accidents waiting to happen Archives - Page 3 of 4

SHELF LIFE: Cutting To The Chase

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 NO SHOW and a couple of other unpublished books were in between these three and none of them featured car chases, so don’t go thinking I’m a one trick pony.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

Categories: shelf life

THE SUNDAY SELECTION SPECIAL: Bestsellers and Bargain Books!

My books are on a bit of a roll at the moment, especially in the UK. I think someone wants me to have a bestseller this Christmas. I won’t argue with that. J

December Specials:
PAYING THE PIPER is only 99p (in eBook form) this month over at Amazon UK with 40% off the paperback.

“For years, the serial kidnapper known as the Piper got rich by abducting children from San Francisco’s wealthiest families. When crime reporter Scott Fleetwood gets a call from a man identifying himself as the Piper and offers an exclusive interview, Fleetwood jumps at the chance. But the caller turns out to be a fake, and the rash decision costs the life of the real Piper’s latest victim.For eight long years, Fleetwood has lived with unbearable guilt—and the enduring disdain of the entire Bay area. Now he hears from the real Piper—and it’s not for an interview. The kidnapper has the reporter’s son. But he doesn’t want money…he wants blood. And he’s going to use Fleetwood to get it.”

WE ALL FALL DOWNis only £1.49 at Amazon UK (in eBook form) and $0.99 at Amazon this month with 40% off the paperback.

“Hayden Duke just landed a coveted contract gig with Marin Design Engineering, largely thanks to his old friend, Shane Fallon. The dream job becomes a nightmare when Shane takes his own life in a seemingly drug induced stupor. The only clue to Shane’s death is an e-mail with an encrypted file he sends to Hayden. It’s a file people would kill to possess. Now Hayden’s got to risk losing everything…before he loses his life.”

My crime collection, ASKING FOR TROUBLE, is only a £1.00at Amazon UK (in eBook form).

“The road to crime begins with a single decision—the wrong one. Not every decision belongs to the criminally minded. Some belong to the ill-informed, the weak and the plain unlucky. In these tales, trouble isn’t an indiscriminate force of nature. It’s a manmade occurrence that comes when called upon. The book features the CWA Dagger Award nominated, Protecting The Innocent.”

The first of the Terry Sheffield mysteries, NO SHOW, is only $2.00 at Amazon this month with 40% off the paperback.

“Englishman Terry Sheffield has just arrived in San Francisco to start his new life with Sarah, the investigative journalist he married after a transatlantic love affair. But Sarah never shows up at the airport… The police chalk it up to a new bride with cold feet. Then one murdered woman after another turns up, all with something in common: they had exposed scandals just before their deaths…and their names appear on a list that Sarah composed. As a journalist, Sarah’s exposed her share of scandals, and Terry realizes that she’s not missing—she’s on the run. To find her, Terry realizes she’s very different from the woman he thought he married.”

Bestsellers:

In the UK, ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN has been climbing the charts over at Amazon UK. The book has bouncing around the top 10 for the last week. This was my first novel and after a decade it continues to keep riding the charts from time to time. I think it’s because of the provocative storyline.

“Josh Michaels isn’t wanted dead or alive—just dead. That fact becomes shockingly clear when a stranger runs his car off the road. Instead of a helping hand, the man gives Josh a “thumbs down” and abandons him to what is almost certainly a watery grave. Luckily, Josh cheats death…this time. But when more harrowing “accidents” threaten his life, it’s clear he’s a marked man. As his time and luck rapidly run out, he must unmask an insidious conspiracy bent on making a killing—in more ways than one.”

TERMINATEDhas also been selling well in the UK. It spent a couple of weeks in Amazon’s Top 100 for a couple of weeks. It slipped off a few days ago, but I urge you to check it out. It might just save your life. J

“Stephen Tarbell needed that promotion. But they had to go and give the job to his supervisor, Gwen Farris. Now Tarbell has had enough—and he’s about to put Gwen on notice. She has two choices: give him a glowing review on his performance evaluation or suffer the consequences. The company’s security firm says they’ll handle the situation, but whose side are they really on? And how do you stop a psychopath so consumed by hate he thinks he’s the one being persecuted?”

I hope you find something that takes your fancy…

Categories: Uncategorized

Achtung Baby! THE FALL GUY Goes German!!

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.

Categories: Uncategorized

Double Tap From Amazon For ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS

Hey, it must be my birthday! Well, actually it is in a couple weeks, but that’s not important right now. The important thing is that Amazon has named ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS in their 100 Hundred Books for April. It’s an interesting pairing as ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN was my first book & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS was my first short story collection. So it’s quite nostalgic to see these books back in the limelight. Anyway, to the meat of the subject. Both books have promotion pricing, but ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN ebook is only 99cents this month. Hopefully that’s whetted your appetite.

ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN:

Josh Michaels isn’t wanted dead or alive—just dead. That fact becomes shockingly clear when a stranger runs his car off the road. Instead of a helping hand, the man gives Josh a “thumbs down” and abandons him to what is almost certainly a watery grave. Luckily, Josh cheats death…this time. But when more harrowing “accidents” threaten his life, it’s clear he’s a marked man.

Are his past mistakes coming back to bite him? Or is something more sinister afoot? And how can he convince his family, friends, and especially the cops that he’s in danger? The harder Josh fights to stay alive, the more determined his unknown enemy is to see him dead. And the deeper he digs for answers, the more chilling the truth becomes. As his time and luck rapidly run out, he must unmask an insidious conspiracy bent on making a killing—in more ways than one.

Nerve-jangling noir doesn’t get much blacker than Simon Wood’s top speed trip into cold-blooded murder and hot-blooded vengeance.

DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS:
People spend their entire lives staving off the dark—but no matter the measures taken, black paths and shadowy pits lurk in the unlikeliest of places, waiting to pull the unwary into the depths of despair.

These eleven tales offer a morbid sampling of the many forms and fashions of terror—from the subtle prickling of neck hairs at the kiss of a ghostly breeze to the raw-throated screams and feverish clawing of a desperate fight for survival.

Witness eleven people torn from their ordinary lives and cast into twisted realities that test their sanity, faith, and very will to live…

A pilot must land a crippled aircraft on an impossible runway…

A doctor feels far too much sympathy for his deformed patients…

A schoolgirl’s secret contract could cost her mother’s soul…

A woman whose pack-rat obsessions hide the obscene…

For these and seven others, the darkness comes from within and without, subtle, deadly…and relentless.

I hope you’ll check these books. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 🙂

Categories: book of the month

Double Tap From Amazon For ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS

Hey, it must be my birthday! Well, actually it is in a couple weeks, but that’s not important right now. The important thing is that Amazon has named ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS in their 100 Hundred Books for April. It’s an interesting pairing as ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN was my first book & DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS was my first short story collection. So it’s quite nostalgic to see these books back in the limelight. Anyway, to the meat of the subject. Both books have promotion pricing, but ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN ebook is only 99cents this month. Hopefully that’s whetted your appetite.

ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN:

Josh Michaels isn’t wanted dead or alive—just dead. That fact becomes shockingly clear when a stranger runs his car off the road. Instead of a helping hand, the man gives Josh a “thumbs down” and abandons him to what is almost certainly a watery grave. Luckily, Josh cheats death…this time. But when more harrowing “accidents” threaten his life, it’s clear he’s a marked man.

Are his past mistakes coming back to bite him? Or is something more sinister afoot? And how can he convince his family, friends, and especially the cops that he’s in danger? The harder Josh fights to stay alive, the more determined his unknown enemy is to see him dead. And the deeper he digs for answers, the more chilling the truth becomes. As his time and luck rapidly run out, he must unmask an insidious conspiracy bent on making a killing—in more ways than one.

Nerve-jangling noir doesn’t get much blacker than Simon Wood’s top speed trip into cold-blooded murder and hot-blooded vengeance.

DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS:
People spend their entire lives staving off the dark—but no matter the measures taken, black paths and shadowy pits lurk in the unlikeliest of places, waiting to pull the unwary into the depths of despair.

These eleven tales offer a morbid sampling of the many forms and fashions of terror—from the subtle prickling of neck hairs at the kiss of a ghostly breeze to the raw-throated screams and feverish clawing of a desperate fight for survival.

Witness eleven people torn from their ordinary lives and cast into twisted realities that test their sanity, faith, and very will to live…

A pilot must land a crippled aircraft on an impossible runway…

A doctor feels far too much sympathy for his deformed patients…

A schoolgirl’s secret contract could cost her mother’s soul…

A woman whose pack-rat obsessions hide the obscene…

For these and seven others, the darkness comes from within and without, subtle, deadly…and relentless.

I hope you’ll check these books. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. 🙂

Categories: book of the month

Shelf Life: In Case You Missed It

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!

Categories: Uncategorized

Shelf Life: An Idea to Die For

A fascination for the odd and the obscure drives my writing. I’m always on the lookout for strange but real occurrences that would make for a really interesting story. When I discovered the unusual business world of viatical settlements, lightning struck and I knew I had a novel.

So what are viatical settlements and what makes them so special? In a sense, they’re a reverse insurance arrangement. If you own a life insurance policy and you want to cash it in, you go to a viatical settlement agent who will find someone to buy it. The buyer will give you pennies on the dollar for your policy and take over the monthly dues on your life insurance. In return, they will become the beneficiary when you die. The closer you are to the grave, the bigger the payout.

Viatical settlements were aimed at the elderly and the terminally ill to cover final expenses and make their last days comfortable, but the industry really took off in the late 80’s and 90’s when HMOs weren’t covering AIDS and HIV patients. Patients needed money for treatment and viatical settlements provided the perfect vehicle for that. The industry hit the skids in the late 90’s when breakthroughs in AIDS drugs extended life expectancies and the payout times increased.

I saw the beauty and the beast in this arrangement. Viaticals give people a second shot at life, or at least a comfortable end, allowing them to live out their life worry free. On the other hand, viatical settlements are a truly ghoulish proposal. Some companies ran late-night advertisements telling people how they could make money quick. See a 25% return on your money in 12 months or less. To the investor, that sounds great. But to achieve that return, someone has to die. There is no way to ignore the fact that the policy buyer is profiteering off the dead.

I came across viatical settlements on a TV news magazine show. The feature was well done. The story covered all the parties involved in one of these arrangements. They interviewed a person with HIV who had sold their life insurance as well as a retired couple who had purchased several policies through a middleman who arranged the sales. It was great to see a person who’d had one foot over the threshold of death’s door come back from the brink after selling his policy. It was shocking watching the retired couple that had sunk their retirement fund into viatical settlements. They displayed vehement disgust for the people they’d paid good money to who hadn’t had the good graces to die as predicted.

The news clip ended with a kicker and it was that kicker that really grabbed my attention. The middleman is supposed to keep the identities of the buyer and seller confidential. The man with HIV who’d sold his life insurance produced a birthday card. It had arrived unsigned on his last birthday. The message was simple and to the point. It said: Why aren’t you dead yet?

I couldn’t let this go. There was a book here. Viatical settlements presented a very interesting concept. Criminals aren’t the only ones with a price on their heads. Everyone is worth more dead than alive, thanks to their life insurance. And what if the beneficiaries can’t afford to wait to inherit? A murder would lead someone to the beneficiary, but an accidental death wouldn’t.

For Accidents Waiting to Happen, I stretched the rules concerning viatical settlements a bit to create a cat and mouse thriller. I made rules surrounding viaticals much more far ranging. Essentially, anyone could qualify. In the book, Josh Michaels takes a bribe to pay for his newborn child’s medical expenses. His secretary blackmails him when she learns of the bribe. To pay her off, Josh sells his life insurance policy. Years later, when the bribe, the blackmail and the policy sale are long forgotten, he’s driving home when he’s forced off the road by another vehicle into a river. Instead of helping Josh, the driver gives him the thumbs-down gesture and drives off. Josh survives the accident and learns he’s not the only having accidents. The one thing these people have in common is that they’ve all made a viatical settlement in their past.

Usually, truth is stranger than fiction, and I love that, but if I can get a hold of it, I’ll make that fiction a little stranger.

Categories: book of the month

Amazon UK Selects Three Books For December

Amazon UK has selected three of my books: PAYING THE PIPER, TERMINATED and ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, as must reads for the month of December for the Kindle. So during the month of December, all three books will be just 99p each. The incentive has helped PAYING THE PIPER land on Amazon’s Hot 100 bestsellers. Readers can take advantage of the deal by clicking the links below:

PAYING THE PIPER
TERMINATED
ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN

Categories: Uncategorized

Shelf Life: Mega Book Launch!!

Today is a special and important day for me as this is book launch day and it’s no ordinary book launch. This is because I don’t have one book out today, but six! Thomas and Mercer have come out with revised and updated versions of some of my earlier titles: ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, PAYING THE PIPER, WE ALL FALL DOWN, TERMINATED, ASKING FOR TROUBLE and DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS. The books are not only out in paperback, but they’re also available as audio books (thanks to Brilliance Audio). Thomas and Mercer has put some serious weight behind these books which is great for me. 🙂

Thomas and Mercer will be launching the first in a new series of crime novels next year. Expect NO SHOW in June. In the meantime, this is what is on bookshelves today.

PAYING THE PIPER

Crime reporter Scott Fleetwood’s children have been abducted, and he’ll pay any amount of money to get them back. The problem is, the kidnapper doesn’t want money — he wants blood.

TERMINATED

Low marks on a performance evaluation drive a disgruntled employee berserk, igniting a campaign of terror against his female supervisor.

ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN

Josh Michaels has a price on his head and someone is looking to cash in. To find out why, Josh will have to confront his past…and expose an insidious plot to cancel his future.

WE ALL FALL DOWN

Hayden Duke thinks good luck has struck when he lands a design job for a top-secret client and reconnects with an old college friend, but things go horribly awry when coworkers start dropping like flies.

ASKING FOR TROUBLE

In this darkly entertaining collection of crime stories, the path to ruin begins with a single — sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes ill-informed — wrong decision.

DRAGGED INTO DARKNESS

In the tradition of The Twilight Zone, these eleven eerie short stories explore the inescapable pull of darker, deadlier realities on the lives of ordinary people.

You can pick up any and all of these books at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Brilliance Audio, Audible and other bookstores. I do have a favor to ask. If you’ve read these books or are going to read these books, post a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Word of mouth is gold, but also as new editions, these books are starting over from scratch when it comes to reader reviews.

I’d also really appreciate it you’d help get the word out because I’d like to go big and not go home. So please retweet this or post this on Facebook or whatever you cool kids do with the social media. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a copy or two for friends, enemies and casual acquaintances. It is the holiday season. 🙂

Categories: shelf life

ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN Turns 10 Years Old

My first novel, ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, came out ten years ago today. Obviously, this book holds a special place in my life as it was the book that got my writing career going. It seems apt that Thomas and Mercer are releasing a new version (the 3rd in its lifespan) later this year. For those who don’t know what the book is about, here’s the plotline:

Josh Michaels is worth more dead than alive. He just doesn’t know it yet. He has no idea why someone would try to kill him, clearly that’s exactly what happened. When an SUV forced Josh’s car off the road and into a river, it might have been an accident. But when Josh looked up at the road, expecting to see the SUV’s driver rushing to help him, all he saw was the driver watching him calmly…then giving him a “thumbs down” sign. That was merely the first attempt on Josh’s life, all of them designed to look like accidents, and all of them very nearly fatal. With his time—and maybe his luck—running out and no one willing to believe him, Josh had better figure out who wants him dead and why…before it’s too late.

I find it a little spooky that if I hadn’t caught a five minute news piece on the TV about viatical settlements fourteen years ago would have not only led to a book, but that over 100,000 people would buy it. But serendipity is like that. It throws you an opportunity that will have a life of its own.

I think what even odder for this book is how it has grown over the years. First, it was picked up by small press publisher who printed a few thousand copies. The attention it gained at the time helped it land a mass paperback release. That led to a German language translation. Then the eBook success last year caught Thomas & Mercer’s attention and they bought the print and audio rights. Success has been slow, I guess, but it has been sustained. It’ll be interesting to what happens to the book when comes out at the end of the year, because I don’t things have plateaued. I still think there are more things in this book’s future. It seems to have the ability to run and run for some reason.

The book has been revised and updated for this new release. It’s been interesting revisiting the book again. I don’t there’s any such thing as a final draft and I reinforced that belief with this go around. I see how my writing style has changed (and hopefully improved). I revised it when it came out in paperback five years ago and I thought it was set in stone, but yet again, the editors and I made tweaks. I’m a little older and it’s funny to see how I disagree with my younger self. I may be actually becoming a wiser person…or possibly schizophrenic. Only time and a straight jacket will tell.

Anyway I hope more people will discover this book and its longevity continues. In the meantime, please enjoy the changing faces of ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN.