up and coming mystery writer who writes like some mobster is standing over him with a cleaver, telling him to make a good story or else. He writes like his life depends on it.”

What made me very happy about the review is ColtsFan was 100% correct. I do write like my life depends on it. There is someone standing over me with a cleaver telling me to write good or else—and it’s me.

The reason for this outlook is because nothing is guaranteed in publishing. Several of my writing friends with books behind them now possess a certain expectation that everything they write will be published. I wish I shared their confidence. Despite numerous publishing credits, Magazines still reject my short stories and publishers have passed on manuscripts. Publishers and magazines have folded. Editors have changed their minds. There have been months with an R in them. The list of reasons/calamities is endless, but the result is the same—manuscripts I’ve been very passionate about have not made it to the bookshelf.

Currently, I’m very lucky to find myself in the fortunate position of having contracts with books still on them. However, that could all come to end when I turn those manuscripts in. Then what? Sure, I’ll do my best to find a new publisher or a magazine interested in my stories, but it still doesn’t mean they’ll get published. That means I can’t just write a good manuscript. I have to write the very best manuscript I possibly can and not just once, but every time, again and again. Those works still might not see publication, but I’ve given them best shot I can possibly give them.

Telling stories is my passion and my job. So yeah, I write like my life depends on it, because it does. Shouldn’t every writer think this way? 🙂

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I have a few pieces floating around at the moment that you might not have come across, but are worth your time.

CrimeSpree Magazine’s: 5 Books/Songs/Films that Changed My Life
The title says it all and CrimeSpree asked my what things changed my life. The tough part was finding just five books, songs and films that have influenced.

Kindle Daily Spot:
Amazon asked me for a piece that described me as a person and a writer. Chaos Theory was the simple answer. 🙂

Mysteries in Paradise reviewed ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN and they liked it. Read the review here.

Audible.com brought out HOT SEAT, book 2 in the Aidy Westlake series, came out on Audio and it picked up a nice review over at Book ‘Em Mysteries.

And talking of all things, audio book, my supernatural crime thriller, ROAD RASH, is also available from Audible.com.

Still on the review front, Toxic Graveyard gave THE FALL GUY a great write up. Read it here.

Enjoy!

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I have a thing about indiscretions, white lies, small crimes, because no matter how much we think those mistakes will remain hidden, they have a habit of coming back to haunt us. I’m sure Anthony Wiener, John Edwards and many others have thought their secrets would remain secret, but as Ben Franklin once said, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” That is someone speaking with experience and with a few absent friends.

As I mentioned the other week, the inspiration for THE FALL GUY is based on college incident where a friend thought he could get away with driving into someone’s car and getting away with it. And I’ve mentioned other errors in judgment in connection with my other books. These mistakes and subsequent lucky escapes from them snowballing into something more serious have made me a more honest person—or somewhat more careful about the risks I take. You won’t see me texting anything or photographing anything and leaving it on my phone. You’d think people would have wised up to this by now.

Seeing as this last post in conjunction with THE FALL GUY, I thought I’d turn the tables. I’ve shared some of my past mistakes that I feel I can talk about in good conscience. Now it’s your turn. It’s time for you to fess up to some your minor transgressions. The ones that could have turned nasty and/or ones you’ve atoned for. Don’t worry, I don’t want you to share anything that’ll still get you in trouble. Just something where the statute of limitations can’t touch you. 🙂

So come on, what have you done? I promise not to tell.

This concludes THE FALL GUY‘s month in the sun. I hope my stories have piqued your interest to check the book out. I also hope that you’ll spread the word about the book too. You shouldn’t keep this book a secret. In the meantime, you can read this excerpt.

Categories: book of the month

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