Dashiell Hammett

Today is the birthday of Samuel Dashiell Hammett, who was born in 1894 and died on Jan. 10, 1961.

Hammett is one of my favorite fiction authors. His hard-boiled detective novels are full of interesting, three-dimensional characters who are both cynical and romantic. My favorites are Nick and Nora Charles from THE THIN MAN. The novel was published in 1934 and there were six movies based on Nick and Nora, starting with "The Thin Man", also in 1934.

He only wrote five novels -- all in five years with THE THIN MAN being the last -- but also wrote a host of short stories. The other novel for which he is well known today is THE MALTESE FALCON, which was his third novel and which introduced the detective character Sam Spade. However, his first novel, RED HARVEST, published in 1929, was listed by Time magazine several years ago as one of the top 100, English-language novels in the 20th Century.

In many ways, Hammett's character Sam Spade inspired David Blaise, the protagonist in my 2009 novel, AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. I read THE MALTESE FALCON for the umpteenth time in 2008 and while the timing and settings of Hammett's novel and my novel are different, as I wrote I often thought of what Spade's office would look like and of the characters on the street he would meet.

Blaise is a struggling detective and a bit of a loner. Solitude is probably his greatest vice.

Blaise is not hard-drinking and heavy smoking like what you find in Hammett's work -- or in his life. But I think those vices are more a product of Hammett's time. Given the traits of his characters, it is hard believe they would have as strong a cultural impact or have the lasting appeal if they were written that way today.

Hammett was a veteran of two world wars. And though jailed in the 1950s for failing to name names during the Red Scare, he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery is large and I generally just go to the Kennedy gravesite because it is the easiest to find. But this summer when we are vacationing in the area, I plan to visit Hammett's grave.

Thanks for reading and, like me, keep writing.

Writing . . . and quitting

Just last week, I was talking to a friend from high school who is a lawyer by training. Several years ago, he tried his hand at writing fiction. In fact, he tells me he wrote eight -- yes, I said eight -- novels. He even joined Mystery Writers of America after getting a short story published.

He said he tried unsuccessfully for a while to get an agent but then just quit.

And I asked myself, how in the world could you just quit?

Writing is hard. Getting published is even harder. Neither is for the faint-hearted. But why quit, not just trying to get published but writing as well?

I can imagine a time when I might stop trying to get published, whether I ever publish a book or not. But I can't imagine not writing. I daydream all the time and, to me at least, writing is just an extension of daydreaming. A short story or a novel is a daydream written down.

I encouraged my friend to take up the pen again, and even to come sit in on my Wednesday critique group. Perhaps it will inspire him to write. (Then again, the frank honesty of my group may turn him off from writing forever.)

It just seems to me that if you have written eight novels, you had something to say. I can't see how you could give that up.

Thanks for reading and get back to work.

Nathan Bransford, Author: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: Which ...

I like this. Author Nathan Bransford really breaks down the financial question as whether to self-publish or go the traditional route.

Very informative.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.


Nathan Bransford, Author: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: Which ...: "It's author monetization week! Monday through Thursday this week I'm going to have a series of posts on a crucial topic for the modern write..."

Trying to set a new personal best

Yesterday, I embarked on a quest to set a new personal best. Personal best, you say! Of what?

Rejections.

I sent out a batch of query letters yesterday for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR and will now see if I can top my personal best set on Sept. 13, of last year when I got four (4, IV) rejections on the same day. That topped the previous best of three set one week earlier.

While this is probably a worthy goal, I, sadly, will probably not top it anytime soon because my querying strategy has changed since last fall. I am sending out fewer queries at a time and if all the responses are negative, then I re-write the query in hopes of drawing more interest.

I send four queries yesterday throughout the day as time permitted, and will ship off three today. And that is it. Seven. Then, I will wait to see what happens. If nothing good happens, then I know that letter doesn't work and I will to try again with another letter. And then I will ship off another batch of seven.

For this letter, I used my novel's background as outlined in my Publishers Weekly review. It was good and generally well-written. I adapted parts, of course, but the overall structure was the same. Now I will see if that helps. Plus I made a brief mention of being a quarterfinalist in this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Time to see if that horse has any legs.

Well, that's it for today. I have a couple of other topics I want to discuss next week. But for now, have a great day and keep writing.

Thanks for reading.

Solid, but not particularly noteworthy

I know I have started this and should finish but today has been particularly busy and I will have to come back to this tomorrow. But for just a moment, I did want to return today to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and, more specifically, my Publishers Week review.

It was a mixed bag but in the end concluded with, "Solid, but not particularly noteworthy."

What am I to make of that?

Yes, I know it is only one person's opinion and they implied that the writing was good, which was nice to know. But the 'note particularly noteworthy' line puzzles me.

In the next couple of days I am going to try to figure that out, and then polish my novel yet again. I don't know what else to do.

When I have time, I will post all my reviews for you, dear reader, to consider. Until then, thanks again for supporting me, thanks for reading and sally forth.

ABNA -- I'm out

I haven't blogged but once since I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest this year, and I made it a point not to post about the contest. I didn't want to become consumed with ABNA or have people asking me how it was going.

I first entered in 2009 with DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, though I went with a name that was more PC. I was eliminated in the first round. I just missed entering AN UNTIDY AFFAIR in the contest in 2010, missing the cutoff deadline by mere minutes.

This year I entered Affair under the title A NASTY AFFAIR by M. Stewart Dunn.

To enter the contest, you submit a 300-word pitch, which is judged in the first round, a 5,000-word excerpt from the beginning of the novel, which is judged in the second round, and the entire manuscript, which is used to determine the semi-finalists, finalists and the two eventual winners.

Since I didn't do well in 2009 and I spent hardly any time writing the pitch this year, I was surprised (and pleased) to make it through the first round. Plus, I got two wonderful Amazon Vine reviews of the excerpt -- with one reviewer saying, "The author's talent is there in spades" -- as I advanced to the quarter-finalist round. (Wasn't sure how I felt about the 'spades' comment but decided to take it on face value.) And I got five customer reviews. Four of the five were very positive.

I felt quite hopeful of being named a semi-finalist but, alas, it is not to be. Ths list of semi-finalists was announced less than an hour ago and my name isn't on it.

I was well-aware of the possibility, of course. The competition was very strong this year. But I had confidence in my writing, and in the story. Where I lacked confidence, however, was in my self-editing.

I read through the novel line by line before I entered the contest but, since the submission period was already open, I didn't think I had time to have someone else proof it for me before I entered. Afterwards, I was surprised and embarrassed at the spelling and other errors in the ms. But there was nothing I could do about it but hope. In the end, I'm sure the errors hurt my chances of advancing, perhaps fatally hurting them.

I feel about as bad as I thought I'd feel but life goes on. I plan to go over the manuscript completely again and have someone else do a final read. Then I plan to let the query letters fly again and see where it all leads.

And I am on the third draft of the novel I wrote last November during National Novel Writing Month. It is stronger that Affair and I plan to enter it in next year's ABNA competition.

So that's it for me at the moment. Sad but resolute.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Sorry I have been away

I am sorry, dear readers in Russia, China and Brazil (I get people from all over), that I have been away. It's been a busy time for me and I just haven't had a lot to say. Plus, once I got out of the habit of posting, even on a semi-regular basis, it was easy to allow work and everyday life to intrude further into this part of my writing life.

So, I am back again.

Probably won't have much more to say this week, but next week I will probably have a lot of my mind and will fill you in on things then.

Until then, have a good week. Thanks for reading and keep writing.