Death Plays an Accordion - complete

It's up. The final chapters of the raw Death Plays an Accordion.

Enjoy.

No idea what will go up there next!

Chapters 16-18 now posted

Where Harlan gets to be a detective, and Friday gets to be a hero.

Liking this novel more and more, the deeper I get into it. I'm really looking forward to finishing this one up, letting it simmer for a few months, and then rewriting to get out to a publisher.

On writing, process, and music

I've been asked before if I have certain music in mind when I write my novels. Usually this is asked by people who know what a music whore I am. And yes, I create playlists to help set the mood. In the case of Death Plays an Accordion, I actually put together a soundtrack which I can port around from machine to machine, or play on the home stereo and control with a remote when I'm in the kitchen -- much like Harlan Puchalik does in the novel.

Much of the music was selected because of it's association with the location - Tucson, Arizona. But not all. Yes, Calexico, particuarlly their brilliant album Feast of Wire is heavily represented. Some songs were just chosen because it felt like they fit. Of particular note, the Emmylou Harris song, "Michelangelo" was unknown to me until hearing Jason Webley play it in concert on November 2nd. I tracked it down afterwords, and added it to the list. I feel it belongs. You be the judge.

Crumble -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
If Wishes Were Horses -- David Baerwald, off 13 Ways to Live
Whipping the Horse's Eyes -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Lament -- The Gourds, off gogitchyershinebox
Dub Latina -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Sunken Waltz -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Michelangelo -- Emmylou Harris, off Red Dirt Girl
The Book And The Canal -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
Stray -- Calexico, off The Black Light
Lion's Jaws -- Neko Case, off Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
No Doze -- Calexico, off Feast of Wire
El Picador -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Young Anymore -- David Baerwald, off Bedtime Stories
Fade -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Cannonball -- Benjamin Costello, off his website, benjamincostello.com
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood -- Neko Case, off Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Tres Avisos -- Calexico, off Hot Rail
Dance While the Sky Crashes Down -- Jason Webley, off Against the Night
Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile) -- Santana, off The Best of Carlos Santana

Gentlemn, start your typewriters!

Here we go!

My NaNoWriMo effort for 2008, Death Plays an Accordion, is now being posted in three chapter blocks.

Remember, this is all the raw chapters. Very little, pretty much none, went into the work you see there. This is a rare look into the first draft process.

I welcome comments, but I won't be going back and applying any edits you suggest until at least January. :)

This is projected to be a 25 chapter novel, and I'm thinking I might slip another chapter in as things get rolling. That makes for a total of 9 posts by the end of November.

Enjoy!
-Nate

As one adventure ends...

Yes, it took forever.

There were a few unavoidable delays with the epilogue that involved a dying computer, an editor on the move, and a change in momentum.

That said, the long awaited Epilogue for Chanson Noir is now live.

Starting Friday, November 7th, I will begin posting the raw chapters of "Death Plays an Accordion," the mystery novel I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month.

Let me repeat the important part. "...raw chapters..." What goes up on the site is a first draft, and will require a significant re-write and edit. But this gives my readers a look inside of the process, and allows my informal editors a chance to pass an eye over it and make suggestions.

Enjoy the mystery as it unfolds. "Death Plays an Accordion" will be a bit of departure for me -- a straight detective mystery, there will be no speculative fiction elements present.

Until next time!

Apologies for the delay

Chapter updates had taken a backseat to other projects for longer than I wanted. Chapters have been going up at a crazy pace this weekend, and the final epilogue should go up late tonight.

The entirety of the novel will remain posted until September 12th, at which point I'll pull down all but the first three preview chapters.

Chanson Noir will be put through a final brush-up edit while the cover is being finished. And then, on Friday, September 26th, I'll be taking it the Foolscap Convention in Redmond for pre-sell before the official release on September 30th.

And I'll post a preview of the cover here as soon as I have it in a few weeks.

Thanks for your patience.

Cobalt City - a visitor's guide

For those who wish a look into Cobalt City, I present a visitor’s guide. I apologize for the quality of the map. It is merely a reference copy that I’ve held onto for a while as I wrote the novels.

Lafayette Park - Think Central Park in a lot of ways. Real estate along the long north/south axis of the park are pricy. There is a memorial park/cemetery deep in the park, with graves dating back to the end of the Revolutionary War, its name honors the French who helped win the war.

Parkside, on the east edge, is expensive high rises. Think Park Avenue in New York.

Lafayette Park Boulevard on the west side has more exclusive condos and boutiques and a wide, tree-lined street.

Morrison is a bedroom community/neighborhood. Think of neighborhoods like Wallingford, Maple Leaf, or Magnolia (all in the Seattle area). Not hip, not happening, just kind of there. The exceptions are the sports venues located just off the highway just north of the dividing line between Morrison and Downtown. There are a Football and indoor arena which features Hockey and indoor soccer there.

Karlsburg, however, has old-school ethnic charm. It has a lot of characteristics of Ballard and even Levenworth (both from the Seattle area), to a degree. It's in the hills, so the streets are not generally straight, and tend to be a bit winding. The old buildings and rustic-ness becomes a bit more run down the further south you get. The bottom third is very low rent, and while not as bad as The Hollows, some people refer to that neighborhood as South Karl, Crack Hill, and now that Mister Grey has made it his personal business, Grey Hill.

The Hollows -- I think I might have listed it as the Hollow on the map...my bad. This used to be swamp and fen before it got filled in. It has missed the gentrification that has hit the rest of the city, and is run down buildings, liquor stores, gun shops, strip clubs, and seedy dives. The worst part of town, hands down.

Cannonade – This area used to be primarily military -- a place for to mount cannons to defend the harbor and the mouth of the river. The fortifications are still there, as are the many buildings built to support the military, though they've all been repurposed. A long walking park runs along the shore, above a heavily buttressed sea-wall. The neighborhood has elements of Freemont and SoHo funkieness, blended with Sand Point architectural elements in places (yes, another Seattle reference). This is the "Hip" neighborhood.

Quayside -- Working class, the majority of docks and freight hits here, making it a commercial and industrial hub. But it isn't without its nightlife. Gambling was legalized in Quayside in the fifties, and there are several casinos here, including the Forbidden Palace, run by a suspected gang leader (Donald Lo…he has had several run-ins with the Protectorate). This neighborhood has a mix of urban working class and urban nightlife. Very few people actually live here, commuting for work and play.

The Oriental -- Wild Kat's headquarters, and the place where Simon "Mr. Grey" Floyd was killed and interred for 70 years. Still a matter of historic significance.

Starcom -- The headquarters of Stardust's business, his home, and his not-so-secret lair.

The Keep -- A blocky, sturdy building surrounded by a walled garden, it is six floors high with deep roots, and is tapered slightly towards the top. The design is deep grey granite in appearance, with copper-tinted glass fronts.

UCC - The University of Cobalt City, it is a big campus, similar to New York University. It has a separate biotech campus up in Morrison.

Monday already?

For those of you eager for Chapter 7, it is going up today...first thing when I get home from the salt mines. It should be live by 6pm Pacific time at the very latest, still very much a Monday update, but not as early as I would like.

Chapter 7 finds our heroes back at the Keep. The more science-minded types (Stardust, Worm Queen, and Knockabout) are trying to investigate the Mirror of Shadows while occult-oriented Mister Grey and Doctor Shadow try to wring information out of the captive Louis Malenfant.

I won't give away secrets, but I will hint that those who have been wondering about the "iteration" designation with each chapter are about to see your curiosity rewarded.

Science - it's good for you!

A high-ranking member of the fan-girl nation and loyal reader has just sent me some extensive notes on insects and their care and study. She got a bee in her bonnet and dug up some specifics that, had I done my homework earlier, should have added first time through.

I love when my writing makes people want to learn stuff!

So I'll be doing a chapter revision this weekend, and posting here when the reworked chapter goes live. Ah, the advantage of serializing content...the chance to make fixes before an expensive print run. :)

Chapter 5 now up

When I started this novel, I didn't have a particularly strong affinity for Marcus, the Huntsman. I knew he had an arc here. Things needed to be set up for the second novel, Cobalt City Blues, so more than most other characters in Chanson Noir, I knew there was an agenda here.

And I've always been drawn to the archers.

Yet, the character didn't spark for me. Not until Chapter 5.

Then I started laying out a bit of history -- not just his, but that of the mantle of Huntsman. I started to realize that he was unique among my other characters, in that while Simon was old, and Doctor Shadow was older still, Huntsman had the weight of tradition. And it was being carried by such a young man.

By the time the chips get cashed in at the end of the novel, he had become one of my favorite characters. And maybe I'll find time to do something more with him on another project.

Perhaps he needs to meet up with Gato Loco and Snowflake somewhere out on the road.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, I leave you with the unfolding tales of The Protectorate.

Chanson Noir lives!

Just the other day, I started publishing the chapters of my newest novel, Chanson Noir, in installments. Three chapters a week, posted on (or just before, as the case has been so far), Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday. So far, three chapters are up. At the end of the experience (September, at this point), I'll be taking most of the chapters off-line and publishing it through Lulu.com, just like I have the other Cobalt tales. I have talented people working on the covers to unify the series even as we speak.

It's all terribly exciting.

I'm curious what the reaction of readers might be. I start off with a prologue featuring Louis Malenfant -- the most unsavory character in the narrative at his most pathetic. That was a risk, I knew, but that prologue was the seed for this story. In many ways, he is one of the axis which this novel spins upon.