New, Lower Prices for D&S Series E-Books

To celebrate the publication of The Fregoli Delusion, The Plaid Raccoon Press has reduced the price on the e-book editions of Blood Passage and Marcie's Murder, the first two books in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series.

Blood Passage is now available for the new low price of $1.99 USD, while Marcie's Murder may be purchased for $2.99 USD.

These new prices have already been implemented, but may not have reached all distribution points at this printing. If you see the old price still listed, feel free to follow the Smashwords link listed below, where you may obtain copies for the device of your choice, and the new prices are already in effect.

Blood Passage e-book links:

Kindle                        Nook
Kobo                         Sony
Apple
Smashwords

Marcie's Murder e-book links:
Kindle                       Nook
Kobo                        Sony
Apple
Smashwords

A Note on the Pricing
The Fregoli Delusion is the third novel in the series, and many e-book authors have discovered that their sales jump noticeably once they publish their third book. One of the techniques used by many authors includes dropping the price of the first book to Free, which increases the volume of downloads they see and helps hook readers into the series.

We've decided not to make Blood Passage available for Free.  We're hoping that being able to purchase all three titles in the series for a grand total of $9.97 USD will be enough of an incentive to entice more readers to take the plunge.

Why have we decided not to reset the price of Blood Passage to Free? Last year The Plaid Raccoon Press published several short stories featuring Donaghue and Stainer, and these were all made available at no cost to the reader. While the stories saw a great many downloads, there was never any way of telling whether or not people were actually reading the stories or just collecting "freebies."

More importantly, though, the comments and "reviews" we did receive were occasionally very nasty. Every independent author experiences this phenomenon, of course, and one soon learns to grow a thick skin, but it seemed that many people felt getting something for nothing entitled them to say whatever popped into their head, including vulgarisms, racist remarks, and other slurs that made it obvious the person either hadn't read the story or else had read it very carelessly. It wasn't making very good business sense to keep these stories posted with such negativity attached to them.

The final straw came in a bizarre twist when two people started using one of the free stories as a mail drop. The good news was that each time they entered a comment they gave the story a five-star rating, but the messages they exchanged were in some kind of cryptic code that soon began to creep us out. It was time to remove the free stories altogether and rethink this strategy.

As a result, Blood Passage is listed at $1.99 USD. While we may occasionally offer it for a lower price, and perhaps even for free during promotional events through the use of coupon codes, The Plaid Raccoon Press has implemented a policy of never again setting an e-book price at Free in the future. If readers feel an overwhelming desire to register their outrage, hatred, and anger at what they read, well, frankly, they can pay two bucks for the privilege.

Meanwhile, we can rest easier at night in the knowledge that the comments section of our publications are not posing any kind of security risk!

Thanks to you all for your patience and understanding.

M.J. McCann
L.L. Clark
The Plaid Raccoon Press

Blood Passage is in the spotlight Today!

Blood Passage is being featured today on Kindle Mystery Authors, a blog that features "exciting mystery authors from around the world."

The Spotlight feature includes a five-star reader review and an excerpt from the story.

Links are included to Amazon's website where readers can purchase a copy for their Kindle.

Click on the link above and check out Blood Passage's moment in the spotlight!

A New Novel Begins

This week I’ve begun to write the third novel in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series, The Fregoli Delusion.

For those of you keeping score at home, Blood Passage is the first novel in the series, published this summer by The Plaid Raccoon Press. The second novel, Marcie’s Murder, is in pageproofs. After I hear back from one more reader it will receive a last revision and a final proofreading before going to press. Fregoli, the third in the series, will hopefully be finished in draft form by April, when Marcie’s Murder is published. After passing through my team of readers and going through the usual revision and proofreading process, it will hopefully go to press in Fall 2012. That’s the plan. The upcoming year will be a very busy one, I hope.

I don’t normally talk about what I’m writing until after it’s done. This time, however, I’m going to try an experiment of sorts. I have now moved my blogging from the morning, which is when I write best, to the evenings, when I write the worst. Hold on, though, that’s not the experiment I meant. Some writers, such as David Hewson for example, blog while they’re writing their next book, and David also tweets while writing, often telling us how many words he produced that day. I plan to post a few of my experiences here on The Overnight Bestseller while writing Fregoli in the hopes that you may find it interesting to follow the ups and downs of the novel-writing process as I happen to live it over the next few months.

I’m nervous making this kind of commitment because it’s something of a risk. I could conceivably crash and burn, the story could abandon me, I could jinx myself and develop a severe case of writer’s block. Who knows?

Might be interesting to stay tuned, though, to see how it goes. Don’t you think?

UPDATE #1: This week gets it off to a good start. Today I finished the fourth chapter and my word count currently stands at just over 10 k.  That's all right, I suppose, given that I hope to finish in the mid-90s. I'm not going to worry about the word count, however. I intend to follow my outline, tell this story as I want to tell it, and deal with the length of the MS afterwards.

Free Shipping Day on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011

A brief reminder to all my followers and readers in the United States that tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 16, 2011) is Free Shipping Day. This is the day on which more than 2,000 participating merchants will offer free shipping with delivery by Christmas Eve in the contiguous United States.

For more information on Free Shipping Day and to find the place where I swiped the previous sentence, follow this link.

The point of this post, of course, is to draw to your attention the fact that Barnes & Noble is one of the retailers in the "Books and Media" category participating in this event tomorrow according to freeshippingday.com (apparently the other, bigger guy isn't). Which means that the opportunity has arrived to order your copy of Blood Passage in trade paperback now from Barnes & Noble and receive free shipping AND delivery of the book in time to stuff it in the stocking of your favorite crime fiction reader!

Don't pass up this opportunity to get your hands on a real, physical, glossy-cover-cream-pages-perfect-bound copy of the first novel in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series!

A Writer’s Methods: Characterization

Illustration: Tim D. McCann

 This past Friday I participated in a blog hop that featured an interesting question: What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books? As I toured the many participating book blogs I was very interested to see that a common peeve centred on poor characterization.

Many bloggers complained about stereotypically weak heroines (The Write Obsession), mean girls and cardboard villains (Alison Can Read), and protagonists who are so dumb you spend more time mentally head-slapping them than following the story (Fiction Book Reviews).

Readers crave believable characters that will hold their attention and offer  more food for thought than what you’ll find in Saturday morning cartoons.

As a former lit student I’ve always kept in mind the distinction E.M. Forster made in Aspects of the Novel between flat characters and round characters. A flat character is built around a “single quality or idea” and doesn’t receive much development through the course of the novel, whereas a round character is “complex in temperament and motivation” and is capable of surprising us as the novel progresses. In other words, you could describe a flat character with a single sentence but would struggle to sum up a round character in a paragraph. (See M.H. Abrams, “Character and Characterization,” A Glossary of Literary Terms, for a good summary.)

As a reader I grow bored very quickly with predictable, flat characters, particularly in fiction that is meant to challenge me as an educated adult. As a writer I try very hard to ensure my characters have a roundness that will sustain and engage readers. Homicide Lieutenant Hank Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer might appear on the surface to be a typical male-female odd couple, with Donaghue as the cultured, calm one and Stainer as his hot-blooded, foul-mouthed foil, but readers will find they have depths and complexities only glimpsed at in the first novel and follow-up short stories such as “Knock and Talk” and “The Long Snapper.” In the same way, readers are cautioned not to assume that Triad Red Pole Peter Mah is simply a cold-blooded, vengeful executioner. His relationships with other people, particularly with Donaghue, make him difficult to pigeon-hole. The story arc of this series will provide many opportunities to explore these characters in more depth, to decide whether you like them or dislike them, with plenty of time to change your mind before you're done.

Life sometimes seems to be the same story told over and over again, but people are always complex. We can never be entirely sure we understand the human being next to us. Shouldn’t our fictional characters engage us the same way?

Chapters Kanata Book Signing

This afternoon I appeared at the Chapters book store in Kanata to sign copies of Blood Passage. It was a very busy day with everyone getting a head start on their Christmas shopping, and I was happy to be able to chat with many very interesting people. As you can see, I was right at the front of the store next to an island featuring the new book on Stephen Jobs, which drew a lot of interest.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and bought a book, and a special thanks to Fred Lemay, a former Canada Customs colleague whom I hadn't seen in quite a few years. Fred, you're always a pleasure to talk to! Special thanks also to William and Roberta Sherman of the Pen and Paper group for sharing part of their afternoon with me. Much appreciated.

In addition, thanks to Kevan and Shelley of Chapters Kanata for their help, their kindness and their infinite patience.

Reminder: Chapters Kanata This Saturday

Here's an early reminder to readers in eastern Ontario that I will be appearing at the Chapters Kanata this Saturday, November 19, 2011 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to sign copies of Blood Passage.

This is a golden opportunity for you to get a head start on your Christmas shopping and pick up a special gift for the avid reader on your list!

The Chapters Kanata store is located at Kanata Centrum, 400 Earl Grey Drive. See you there!

Blood Passage E-Book Giveaway

That's right folks, now's your chance to grab a free copy of Blood Passage in the e-book format of your choice. Simply bang on this link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/72770 and enter coupon code NC87T to download a free copy of the first Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel.


Don't delay, because this current giveaway expires at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time on November 12, 2011 (by Smashwords reckoning).

Enjoy the book, folks!

Life, Interrupting

Recently I read a tweet from Rick Mofina, a local mystery author, reminding his followers that writers must show discipline and write every day in order to be a success. I realize the truth in his words and I think about long stretches I've had where I've been able to hit the keyboard every day and produce, and believe me, those times are golden.

Recently I've been able to publish the first Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel, Blood Passage, complete the manuscript for the second, Marcie's Murder, and write the outline and about 20 per cent of the draft of the third book in the series, The Fregoli Delusion. I consider this to be pretty good output, but for the most part 2011 has been a difficult year to maintain the pace. Without getting specific, I’ve found that the world has a way of taking over your life despite your best efforts to resist. Those golden hours have been very scarce this year.

Perhaps worst of all in terms of time stealing has been the work necessary to market Blood Passage. Every writer out there with a book to flog knows what I’m talking about, especially when I say that this summer marked my first entry into the e-book universe and online marketing. Again, without getting specific, I can tell you I’ve opened up 25 different online accounts so far that are connected to the production and marketing of my book. Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest. A year ago I swore I’d never be dumb enough to do online banking. Are you kidding me?

But the brain has ways of compensating, and through experience I’ve learned to keep my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut, because while life is busy interrupting me it’s also revealing itself. If I’m observant, it may show me something resonant.

This week is a good example. Yesterday morning I couldn’t get anything done because I had to drive into town for an appointment, then make several other stops before I could come home. But by the time I walked out of the office after the appointment I had a full-blown protagonist and his environment expanding like a balloon inside my head, based entirely on what I’d seen and heard in the building while I was there. Then this morning I had to take the car in to have the winter tires put on. While I sat there waiting I borrowed some paper from the guy at the service desk and wrote an overview of the storyline around this character, realized it was too similar to a well-known crime novel I won’t name, tore it down and wrote a better one that I know will work. When I got home after lunch, I spent the afternoon online doing technical research to begin fleshing in the details. Next on the agenda will be the outline.

I’ve discovered that writing the actual fiction engages my brain differently than this other stuff. It requires deep concentration and emotional equilibrium. I’ve discovered, for example, that if I begin the morning by writing a blog post and commenting on other blog posts, tweeting on Twitter and all that other stuff, my brain sometimes finds it difficult to switch gears and slip into that semi-coma which produces pages of actual story. Perhaps it’s a question of different brain waves or something. If I can’t slip into that semi-coma, I’ll move sideways into background sketches or whatever I can do to contribute toward the overall construction of the story that needs to be written.

Writing for many of us is a compulsion. It’s something we have to do. When we can’t get at it, it eats us alive.

So to compensate, we do whatever it takes not to be defeated by life’s interruptions.

Book Signing, Ottawa Small Press Book Fair

Today I appeared at the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair to sign copies of Blood Passage. It marked the public debut of The Plaid Raccoon as a small press in the small press crowd, and he got through the event without rummaging in the trash can or stealing anyone's corn. I also had with me copies of The Ghost Man, my first novel, in case anyone was in the mood for supernatural fiction.

Book fairs like these are an opportunity to meet a wide range of interesting people, and today was no exception. Friend and fellow OIC members Jasmine Aziz and Dwight Williams were in attendance. Thanks to Jasmine for snapping the photo above.

I also had a chance to meet Juliana McDonald, a visual artist with a remarkable vision. She was displaying a small portion of her 16-foot "book" consisting of photographs and text rendered as transfers mounted on acrylic, and was selling small hand-made versions of the book printed on vellum paper. I highly recommend a look at her website,  http://www.julianamcdonald.ca. Her work is quite amazing and the book is exquisite.

I also chatted with Marcella Kampman, who has published a book retelling Sumerian myths in an interpretation suitable for young readers. Inanna, Goddess of Love is visually very attractive and the stories are  well-told.

All the best to everyone in attendance today.

Saturday Ottawa Small Press Book Fair

Just a reminder to everyone in eastern Ontario that I will be appearing at the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair this Saturday, November 5 from noon to 5:00 pm in Rm. 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre, just off Elgin Street.

We will be flying the colours of The Plaid Raccoon Press and I will be signing copies of Blood Passage, the first Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel, but I will also be signing copies of my first novel The Ghost Man, which is supernatural fiction.

Hope to see you there!

Blood Passage Book Trailer

A trailer for Blood Passage has been uploaded to Vimeo, which you can view below. As always, comments are most welcome.



Blood Passage Trailer from Michael J. McCann on Vimeo.

What Compels Us Toward Tales of Violence and Murder?

Yesterday NPR ran an interesting, if short, book review by Bruce Machart entitled “Devil in the Details: 3 Artful Tales of Murder.” You can find it here: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/139002629/devil-in-the-details-3-artful-tales-of-murder. While the article offered brief reviews of three novels, A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion by Ron Hansen, The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock and So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell, I was mostly attracted by the question Machart posed at the beginning of his piece, which I’ve paraphrased as the title of this post.

What, indeed, draws us to fiction that focuses on the worst aspects of human nature?

As a reader I’m attracted to crime fiction that features a strong protagonist as the representative of law, order, rationality and the human need to challenge and defeat the brutal side of our nature. Perhaps it was my misspent childhood reading comic books with shining, invulnerable heroes that’s responsible, but there you go.

As a person I abhor violence and I’m afraid of death. Much of my life has been a process of trying to come to grips with the existence of these things in life and to find ways to cope with them. I read fiction not only to be entertained but to learn what I can about perspectives other than my own, so as a result I’m drawn to stories featuring a central character who can move in these worlds and handle these things better than I can. Even if they fail, it represents the struggle to do what’s right in this life, to resist, “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,” if you will.

As a writer of crime fiction my motives are essentially the same. The central characters in the Donaghue and Stainer series deal with death and brutality every day. When Hank Donaghue’s mother, a retired State’s Attorney, asks him in Blood Passage how work is going, he jokes that it’s the same as usual: “The hours suck, the pay is worse and all my clients are dead.” Law enforcement officers are notorious for their black humor, but it’s a defense mechanism, a way of depersonalizing the horror they witness every time they punch the time clock.

Is depersonalization the key? Are we drawn as readers to crime fiction because it gives us a chance to deal with death and brutality from an objective, third-person perspective? Does it provide an opportunity to examine the horror and the emotional reactions of others through a filter, to imagine from a safe distance how we would cope if we were put in such a position? A rehearsal against the day when we might have to face such horrible things head-on?

What draws you as a reader to crime fiction?

Back To Work Tuesday

After a very pleasant long weekend celebrating our Canadian Thanksgiving, it's time to get back to work. My objective is to have a new Donaghue and Stainer short story ready to upload to Smashwords by the weekend, and I will celebrate this addition to the collection with a new list price for the e-book version of Blood Passage. Stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone downloading copies of the short stories. I'm surprised and gratified that so many people are showing an interest in the collection, which has cascaded over to Barnes & Noble as well. The first Donaghue and Stainer short story listed by Barnes & Noble for the Nook, "Invisible Boy," has reached the top 5,000 in total e-book downloads, which I find absolutely remarkable. Fans of Donaghue and Stainer may rest assured that this is only the beginning.

All right, enough procrastination. To work,.

A Brief Note on Spelling

Those of you who are attuned to such things may notice variations in my spelling between my first book, The Ghost Man, and my second, Blood Passage. You may also notice variations from post to post in this blog.

I can explain. Really, I can.

I belong to the generation that was educated in British spelling with no tolerance for American variants but ultimately found its way to what can legitimately be called Canadian spelling, which contains elements of both (see Lynn Quitman Troyka, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, 3rd Canadian edition, p. 398 for confirmation that there is such a thing). In normal writing I preserve the "u" in colour, favour, and humour, spell "cheque" with a "que," and enjoy seeing "theatre" end with an "re."

The Ghost Man is set in eastern Ontario, and I tried to stick faithfully to Canadian spelling throughout. By the way, if you find a flat-out Americanism in it, point it out to me and I'll award you a prize. I'll think of something appropriate! (Only one prize per boo boo, though, so get there first!)

However, Blood Passage is set in Maryland, and in the spirit of establishing a convincing atmosphere I chose to use American spelling throughout. This switch wasn't as easy as it sounds, because habits can be very deeply engrained, and as a former editor I took it as a point of pride to favour the "u" at all times. So I really had to pay attention as I was rewriting and rereading, but I had Microsoft Word on my side because its automatic spell-checking thingie was set to American English and it red-lined any Brit-flavoured variations. It's possible, though, that something non-American got through. If you spot a non-American spelling in Blood Passage, point it out to me and I'll also award you a prize (same conditions as above).

I've been having problems in this blog, though, and I admit to you straight out I'm back and forth like the weathervane on the barn roof. In posts where I'm discussing Blood Passage I have sometimes written with American spelling, trying to stay in character, as it were, and in other posts I've reverted to my more natural Canadian spelling.

So I put it to you: which would you prefer to see?

Let me know what you think!

Chapters - Kanata

A quick note to readers in eastern Ontario that Blood Passage is now on the shelves in the Chapters - Kanata store located at Kanata Centrum, 400 Earl Grey Drive.

Please be aware that the book is not included in their database at this point but is located in the Local Authors section in both Kanata and Pinecrest stores, which means if you try to find it in the in-store computers it won't show up, except for a couple of "Used and Rare" copies available from the UK at a very expensive price. I have no idea why these copies are showing up, and the manager I spoke to couldn't explain them either. To make a long story short, if you go into a Chapters store to look for Blood Passage, you'll find it on the shelf in the Local Authors section.

By the way, I will be appearing in the Chapters - Kanata store to sign copies of Blood Passage on November 19, 2011 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. More on that at a later date.

Blood Passage Book Signing at Chapters Pinecrest

Yesterday I was pleased to be at Chapters Pinecrest in Ottawa, ON for a book signing event for Blood Passage. As you can see, they set me up on the center aisle tucked in with the cook books. It was great! By the way, Chef Michael Smith has a new cook book out that looks incredible. I'm not kidding! (Nancy, I hope you get it for your birthday!)

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, including Jean, Nancy and Jenifer. I enjoyed meeting you all. Thanks as well to Danielle and Serge, former Customs colleagues of mine who looked in to make sure I'm staying out of trouble. Your support was very much appreciated, and thanks to Serge for the photo. You tried your best, but that's as good as it gets!

Many thanks to Chapters manager Sarah and store manager Kevin, as well as the entire Chapters Pinecrest staff, for your assistance, good humor and encouragement. It was greatly appreciated.

Smashwords Download Milestone

The Plaid Raccoon Press was pleased to note this morning that we passed the 500 mark in downloads of Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel publications on Smashwords. This number does not include free samples of Blood Passage, the first Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel. Blood Passage, the first work published with Smashwords, appeared exactly two months ago on July 11 of this year.

We celebrated by awarding ourselves the cute little 500 badge you see on the left.

While we have no doubt that other Smashwords authors/publishers have achieved much more significant accomplishments in the first two months of their association with this e-book publisher, we still feel pretty dang good about it all.

Thanks very much to everyone out there for your support! Stay tuned, there's lots more to come.

Ottawa Poster Collar Campaign Begins

Today marks the first day of the Ottawa poster collar marketing campaign for Blood Passage. I spent the afternoon walking around downtown Ottawa taping posters on designated telephone poles like the one pictured on the left in the Market.

This poster will stay up for a week, then people in Ottawa can watch for a new one to replace it, all leading up to the book signing scheduled in Chapters Pinecrest in Ottawa on September 17.

This was an interesting experience, to say the least. I parked my car close to Bank Street and worked my way north on Bank to Sparks Street, then headed through the mall, on over to the Market, then up Elgin to Lisgar and back to my car. It took me about two hours to walk this route, papering telephone pole collars as I went. At first I felt quite self-conscious about defacing public property, despite having studied the regulations carefully beforehand. I felt as though someone would demand to know what the heck I was doing, but after a few collars were under my belt I slipped into a routine. Actually, no one paid me the slightest attention. In fact, I tried to give out a few free book marks and was firmly rebuffed. People didn't want anything to do with me, whatsoever! Perhaps they thought I was a half-cracked conspiracy theorist trying to cramp their day....

Hopefully a few of you folks in Ottawa will see the posters and check out the website. If it ends up selling a few books that would be great, because when I finally got back to my car I discovered I'd been hit by a $60 parking ticket. Ouch. And only seven minutes too late! Better sell a bunch of books if I'm going to break even on this one!

Book Signing Scheduled for September 17, 2011

Just a heads up for folks in eastern Ontario that Blood Passage is now on the shelves in the Chapters Pinecrest store in Ottawa at 2735 Iris, the Pinecrest Shopping Centre. I'll be appearing there on Saturday, September 17 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm to sign copies and yak with everyone.

Watch for Blood Passage to appear in other Ottawa bookstores in the near future, and those of you in Ottawa should keep your eyes peeled for the downtown poster collar campaign that will gear up in about a week.