Writing – Writing about someone else’s series character

As regular readers will know, I write genre thriller fiction – espionage, crime, horror, fantasy, and western. My first published western book Death at Bethesda Falls was published in 2007 and is now out of print. Five others followed for the same publisher. I also edited a couple of western anthologies. One of these, A Fistful of Legends, (2009) featured the tale ‘Cash Laramie and the Masked Devil’ by Edward A. Grainger. This was the first outing of the character Cash Laramie. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength in over a dozen books, all of them classed as noir westerns. In 2012, I was asked by Cash’s creator to write an adventure in the series; a number of talented authors had already done so.

I readily agreed and wrote Bullets for a Ballot, and greatly enjoyed the experience. It was the fifth in the series.

Since then I have written a second adventure, Coffin for Cash, which became the twelfth in the series.

At present, I’m writing a third adventure, whose title will follow the alliterative format already established…

Here is the blurb for Coffin for Cash:

Cash Laramie has been in plenty of tight spots, but this – being buried alive – may be his last! 

It all started innocently enough, as a favour for his boss, accompanying a rich woman in her search for her brother. The trail leads to The Bells, a strange hotel run by a brother and sister team, which just happens to be adjacent to the funeral parlour and cemetery...

His friend Miles is nearby, intent on escorting a suspected murderer to Cheyenne for trial. Yet Miles discovers that his charge might be not guilty, after all, and lingers to ask questions. And those inquiries mean upsetting some people, which leads to an ambush, and a final reckoning at the outlandish casino complex constructed by a wealthy bigoted German baron.

Throw into the mix the attractive Berenice, a schizophrenic bank manager, irate miners, Chinese workers, a boisterous slot machine salesman, and a devious lawyer and you have another explosive adventure for the Outlaw Marshal.

I’ll return to this book again, to outline the strong influences affecting its story and characters.

Coffin for Cash available as a paperback and an e-book from Amazon sites here

50 reviews can’t be bad

Happily, they aren’t, either (5-4 stars – 74% of 50; 3 stars – 16%; 2 stars – 10%!).

I thought I’d mark receiving the 50^th review on Amazon COM for Bullets for a Ballot with a brief post here, thanking every one of the fifty reviewers who took the time to offer their opinion on the book (published March 2012).

Extracts for this year’s reviews of Bullets for a Ballot are here:

‘This story interested me because of my interest in the old west. I wasn't disappointed as I found several references to actual 1800s facts… Overall it was a great read.’

‘NM has written a western with twists and turns that make some mysteries seem tame. He has lassoed a bucking bronc and the storyline leads you in different directions until the end. This, definitely, is an excellent read for the genre... ER.’

‘Love this series more please…’

And, in response to the latter, I can offer Coffin for Cash (published May 2016).

Bulletsfor a Ballot was #5 in the Cash Laramie & Gideon Miles series.

Coffinfor Cash is #12.

Other excellent authors have written books in the series also: see here

Coffin for Cash - saddle up

No, this isn’t a promotion for funeral insurance or savings, though judging by the costs these days, it makes sense to plan ahead for that inevitable day…

This is about the latest adventure of Cash Laramie, a character created by David Cranmer in his guise as Edward A. Grainger. He has been most generous with this character and Cash’s pal, Gideon Miles, commissioning other authors to write new adventures in their noir western universe.

I’m pleased to note that my contribution to this series – book #5 – all standalone stories – Bullets for a Ballot has picked up 49 reviews. Many thanks to all those readers who took time out to review the book – even that 10% who could only manage two stars. [If only I could get another review to mark the 50^th!]

Tomorrow sees the publication of the e-book Coffin for Cash. And the cover is definitely eye-catching!

Thanks again, David for inviting me to join an illustrious group of scribes.

Coffin for Cash

A noir western that plunges Cash into a premature burial and for Miles tugs at tell-tale heart strings.

Cash Laramie has been in plenty of tight spots, but this – being buried alive – has to be the worst! 

It all started innocently enough, as a favour for his boss, accompanying a rich woman in her search for her brother. The trail leads to The Bells, a strange hotel run by a brother and sister team, which just happens to be adjacent to the funeral parlour and cemetery...

His friend Miles is nearby, intent on escorting a suspected murderer to Cheyenne for trial. Yet Miles discovers that his charge might be innocent, after all, and lingers to ask questions. And those inquiries mean upsetting some people, which leads to an ambush, and a final reckoning at the outlandish casino complex constructed by a rich bigoted German baron.

Throw into the mix the attractive Berenice, a schizophrenic bank manager, irate miners, Chinese workers, a boisterous slot machine salesman, and a devious lawyer and you have another explosive adventure for the Outlaw Marshal. 

***

Tomorrow, I'll post an excerpt - nothing more than you'll find on Amazon, though...

Going for a ride!

Over in the US, it’s a special day for fans and readers of the western.  National Cowboy Day! 

One author who is promoting it is Jacquie Rogers – you can see her work here

Here are my western books that are still in print (I’m listing the UK Amazon site as the prices are better!):

The $300 Man

A review of The $300 Man: I recently read this author's book on how to write a western novel [see below]. It is great by the way and I refer to it frequently as I try to write western short stories. I was wondering if his novels were any good so I read this one. Well, it is really good and I enjoyed reading it. The characters are all interesting and compelling and the plot is great. I had to keep turning the pages which for me is the test of a good book, that it keeps my interest and this one did. I also learned some western history which was a bonus. I find that a lot of westerns have simple, worn out plots that you see over and over. But this novel had a new, complex plot that unwound slowly until the very end. I will be reading more of his western novels. –Thank you, D. Moring!

TheMagnificent Mendozas

 

 

Blind Justice atWedlock
 

 

Old Guns

This is an anthology I edited, A Fistful ofLegends
 

 

And this one is an e-book (10 reviews in Amazon UK and 45 reviews in Amazon COM),
 Bullets for a Ballot:

 

This is the best-selling Write a Western in 30Days – with plenty of bullet points referred to in the review above (8 reviews in Amazon UK, 14 in Amazon COM):

 

Part of a review: When I started Nik Morton's WRITE A WESTERN IN 30 DAYS, what struck me was that this wasn't just a book of guidelines and tid bits for someone attempting a western, this is a fantastic map to anyone who wants to dive into the world of genre fiction. What Morton lays out are some of the best, common-sense rules for writing that I've ever come across…

 PS - Two other westerns that are out of print are Death at Bethesda Falls and Last Chance Saloon, both under the penname Ross Morton.

Reviewing numbers - and thanks

The last couple of days I’ve been under the weather. Strange expression, that. Aren’t we always under the weather of one sort or another? Anyway, I’m taking an unwelcome break – as to a welcome break, which is a chain of motels, I think – jotting down a few ruminative thoughts on numbers.

Reviews are always welcome, as is feedback. No writer can always get it right, but we’d like to think we get it as close as we can – close to entertaining, making readers think, perhaps, evoking memories of a place, or simply being lost in a tale for a few hours. We don’t write for the money (though that’s a measure, and it’s nice), and we don’t write for glowing reviews (though they can be emotionally uplifting), and we certainly don’t write to become aunty sallys at the fairground (mistakes happen, but they shouldn’t mar the entire book, surely?).

I’ve been looking at the numbers of reviews for my currently available books and they make interesting reading.

Amazon UK

Write a Western in 30 Days - 7

Sudden Vengeance - 4

Blood of the Dragon Trees - 8

Spanish Eye - 3

The Prague Papers - 2

The Tehran Text - 0

Catalyst - 1

Bullets for a Ballot - 9

 

Wings of the Overlord - 5

 

Amazon COM (US)

Write a Western in 30 Days - 11

Sudden Vengeance - 2

Blood of the Dragon Trees - 6

Spanish Eye - 7

The Prague Papers - 1

The Tehran Text - 0

Catalyst - 0

Bullets for a Ballot - 45

Wings of the Overlord - 0

That’s a total of 111 reviews for 9 books. However, some reviewers are good enough to post their review on both the UK and the COM site; others may not have access for one reason or another. And some reviews are not duplicated on both sites, but are original to the one site. So that total is a little misleading. Still, it’s good to know that that all those readers have taken the time not only to read my books, but have also made the effort to review them.

So, the purpose of this post is to offer my thanks; I’m grateful for your consideration.

 

 

PS

I’m not counting the westerns, written under the pen name Ross Morton. Some of these have Amazon reviews, but in the main they’re read by library borrowers or reviewed on dedicated western sites:

 
Death at Bethesda Falls
Last Chance Saloon
The $300 Man
Blind Justice at Wedlock
Old Guns
The Magnificent Mendozas

And I’m not counting those that are Out of print

 
Amazon UK
Pain Wears No Mask - 9
Death is Another Life - 1
When the Flowers are in Bloom – 0
 
Amazon COM
Pain Wears No Mask - 4
Death is Another Life - 6
When the Flowers are in Bloom – 4
 

Words, words and more words

A moderately interesting exercise; this is a word-count of the books I’ve had published under the pen-names of Nik Morton, Ross Morton, Robert Morton and Robin Moreton.

Death at Bethesda Falls – 34,500

Pain Wears No Mask * - 96,000

Last Chance Saloon – 40,000

The Prague Manuscript * - 84,000

Blind Justice at Wedlock – 38,400

The Tehran Transmission * - 90,900

The $300 Man – 40.018

Assignment Kilimanjaro – 80,900

Bullets for a Ballot – 31,900

Old Guns – 37,250

Death is Another Life * - 81,200

Odd Shoes and Medals (biog) – 38,300

Write a Western in 30 Days (nonfic) – 49,700

When the Flowers are in Bloom (anthology) * - 39,900

Blood of the Dragon Trees – 79,800

Spanish Eye - 51,900

Sudden Vengeance – 58,500

The Magnificent Mendozas – 40,500

Wings of the Overlord (due September) – 106,600

Catalyst (due December) – 54,700

  

 [* = out-of-print]

 
Total word-count, 1 million, 174 thousand, 950 words – since 2007. That’s not a lot by the standards of many prolific authors. James Reasoner usually aims to write that many words per year!

They’re my published words in book format, of course. The actual word-count of books produced (including those discarded, and those not published [yet]) will doubtless add to another million.

A writer some years back commented that you really need to write a million words before you reach competency as an author. The search for the writer who said that is an intriguing one, and may have been Ray Bradbury or John D. McDonald; see this interesting article on the subject:

http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2014/03/one-million-words-to-competency-who-said-it-first.html

Naturally, in the above list I haven’t counted A Fistful of Legends (which I edited). One day, I’ll do a word-count of the published short stories, perhaps.

For interest, the three books that are works in progress (Catacomb, To Be King and The Khyber Chronicle), they clock up another 46,900 words!