The BJ Vinson Mystery Series

How many times have we been told: Know your strengths, but also know your weaknesses. I happen to think I write reasonably well... well enough to claim it as a strength, at any rate. But I also know I suck at self-promotion. When it comes to social media, the “social” tends to disappear. What that means, of course, is that I am not now nor will I ever likely be on the New York Times bestseller’s list.

I recently heard a lecture at a SouthWest Writer’s meeting expound on this subject. This was a very respected and successful local author who works almost as hard at promoting his books as he does writing them. His intent was to inspire the rest of us writers and provide some very helpful procedures to allow us to emulate his success. Alas, all he did was convince me that I am constitutionally unable to promote myself. He did, however, make one suggestion that I found interesting. “If you have reviews of your works, post them on your website." Eureka! I have reviews. So I’m not writing this post. Five other people are... individuals who come from the ranks of the finest people in my world—readers!

Below are the last five reviews posted to Amazon on THE ZOZOBRA INCIDENT  and THE BISTI BUSINESS. As regular readers know, DSP Publications has picked up this series, and Zozobra is to be reborn sometime in September with Bisti coming about four months later. And then, THE CITY OF ROCKS will see the light of day for the first time about four months after Bisti is released.

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Stephen B reviewed The Bisti Business (A B.J. Vinson Mystery Book 2)

The Bisti Business a Good Read

The gay PI, B.J. Vinson, takes us around the desert country of New Mexico to solve the case of a missing young man from California who is traveling with his lover. For anyone who lives in or has visited New Mexico, the desert landscape offers a challenge to anyone caught unprepared for the relentless heat. Don Travis puts you in the action and you feel you are there. "The Bisti Business" will have you convinced of whodunit before you find out you hung your hat on a red herring. And there are plenty of them. This is a book that keeps you wanting more. You won't be able to put it down until everything is known. This is Don Travis' second novel following "The Zozobra Incident." Read that one first so you have a feel for the characters when they are introduced again in the "The Bisti Business."

Don Travis is my new favorite author. I look forward to his next mystery.

Richard L. Thomas reviewed The Zozobra Incident (A BJ Vinson Mystery Series Book 1)

Great gay detective

Love having gay detective series where I can go on new adventures with good plots and realistic stories. I will be looking for more of this series.

J. V. Mills reviewed The Zozobra Incident (A BJ Vinson Mystery Series Book 1)

a great story

Very suspenseful. Some alluded to sex, but nothing graphic. Compelling read for me, enjoyed the conclusion, though the author could have spent a bit more time closing it all down. To read about the trial, and the others bits of story line would have been a great way to wrap it all nice & tidy.

Fair Reviews reviewed The Zozobra Incident (A BJ Vinson Mystery Series Book 1)

Excellently Written Mystery

Don Travis writes a colorful, tightly constructed mystery. For anyone interested in New Mexico, he peppers his story with fascinating information about the cultural and historical foundations of Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The Zozobra Incident is a very good first offering from Travis and will make you anxious for more.

English teacher reviewed The Bisti Business (Volume 2)

Good mystery!

Of the two books I read by Don Travis, this was the better. The setting is interesting and the 

characters appealing.

*****

I hope this was of some interest to you. Keep on reading, guys. Feel free to contact me at dontravis21@gmail.com.

New Posts published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

SouthWest Writers’ Novel Conference

This past Saturday, I volunteered at the Novel Conference hosted by SouthWest Writers, the state’s premier organization for professional and aspiring writers. I decided to blog about it because, heretofore, I’ve been somewhat ambivalent about such activities. This one, I found to be interesting and informative. Perhaps the fact I volunteered rather than was a participant shaped my feelings somewhat; nevertheless, I wanted to share a bit of the program with you.

This conference was organized around two representatives of literary firms that are players on the national scene. This year they were Mark Gottlieb, a literary agent at the Trident Media Group, and Annabella Hochschild, Editorial Assistant at St. Martin’s Press. Both guests addressed the group and took a series of pitches from attendees ranging from published to aspiring authors.

The subject of Mark’s talk was “Get it While it’s Hot: Musings on What Sells in Major Trade Publishing. TMG has been in business since 2000, and Mark has been ranked as high as
#1 on Agents on publishersmarketplace.com in Overall Deals. He has other top rankings in such various interests as Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery/Crime, Romance and Young Adult.

Annabella addressed the group on “The Pitching Process,” focusing on what makes some pitches work and some fall flat. She worked for Vogue before moving to St. Martin’s Press to work on the desk of Tim Bartlett, who specializes in political and economic serious non-fiction.

As fascinating as it was to hear from professionals on the national scene, I found our local speakers to be equally engaging.

Johnny D. Boggs, winner of both the Western Heritage Wrangler Award and the Spur Award, spoke on the subject: “There’s No Crying in Publishing.” His talk addressed getting your novel published by a traditional publisher. JohnnyDBoggs.com.

Robin Perini’s topic was “The Power of Love: The Romance Market Uncovered.” She is an award-winning, international bestselling author and RITA finalist who has been on the Top 5 on Amazon Bestseller lists in the U.S., UK, and Germany. RobinPerini.com.

Joseph Badal talked to the group on “What’s Happening in Publishing for Thrillers and Mysteries.” Joe has published nine novels and was named One of 50 Authors You Should Be Reading in 2011, won first in the 2013 NM?AZ Book Awards in the Fiction-Mystery/Thriller category, the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best Fiction, and other prestigious awards. JosephBadalBooks.com.

Caroline Starr Rose spoke on “KidLit 101: Defining Terms, Knowing Your Audience, and Breaking In. She was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author for her debut novel, May B, which was also an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book. CarolineStarrRose.com.

*****

My reason for bringing up something already over and done with? I just wanted to toss kudos to Rob Spiegel, President of SWW and Joanne Bodin, Conference chair for the group. Well done, guys.

Oh yes, I also wanted to encourage my readers’ participation in such conferences, and if there’s not one available in your area, to consider organizing one. I’m sure Rob and Joanne and any number of others at SWW would be glad to give you some helpful suggestions. SWW’s email address is: swwriters@juno.com.

Feel free to contact me at dontravis21@gmail.com.

New Posts published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

Wordwrights Writing Class

Wordwrights Writing Class Logo

For the past three years, a colleague and I have co-hosted a class for people interested in writing. Every Monday afternoon (except for holidays) some fifteen to twenty-five of us gather in classroom 1 at the North Domingo Baca Multigenerational Center (7521 Carmel NE) in Albuquerque for a meeting of the Wordwrights Writing Class. Promptly at 1:30 p.m., we open with a Weekly Tip covering some aspect of writing, ranging from how to construct a sentence, proper use and placement of modifiers, involving the senses in your work, tenses, viewpoint, and the like.

Next, Dennis Kastendiek reads from and talks about various authors who have caught his attention. Thereafter, for about an hour and a half, various class members read from their work and accept comments from the class. Our group is open-ended, meaning it is free to any and all. Those who join us attend when they wish or skip classes when life gets in the way.

Membership is eclectic. We have published authors, serious writers struggling to be published, beginning writers, and people who just want the stimulation of being around creative people. We are poets and memoirists, novelists and essayists, technical writers and film reviewers… and of course, those who haven’t yet settled on exactly what they want to be.

Our writers have a number of projects underway. I won’t try to cover all of them, but here are some of our current efforts:

·       A cozy murder mystery opening with a body covered with chocolate in a bakery

·       A novel based on some gristly Hungarian murders in the 19th century

·       A book of poems based on the writer’s dating partners over the years

·       An early 20^th century novel about a young woman breaking the shackles of convention and coming into her own

·       A woman both charmingly and courageously excising her traumatic past by facing it through her poetry

·       A novel based on an ancient Egyptian princess who some believe gave Scotland her name

·       An essayist who brings the class to laughter with his clever twists on life’s lessons

There are many more, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll stop here.

The point of this post? You’re welcome to join us if you wish, but more importantly, if there is no such group in your area, consider starting one. I am convinced that everyone in our class would tell you the results are worth the effort. As a matter of interest, this writing class has been going on for eleven continuous years. Rob Spiegel and Larry Greenley from SouthWest Writers (New Mexico’s largest professional writing organization), started the class and ran it for eight years before turning it over to Dennis and me. That says a lot for the worthiness of the idea.

*****

I know this post is a bit different, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, so I finally sat down and wrote it. Hope you’ll consider becoming involved in such an effort… or start a class if there’s not one available in your neighborhood.

Feel free to lodge your comments at dontravis21@gmail.com.

New Posts published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.

A Guest Post. Thanks Guy for Getting Me Off the Hook

Another Albuquerque author and I started discussing blogs at a meeting of SouthWest Writers last Saturday and ended up deciding to do guest posts. He offered to do mine this week provided I’d do one for him at some time in the future. How could I refuse a deal like that?

 

Mark Wildyr writes both contemporary and historical gay erotic fiction. What follows is the opening to one of his published short stories entitled “Killer.” It appeared in the STARbooks Press anthology, SAINTS AND SINNERS sometime back. Enjoy. (Don’t tell Mark, but I have no idea what I’ll write for his blog at markwildyr.com.)

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KILLER

By Mark Wildyr

 

The killer looked down at the boy at his feet and fought a rising irritation. How come the kid still looked so good? Death hadn’t done a damned thing diminish the little queer’s looks. Wasn’t right. When you’re dead, you oughta look the part.

The boy hadn’t sensed danger until it was too late. A nano-second later, the bullet splintered his sternum and punctured his heart. The man gave a disgusted sigh and stowed the small handgun in his waistband. Then he calmly walked down the dark alley and vanished into the night.

#

Albuquerque Police Department Detective Calvin Grajek muttered a curse as the telephone interrupted a set of curls. Early morning calls at home were never good, and this one was no exception. Body. Alley. Yeah, he’d go straight there. He hung up and headed for the shower.

Cal knew from the address what he’d find. The site was on the fringe of a Rabbit Run around East Central Avenue, once historic Route 66. If his hunch was right there had now been five gay murders over the past two years, and since his old partner was prematurely retired by a heart attack, Cal was the detective in charge. Together, they’d gotten nowhere. On his own, he hadn’t achieved much more than to gain some introspection into the city’s deviant culture. Until this started, Cal figured a queer was a queer was a queer. Now he understood the gay underground was at least as complex as mainstream society. Come to think of it, it wasn’t so underground anymore.

Cal parked his unmarked Ford four door behind a black-and-white at what was known by locals as Indian Alley. For a couple of miles, the broad, mostly paved alleyway half a block south of East Central paralleled the thoroughfare through a commercial neighborhood of 1930’s-style one-story shop buildings. A few had been restored; most simply struggled against decay. A well-traveled route used by the homeless, drunks, Native Americans, and a host of others avoiding curious eyes, the alley was an unlikely place for murder, although it had seen more than its share of mayhem over the years. Most of the area’s habitués would deny seeing anything. It truth, they probably hadn’t, either from alcoholic haze or a lifetime of keeping their eyes glued to the ground.

Several people were already on hand, including Cal’s new partner, Brin Haskell. Who the hell named a kid Brin? The guy’s personnel file showed it was short for Brindle, but that begged the question. Who’d name a kid Brindle? This was the twenty-eight-year-old’s virgin assignment as a detective, and Cal suspected the guy’s drive was fueled as much by the fact that he was the nephew of a deputy chief as by natural enthusiasm.

The new detective stepped away from the small group of uniforms to greet him. Crap, the guy didn’t look much older than most of the victims. Hispanic with a gringo name. Tall, athletic, good-looking, recently divorced. Cal wondered if Brin’s obvious dislike of gays was cultural or a defensive measure, although there was nothing soft about the guy.

Brin shook his head. “Another one.”

“You can tell by just looking?”

“A kid. Teens. One to the heart like the others. And yeah, I can tell. If I get the willies, it’s one of them.”

“I like that,” Cal said dryly. “The scientific approach.”

Brin flushed. “Give you ten-to-one odds.”

“No thanks. Given the location, you’re probably right.”

As they reached the body, Cal studied the blond youngster sprawled on his back, face pallid in death, his grotesque Kiss T-shirt made even more so by a glob of crusted blood. There was already a distasteful odor. The sound of nearby traffic signaled that life went on. While uniforms put up the crime scene tape to keep the curious at bay, the detectives slapped on latex gloves and made a quick examination of the corpse before the crime scene boys arrived and chased them off.

Cal read from the ID in the kid’s wallet. “Kevin Kenally, Sixteen years old. What a waste.”

“Been a waste for a couple of years already,” Brin muttered.

Cal rounded on him. “What’s with you, Haskell? He’s like any other kid. What’s he done to earn your scorn? Maybe you oughta go work another case.”

“Look, I don’t like queers, okay? But that doesn’t mean I’m not a good detective. Doesn’t mean I won’t do my job.”

Cal brought his voiced under control. “You’re right. And you might as well get started. There’s gay bookstore with a private teenage hangout called Brothers and Sisters next door just a couple of blocks down the street. Go see if you can learn anything useful.” Cal removed a snapshot of the kid standing with an older youth from the victim’s billfold. “Maybe Kenally was there last night. See if you can find out who he left with. Use this snapshot until I can get a better picture. And see if you can find out who the other guy in the photo is.”
 

 

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Does he have your attention? Mark tells me he's going to post the entire story on his blog just as soon as he figures out how to do it. He's about as good with the computer as I am.

 

Next week: Once again, I won’t know until the last minute!

New posts are published at 6:00 a.m. each Thursday.