"You know what? The bastard blows me out of the water. This guy writes Maine like Ardai writes New York. If you're not reading him, you don't know what you're missing." --Chris F. Holm, author of "The Collector" series, The Killing Kind, and Red Right Hand.

"A refreshingly new voice in noir." --Ed Kurtz, author of Nothing You Can Do and The Rib From Which I Remake the World.

"A glorious boilermaker of noir and East Coast gothic. The action is taut as a sprung snare and Bagley tightens the screws with every page." -- Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase and Blood Standard.




Sunday, October 12, 2008

Bitter Water Blues, the New Novel and Other Stuff

I've been too busy to blog lately, which is probably a good thing. So, to catch up...

I'm finishing up some revisions that my agent suggested for Bitter Water Blues. My wife and kids are in Disney World, so I have plenty of peace and quiet in which to work. Yesterday was tough. They left midmorning and I spent the rest of the day just sort of dubbin' around. Today I got more used to their absence and was able to focus on working. I told Renee she'd get the manuscript by the 20th, and it looks like I'll be able to live up to that.

I've also been working on novel number two, which--contrary to what I said a few months back--will not be a sequel to BWB. After five years of working on that book, I need a break from the characters.

The new novel is the first in a proposed series about ex-PI Gideon Cross. "Pandora," a short story introducing Giddy, will appear in an upcoming issue of Thrilling Detective. I won't say much about the novel right now, except that Giddy gets sucker-punched on the first page and things go downhill from there.

In non-Patrick news:

The latest issue of Mystery Scene has interviews with Tana French, Richard Stark and Marcus Sakey. There is also an interesting article by Art Taylor about crime novels from the civil rights era. And thanks to Kate Stine for yet another freebie issue. She's so cool.

Russel D. McLean interviews Tony Black and Reed Farrel Coleman talks about teaching a writers workshop in Crimespree #26.

I recently asked Chris F. Holm to write a paragraph or two about what went into his EQMM-published short story "The World Behind," which my crime-writing class is asigned to read next week. Chris went way above and beyond, sending me four pages of "the story behind the story." It's great stuff and it will be good for my students to learn about the writing process from someone other than me for a change. Some of them have been taking my classes for three semesters now, and I worry about repeating myself. Okay, this last bit was semi-Patrick news. Sue me.

6 comments:

Chris said...

That's the nicest spin I've ever heard for my long-windedness...

Scott D. Parker said...

I hear you when you say Novel #2 will not be with the same characters. I'm finishing up my second novel and I've been living with it for two years. The only thing I can think about come completion time is "Next!"

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

I have some ideas for a novel using some of the characters from BITTER WATER BLUES, but it wouldn't be a true sequel. More like what Scott Phillips did with THE ICE HARVEST and THE WALKAWAY.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Sounds like you're a mean machine up there.

Rich said...

Glad that Bitter Water Blues is well on its way. I've been following the saga since the days of Hillbillies and Hitmen (which was a great blog). Can't wait to read BWB.

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

Rich, you made my day. Thanks.