Now Available: UGLY AS SIN

I'm very pleased to announce that my new novel UGLY AS SIN is now available to order.  The paperback and e-book editions are on the way eventually, but if you're the type of guy/gal who likes a fancy collector's edition -- or, better yet, you just can't wait to read it! -- this ones for you.

You'd better hurry, though . . . this publisher's print runs are much, much lower than most!

http://thunderstormbooks.com/thunderstorm/tsb_book/ugly-as-sin/

http://thunderstormbooks.com/thunderstorm/tsb_book/ugly-as-sin/

ANIMOSITY: Coming In 2014

I'm pleased to announce that the trade-paperback, e-book, and audiobook editions of my novel ANIMOSITY are coming in early 2014, via Permuted Press.

More details to come!  I'm very excited to get this one in more readers' hands . . . .

Fun Little "Interview" About the WIP

What is the [working] title of your book in progress?

     Ugly As Sin.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

     I wrote a short story for Horror World a few years back, this silly little thing that mixed pro wrestling with Lovecraftian monsters.  It sold, but I never was really happy with it.  I thought there was something better buried inside that scenario, hidden inside those characters.  I gave the story a hefty rewrite -- not the least of which involved excising all of its supernatural elements -- and it became the Prologue to a "white trash noir" novel called Ugly As Sin.

Which actors would you choose to play the characters from your book?

     Oooh . . . that's a great question.  I've never thought about it before now, but Ron Perlman might work just fine as my protagonist, ex-wrestler Nick "The Widowmaker" Bullman.  Jennifer Carpenter (from Dexter) would be a really good fit for his troubled daughter, Melissa.  As Nick's unlikely sidekick, a twitchy little speed-freak named Leon Purdy . . . hmmm, that one's a little tougher.  He's probably a little young for the role, but maybe the dude who plays "Skinny Pete" on Breaking Bad (I'm typecasting the poor fella, but if you're good at something you're good at something).  As the main baddie, I was gonna say William Hickey, but I just learned from a quick Google search that he died in '97.
     Those are just off the top of my head, but I kinda dig that list.

  

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?

     A former professional wrestler thinks he's got it bad after he's disfigured by two psychotic fans, but his world is once again turned upside-down when he receives a disturbing phone call from his estranged daughter. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?

     I'm currently looking around for an agent in hopes of selling the mass-market paperback rights, etc., but it looks like the limited-edition hardcover rights are already spoken for.  News to come soon!

How long did it take you to write the first-draft of your manuscript?

     We won't talk about that.  I'm a terrible procrastinator, and this one should have been finished a looooooooong time ago.

What other books in your genre would you compare this story to?

     I'm pretty sure that readers of Joe R. Lansdale's "Hap and Leonard" series will really enjoy Ugly As Sin.  I'd like to think so, at least.  If you liked Tom Piccirilli's The Fever Kill, or Duane Swierczynski's "Charlie Hardie" series, chances are you'll dig Ugly As Sin.

     Oh, yeah . . . and I can't forget John Connelly's "Charlie Parker" series.  His anti-heroes are some of the best around, characters who aren't necessarily "good people", yet they live by a strict moral code that makes you love them even as their actions cause you to cringe.

     All I know is, if I find myself thinking as I'm writing, "Man, this is the kind of book I would love to read!", then I'm probably onto something good.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

     Like I said, I'm a huge fan of Joe R. Lansdale's work.  Ed Gorman is a huge inspiration as well.  I'm so envious of the way he can write scenes of nail-biting suspense, while simultaneously setting a melancholy tone, populating his fiction with damaged characters who do what they have to do to survive while the past haunts them at every turn.

     I think there's a lot of that in Ugly As Sin -- characters who are scarred inside and out, but they refuse to throw in the towel.  As long as they're still breathing, they'll try to make up for all the bad things they've done through the years.  They can never make it perfect.  Nothing is ever perfect.  But they know it has to get better. 

 

What else might pique the reader’s interest in your book?

     It's an autobiography.  I was once a world-famous wrestler.

     All joking aside . . . I think it's just a good, engaging crime/noir tale with a touch of pitch-black humor.  I can't wait for everyone to read it, as I think Ugly As Sin is the best thing I've written to date.  I'm excited to finally get it into readers' hands!

UGLY AS SIN: The "Playlist"

It won't be long at all now.  Hopefully I will be able to announce very soon that I have completed my fourth novel, Ugly As Sin.  Finally!

In the meantime, I thought this might be fun for those of you who have followed the book's progress . . . .

As I near the finish line, I present to you my Ugly As Sin "playlist".  These are either: 

     A) songs I listened to repeatedly as I wrote my lil' tale of Southern-fried noir . . . these are the tracks that became in my mind a sort of unofficial "soundtrack" for the story, influencing the mood, pacing, tone, etc.
     or
     B)  they are directly mentioned in the manuscript itself . . . a few of these will stick out like the proverbial sore thumb, but they deserve to be here because they are "heard" in the novel at some point (i.e. thumpin' during the strip-club scene, or when my protagonist decides a local drug-dealer called Coko Puff would look great with a tire iron upside his head   :)


     More soon!  Enjoy, my friends, and thanks for reading/listening . . . .

OTIS TAYLOR:  "Nasty Letter"

HOWLIN' WOLF:  "Built For Comfort"

LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS:  "Goin' Back Home"

ETTA JAMES:  "Trust In Me"

SUNNYLAND SLIM:  "The Devil Is a Busy Man"

SONNYBOY WILLIAMSON:  "Your Funeral, My Trial"

ROB ZOMBIE:  "Living Dead Girl"

LIL' WAYNE:  "Lollipop"



ALICE COOPER:  "Poison"

AC/DC:  "You Shook Me All Night Long"

BLIND WILLIE MCTELL:  "You Was Born To Die"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE:  "Midnight Walker"

DR. DRE (FEAT. SNOOP DOGG & AKON):  "Kush"

JOHN LEE HOOKER:  "I'm Bad Like Jesse James"

NINA SIMONE:  "Feeling Good"

MOTORHEAD:  "The Game"

Now Available In Trade Paperback: MIDNIGHT RAIN

Check it out . . .

I'm proud to announce that my first novel, Midnight Rain, is now available as a beautiful trade paperback from Evil Jester Press.  Originally published by Leisure Books, this one's been out of print since around late 2005.

http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Rain-James-Newman/dp/0615746659/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357078475&sr=1-2&keywords=midnight+rain+james+newman


Enjoy!  And please tell your friends!

"Author Infection"

So I’ve been tagged by my buddy Kristin Dearborn in a game of author infection!

The rules are simple:  Search your work in progress for the first use of “look”.  Copy and paste that paragraph and the ones immediately before/after into a blog post. Then tag five other authors.

This is from a short I've been working on, a twisted lil' tale of Southern horror tentatively titled "SLIT".

     As always, it was me and Shelly who was given the task of findin’ Granpappy.  I guess it never occurred to either Mama or Daddy that we was just a couple o’ rube kids, barely outta elementary school.  If we did find Granpappy and he didn’t wanna come back home it wasn’t like we could make him.  There wasn’t any guarantee that he’d even know who the hell we was.

     But he came.  He always did.  Like a scolded puppy, he’d follow us back home, and sit there while Daddy chewed him out.  The look he’d get on his face when we did find him (usually he’d be just a few hundred yards from our back door, just walkin’ through the woods, lookin’ up at the birds in the trees or maybe sniffin’ some wild forest flower), it used to break my heart.  He’d sit on his bed with tears in his eyes while Daddy hollered at him:  “I mean, for Chrissake, Pop, what if you wandered off too far and we never did find you?  What do you think we’d do then?  You’d be dead, and I might even end up in prison.  You think I wanna go to prison ‘cause of you?”

     Granpappy’s lip would quiver, and judgin’ by the expression on his wrinkled old face he woulda liked that just fine.  He woulda preferred to be dead.  He didn’t know much, but he had to know that nobody really wanted him around.

     It was damned pitiful.  And I guess that’s what made him walk off in the first place.  Not his feeble old brain.  But a brain that knew that he’d be better off someplace else, where he wasn’t a nuisance to anyone.

     Now it's your turn -- I'm tagging you, Ray Garton, Mark Gunnells, Sheri White, Jason Brannon, and Ron Kelly.    :)

     Have fun!

A Conversation With Kevin Woods, Director of HOLY ROLLERS