USING VIDEO TO MARKET BOOKS ON TWITTER

 

Twitter analytics show that tweets including images, graphic image files (GIFs) or video tend to receive more interactions than tweets without. In fact, those with embedded video sequences see 10% more engagement and are six times more likely to be retweeted.

With that in mind, we've launched a short (32 sec.) video teaser for THE LONG ROAD INTO DARKNESS, the Tom Faust crime novel released last year, for inclusion in our regular Twitter promotional tweets.

Credits for the teaser are as follows, in order of appearance:

• video: Yaroslav Shuraev (Pexels); Ingo Joseph (Pexels);
• photography: Michael J. McCann (church); Burlingham (Thinkstock; knife);
• music: Alan Piljak "Empty Days" (FMA).

For those of you who like trivia, I photographed the church in Front of Yonge Township while researching SORROW LAKE, and it was the basis for Tom's church in THE LONG ROAD.

Here's the teaser, for anyone who doesn't have a Twitter account or is curious to see it right now. (You can follow me on Twitter at @MichaelJMcCann1.) Hope you find this interesting!

A DEATH IN WINTER - MARCH & WALKER #5

 

We're excited to announce the launch of A DEATH IN WINTER, the fifth March and Walker Crime Novel.

As the worst storm of the winter settles in, a funeral takes place in the village of Westport for an elderly Toronto crime lord who retired several years ago to the quiet beauty of Rideau Lakes.

Shortly afterward, a man is found beaten to death behind the local hardware store, and OPP Detective Inspector Ellie March discovers that the victim was an important employee of Dante Tassone, heir to the crime lord's vast empire.

Stuck in a snowed-in village with dangerous organized crime figures, Ellie and OPP Detective Constable Kevin Walker search for answers that will connect Tassone and his rebellious son to a violent family struggle threatening the safety of villagers and police as the bodies begin to pile up and a deadly pandemic looms on the horizon.

Fans of the series will be pleased to encounter several new characters who are being added to the lineup, including Detective Sergeant Prez Raintree and intelligence analyst Charlotte McKinley. The narrative style is also slightly different this time out, with parts of the story being told from the points of view of Dante Tassone and his son, Rick.

Interested? You can order the paperback (autographed) from The Plaid Raccoon webstore or from Amazon (not autographed!). If you're in the UK and you shop at Waterstones, you can order it here. Or, order it from your local bookstore!

Prefer an eBook? Purchase it from Kobo or Amazon (US), (Canada), or (UK).

Thank you, all, for your ongoing support of this series. It's greatly appreciated. Stay safe, and stay well.

SORROW LAKE - Early Returns on the ARC Review Process

As you may know, the Advance Reading Copy of Sorrow Lake, the first March and Walker Crime Novel, is now available for review through NetGalley. If you're not a NetGalley account holder and would like access, it's free to sign up and free to download a copy of Sorrow Lake. Not a bad deal, right?

If you're interested, click on the cover image on the left, or on the link below. It will take you to a special sign-in page authorizing your free copy.

Not sure if you'd be interested in a crime novel set in Canada featuring homicide investigators from the Ontario Provincial Police? Take a look at the early response to the novel by NetGalley reviewers:

Blogger Mallory wrote: "A really inventive and deeply-characterized mystery/police procedural with a finely-delineated background of rural Ontario, SORROW LAKE is the first of a series, which I can tell will be one of my favorites. The characters are peeled down to the grain, and it's wonderfully gratifying to read of individuals who might be our friends, our neighbors--or even ourselves."  This review has also been posted on Amazon and in Goodreads, for which I'm very grateful.

Librarian Rosemary wrote: "I am thrilled that this is the beginning of a new series. McCann is a new author that I will now be following. And who doesn’t love the name of that publisher?" This review is also posted in Goodreads. Needless to say, the Raccoon is blushing and will probably have a swelled head for a while.

Reviewer Tracy wrote: "An exciting Canadian police procedural mystery that had me hooked from the very first page. A great strong female lead and a nice male counterpart just learning the ropes of homicide. Twists and turns I never saw coming especially leading up to the ending. I would and will recommend this book to friends and family, even strangers should the time and place present itself." Tracy also posted this review in Goodreads. Thank you, Tracy.

I'm also pleased to note that the voting on the cover design is going nicely. NetGalley viewers have so far given it 17 thumbs-up and 0 thumbs down. Thanks!

Now it's your turn, faithful followers of The Overnight Bestseller. Click on this link to find out for yourself why Sorrow Lake is going to make a lot of noise for Canadian crime fiction in 2015!

https://www.netgalley.com/widget/open?widget_id=63547_81503_1427823721551adc69b418a_9781927884034_US

The Perfect Crime Story

Crime fiction writer Niall Leonard, who writes television scripts and books for teens and young adults, has some interesting advice on how to write the "perfect" crime story.

Photo courtesy of  The Guardian

First, he suggests starting with a story that fascinates you as a writer so you can convey this enthusiasm to your readers. Second, he recommends a lot of research so your stories will ring true to life and be "far more interesting than anything you could dream up at your desk". His third point is not to drown your story in details. Remember that you're entertaining, not lecturing your reader. His other points include the importance of a protagonist in unraveling the crime, and the identification of motive(s). Also, he suggests that the killer should operate in plain sight of the reader from the beginning of the novel. He or she may have a rock-solid alibi, but it's through the actions of the characters that the mystery should be revealed rather than through the introduction of the killer at the end of the story like a deus ex machina. It's the writer's job, he contends, to hide the clues leading to the ultimate revelation of the killer as the book progresses.

And his final word of advice? " Perseverance, patience and resilience are essential." Even the most successful of today's crime novelists, he notes, took years to establish their reputation.

Leonard's advice is, of course, commonsensical, but it never hurts to remind ourselves of the basics of crime fiction writing.

For the full text of the article, please see http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/31/how-to-write-the-perfect-crime-story-niall-leonard-writers-tips.

The Rainy Day Killer

I'm very pleased to announce that I've finished the first draft of the fourth novel in the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Fiction series, The Rainy Day Killer. I'm currently doing a re-write before I send it to my beta readers. Also, I'm trying something new this time. I'll be posting the electronic version of the Advance Review Copy (ARC) on NetGalley at the end of August to generate early reviews. This is my first experience with NetGalley, so I'm hoping it's a positive one.

The Rainy Day Killer focuses on Karen Stainer and her upcoming marriage to FBI Special Agent Sandy Alexander. A serial killer preys on women in Glendale while Karen plans her wedding in Virginia. Will she still go through with it after the killer vows to make her his next victim?

Hank Donaghue leads the investigation with the help of FBI profiler Ed Griffin, who made a brief appearance in Marcie's Murder. Of course, Karen also works the case with partner Jim Horvath, but she's distracted by the arrangements she needs to make for the wedding. Needless to say, she struggles to get into the "bride-to-be" mindset.

The novel is set in both Maryland and Virginia, the venues for the previous novels. Karen's fiancé Sandy is originally from the Covington, Virginia area, and his family has agreed to stage the wedding on their property in Alleghany County.

Fans of Karen Stainer will meet her family for the first time and get a better understanding of her upbringing and the forces that shaped her personality. If you thought Karen was a handful, wait until you meet the Stainer brothers.

If you'd like to read and review an electronic copy of The Rainy Day Killer, please send us an e-mail with "Rainy Day Killer" in the subject line and your return e-mail address, and we'll make sure you are on the list to have access to the ARC at the end of August.

How Sherlock Changed the World

For those who are fans of Sherlock Holmes and his crime-solving methods, you'll want to catch a new two-hour PBS special coming this fall. It's entitled How Sherlock Changed the World and has as its premise that Holmes was not only the most famous of all fictional detectives, but also had a lasting impact on real-world criminal investigations.

The program discusses real-life crimes solved by the equipment, forensic techniques, and methods of detection employed by the fictional detective.

How Sherlock Changed the World is scheduled to air on PBS on Tuesdays, November 19 and 26, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET.

By the way, if you are interested in my post on the importance of forensic research in crime fiction writing, please visit my Open Investigations blog at http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4380901-forensic-research-in-crime-fiction-writing

Why I Enjoy Writing Genre Fiction

I'm currently working on the fourth Donaghue and Stainer crime fiction novel, The Rainy Day Killer, so I thought it would be a good time to discuss why I enjoy writing and why I chose to write genre fiction.

When I was a kid, I was a book reader and a daydreamer. I devoured every juvenile novel the library had on their shelves back then, and I always wanted to be able to tell the same kind of stories myself. Science fiction, sports, historical fiction, you name it. I wrote literary fiction for a while in the 80s, mostly short stories, and sold a few to periodicals such as Fiddlehead and Quarry, but once I went back to work full time with Customs I had to set the writing aside until I was able to take early retirement. By that time, Donaghue and Stainer were ready to burst out onto the scene.

The crime fiction genre interests me because I’ve always been a sucker for a good story. The power of narrative over us as human beings is remarkable, and in genre fiction a strong story is very important. As a crime fiction author, I have an opportunity to use the power of narrative to grab my readers’ attention and move them forward through my story. Once I have them, crime fiction allows me the opportunity to work with certain themes more freely than other types of fiction might allow. Themes relating to our search for justice as a society, the need to explain the existence of evil in the world, and the toll that a career investigating violent crime can take on a person are among those that I've explored.

For those who are new to my blog, the Donaghue and Stainer series is set in the fictional city of Glendale, Maryland, and focuses on the homicide investigations of Lieutenant Hank Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer. They come from very different backgrounds, and their approaches to investigation and enforcement are at times very different. Donaghue tends to intellectualize, while Stainer is more of a butt-kicker. As the series progresses, they grow closer (as friends and co-workers, but with no romantic interest in one another), and the reader sees why law enforcement officers often bond together for mutual support and protection.

My latest novel presents a few challenges to me: for the first time, I'm writing about a serial killer and I'm doing a great deal of research to ensure that the portrayal is realistic. And because Karen will be marrying her fiancé Sandy in this novel, I've also had to research and plan a wedding!

I'll keep you posted on how it's going. . .

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?

Crossing Genres and Not Blurring Them

I mentioned in an earlier post that I love to read genre fiction, going all the way back to those heady days when I was a 12-year-old haunting the public library, lugging home armloads of science fiction, sports juveniles and westerns. Now that I'm a big boy and able to write my own stories, I find the same urge to explore my favorite genres, to try my hand at the tropes, conventions and distinct atmospheres of each.

The Ghost Man, my first novel, was an entry in the horror genre, a supernatural thriller, which I picked because my son was very interested in ghost stories at the time and encouraged me to try it out. I like horror and will go back again for another shot in the near future.

Blood Passage, on the other hand, was the result of a long-standing love of crime fiction. Science fiction will always be a sentimental favorite, but crime fiction is where my imagination has pitched its tent, built its campfire and settled in. I'm gonna fish this stream for a while.

I'd like to make it clear, though, that Blood Passage does not blur the division between crime fiction and supernatural fiction. Reading the descriptions of the book, you may think that Donaghue and Stainer are investigating a case of reincarnation. You may think you'll be forced to accept reincarnation as a part of the Donaghue and Stainer universe if you read the novel. That's not the case at all.

Blood Passage was inspired by the book Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives, by Dr. Jim B. Tucker of the University of Virginia Medical Center. Dr. Tucker's research, which extends the research of Dr. Ian Stevenson, is a completely scientific exploration of a very real phenomenon -- that there are many children out there who seem to recall memories of a previous life. Dr. Tucker goes to great lengths in his book to make it clear he's not shoving reincarnation down anyone's throat, but rather is exploring it as one of several possible explanations. I was inspired by the book, and I'm greatly impressed by Dr. Tucker and his work, but I have to say straight out:

I didn't believe in reincarnation before I read Life Before Life, and I don't believe in it now.

I'm an agnostic on this one. A fence sitter. It's one of those who-knows, anything's-possible kind of things. It tantalizes, it tweaks the imagination, and quite frankly, some of the evidence analyzed by Dr. Tucker is quite compelling. But Blood Passage was not written from a position of belief, and it shouldn't be read as an attempt to convince.

I think, personally, if I ever encountered one of these children and hovered at Dr. Tucker's elbow as he investigated their memories, I'd likely feel the same undertow sucking at my beliefs that Hank Donaghue and Karen Stainer feel in Blood Passage. I mean, you don't know. It's upsetting, because criminal investigation lives in a world of physical evidence, witness testimony, suspect confessions, things that a judge and jury can see and hear and feel and understand with minimal effort. But little kids remembering who killed them four years ago in their previous life? When someone like grad student Josh Duncan presents physical evidence and witness testimony that seems to corroborate these unlikely memories, it's upsetting.

It's that tension which works at the center of Blood Passage. Which gnaws at Karen and Hank when the case is finally closed. Which readers will also hopefully carry forward with them after reading the story.

But be clear on one thing: Blood Passage is crime fiction. The world of Donaghue and Stainer is the world of police procedure, homicide investigation, crime scene analysis, victimology, witness interview, suspect interrogation. A universe very similar to our own.

Crime Fiction

Welcome to my blog on crime fiction, writing, and other stuff. I’m also maintaining a blog on my website at http://www.mjmccann/apps/blog and I encourage you to skip over there to check things out. I’ve decided to open up shop here as well, however, because Blogger has outrageously good search engine indexing and better opportunities to interact with the bloggiverse. So, in the immortal words of Darkwing Duck, “let’s get dangerous!”

As I was preparing Blood Passage for publication I found myself wrestling with questions of taxonomy. How would I categorize a novel in which attention shifts between homicide investigators, a murderer who is a high-ranking organized crime official, and a little boy who claims he is the reincarnated spirit of the murder victim at the center of the investigation?

The most appropriate category available from Mother Amazon is Mystery & Thriller, and so Blood Passage has been duly listed there. While other novels in the series may be more accurately described as mysteries, Blood Passage isn’t so much, because while the killers of Martin Liu are eventually identified through the investigations of Donaghue and Stainer – as well as Peter Mah, the Triad Red Pole – the killings perpetrated by Peter are not at all mysterious in nature.

As a result, I took a little comfort in slotting Blood Passage into the Police Procedural subcategory of the Mystery & Thriller category, because it does in truth focus on the investigative procedures of Donaghue and Stainer in some detail. I spent a fair amount of time researching homicide investigation and tried to present a reasonably accurate picture of how police detectives work and live.

But when it came time to settle on the name of the series of which Blood Passage is the debut installment, I balked at calling it the Donaghue and Stainer Mystery series. Instead, after a little experimentation, I settled on “the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series.”

Wikipedia defines crime fiction as “the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred.”

While you could argue that this is a typically fuzzy Wikipedia effort, I like it because it touches on all the important elements in what I’m writing. Crime. Its detection. Criminals. Their motives. This works well for Blood Passage and will work well for the other novels to follow.

This distinguishes it from the kind of story in which the mystery and its solution take center stage, usually a story in which the detective follows clues and uses logic and sound reasoning (ratiocination) to identify the perpetrator, as in the Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie vein, or investigators sift through thousands of bits of physical evidence to solve the crime, as in the CSI-centered stories.

The more general definition of crime fiction allows me to position your point of view as reader anywhere in the story I wish. I can withhold the answers from you and make the mystery and its solution the primary focus of your attention, but in some instances I might prefer to position you closer to the characters than to the mystery. In the case of Blood Passage I prefer to have the characters dominate your attention as you move through the story. I want you to learn about Hank, Karen and Peter. And Smoke Archer. And Uncle Sang. And Anna Haynes Donaghue.

So, crime fiction it is.