"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.




Friday, September 25, 2009

What I've Been Doin' Lately

I just submitted a short story called "The Cove" to Lyman Feero for his forthcoming e-zine The Feral Pages. I don't know if my story will make the grade, but I'm interested to see the debut issue of this new cross-genre 'zine. "The Cove" is, of course, just the sort of heart-warming tale you've come to expect from me. Just messin'. Don't panic. It's another down-and-dirty Wesserunsett story.

Jed Ayres is posting a series of narratives about crime songs on the Hardboiled Wonderland blog. He's going to run them over the next few weeks. I wrote a piece about Robert Earl Keen's song "The Road Goes on Forever." When I told my wife about it, she said, "Big surprise there." So maybe I do play that tune a bit too often.

On the novel front, there's bad news and good. The bad news is that Bitter Water Blues hasn't found a publisher. The good news is that Bitter Water Blues hasn't found a publisher.

Huh?

That's right, I'm happy with rejection because it made me take a serious, critical look at the manuscript. Right now, I'm working on a complete rewrite, including the removal of one of the major characters and his entire storyline. Hey, I've told you people before that revision doesn't scare me.

I'm also working on turning some previously-trimmed sections of BWB into a short story. We'll see how that goes...

8 comments:

mybillcrider said...

That Keene song is a Gold Medal novel in miniature. Great song.

Greg Bardsley said...

It's amazing how much one can do with a novel revision. I've had similar experiences, Patrick. ... I think I learn the most during revision. ... Keep working it, and good luck.

jedidiah ayres said...

Watch for those music pieces. Turning up some interesting choices.

Kieran Shea said...

Remove a whole storyline? Man, that sounds like major surgery. Dang.

Chris said...

Good luck with the rewrites, Patrick. And damn, I've gotta finish that story for Lyman...

Unknown said...

Funny how after you let something sit for a while, look back over it, some things begin to stand out. Revision does make the story, goodluck.

Anonymous said...

Viva la fascista!

Patrick Shawn Bagley said...

Thanks to this pinhead, I'm no longer allowing anonymous comments.