tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83092035013000734282024-03-13T06:15:15.549-07:00Howard Owen BooksHoward Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-57470295965429631672021-08-11T12:28:00.004-07:002021-08-11T12:28:50.048-07:00E.F.
My father, Eucebus Filando Owen Jr., was born 100 years ago, on Aug. 6, 1921, at his parents’ home in White Oak, in North Carolina’s Bladen County, the ninth of 10 children. <div>He has been gone for more than 37 years, but he will not be forgotten by those who knew him. He was a poster child for the Greatest Generation.
He never finished high school, but he was an accomplished man. The things he could do greatly outnumber anything on my résumé. </div><div> He could go fishing (cane-pole or surf-casting), clean the fish and cook them up for breakfast the next day.
He and his beagles loved hunting. He could shoot a rabbit or squirrel, skin it and cook that, too.
He could wade hip-deep in a swamp and come back with a bucket full of huckleberries.
He played the guitar on the porch at night. He was partial to “Will There Be Any Stars?” “Ain’t We Crazy?” and “Jambalaya.”
He tended a two-acre “garden.” He plowed those acres with a mule. He grew corn, tomatoes, squash, okra, bell peppers, peas, butterbeans, watermelons, cantaloupes, peanuts, cabbage, collards and other things I have forgotten. Some of it was eaten, some of it was canned and a lot of it was given away to friends and family.</div><div> He did this in his “spare” time, by the way, before and after working 40 hours a week as a bookkeeper. </div><div>Whatever broke at our home, he usually could fix, from the roof to the hot-water heater to the lawn mower.
He cooked our breakfast every weekday morning (bacon, scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast, with pancakes on Saturdays). He also made a mean liver and onions.
He served his community. He was a deacon and then an elder at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church. He sang in the choir. He pitched for the church softball team until he was in his early 40s. He was the church treasurer and also the treasurer for the local volunteer fire department. </div><div>Despite a devastating injury that more or less ended his high school days and left him with a permanent limp when he ran, he served his country. In the war, he was with the first U.S. troops to reach the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. I have the photos he brought back. When he returned, he never wanted to travel again.
The Depression and World War II consumed much of his life through 1945. He knew hunger on a first-name basis. He said the Army was the first place where he was assured of three meals every day. </div><div>He was a man’s man, but a kind and gentle one. He did not administer corporal punishment. He loved a good joke and little kids. I would give anything to hear him laugh again.
He would have been happy if his children had stayed in Vander for the rest of our lives, but he was happy to see us happy. He was always there for my mother, my sister and me, for his seven brothers and sisters, for his parents, my mother’s parents next door and anyone else who needed his help. </div><div>E.F. Owen never made much money, but he gave me more than I could ever repay.
Today, and every day, I remember and try to honor him.
</div>Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-24999013661839254982021-02-11T12:39:00.002-08:002021-08-11T12:29:45.478-07:00Jordan's BranchDear readers: The 10th Willie Black mystery, Jordan's Branch, is out, available in bookstores and on Kindle. Here's how it begins:<div> CHAPTER ONE
Monday, Sept. 2
Stick is deader than a doornail. Not much doubt about that. From all appearances, he’s been that way for a couple of days at least.
Other than the fact that I am the local daily’s night cops reporter, what has me somewhat interested in his demise is the fact that he owes me money ¬¬–– fifty thousand dollars, to be exact. Well, that’s not quite right. He did give me 5K up front.
Still, it’s a loss. And I guess somebody somewhere will miss Stick, too.
I knew something was wrong when I rang the doorbell and then, getting no answer, tried the door, which opened. I almost called the cops at that point, but fools rush in.
It was personal, from what I can see. The shot to the chest and one to the head should have done the trick. The other five or six just seem like piling on. Not much chance of salvaging that faux-Persian carpet.
The first wave of cops just arrived, wailing up Patterson Avenue and turning on to Glenburnie and then to Stokes Lane like there was something here more urgent than the corpse of which I informed them via 911 maybe 10 minutes ago.
The first ones in the door have their weapons drawn. I am very careful not to reach for a Camel, scratch my balls or do anything else that involves lowering my arms below parallel. Still, they put me on the ground. They don’t cuff me, but they are deaf to my attempts to explain that I’m only the bearer of bad news, not the creator of it.
“Do you think I would have called you to tell you I just killed somebody and then wait here for you?” I ask.
“Shut the fuck up,” a white, bullet-headed bouncer-cop advises.
It’s about half an hour before the chief, Larry Doby Jones himself, arrives, no doubt mildly irritated at being dragged from a Labor Day picnic to a homicide scene.
“Here’s trouble,” he says, apparently referring to me instead of the other body on Stick Davis’ living-room floor, the one that isn’t moving.
The chief sighs.
After he walks around the crime scene for a minute or two, he reluctantly tells his boys to let me up.
“What are you doing here?” he asks. It seems like a fair question. L.D. seems to take offense at the way I always appear to “poke my nosy ass” into what he considers to be police business but which, from where I live, is part of the job of a diligent quasi-professional journalist.
He doesn’t like it much when I’m at the homicide scene not long after his minions have descended on it. Being the one to actually find the body seems, to the chief, to be stepping over the line.
I explain my relationship with Stick Davis.
“He wanted you to write his life story?”
“Something like that. Do you mind if I smoke?”
L.D. shrugs.
“I don’t suppose Mr. Davis is going to mind too much.”
I tell the chief and his detective what I know. I was supposed to meet Stick at the Continental yesterday morning, where we were going to go over the draft of the latest chapter of his would-be autobiography and see if he wanted any changes.
When he didn’t show up, I wasn’t overly concerned. Stick Davis has a long history of not showing up when he’s supposed to.
But then he didn’t answer my calls yesterday afternoon and evening. So, this morning, I drove out here to Westwood to see what the story was.
“And you found him like this?”
I promise L.D. that I haven’t touched Stick’s body or anything around it.
We’re about two blocks inside the city line, in a neighborhood most folks don’t know much about. There are a couple of other Westwoods around Richmond, but this one has some resonance to me.
The late Philomena Slade once schooled me on it, expressing shock that I didn’t know more about the struggles of “my people.” Since I’m an Anglo-African American, Westwood is kind of the story of half my people crapping on the other half.
It was started by freed slaves after the Civil War. There used to be a creek running through it, Jordan’s Branch, but it’s now buried under the Willow Lawn Drive median. The place was annexed during World War II. It took the city several years after that to get around to providing water and sewer service, and civic-minded individuals in adjoining white communities did their level best to have it razed for a park nobody wanted or needed.
Even the editorial pages of my paper, famous for afflicting the afflicted, fulminated against that idea.
And so Westwood survives, although in a diminished state. The old church that was its centerpiece is still there, but businesses and a post office have chewed away at it.
It is, by Richmond standards, a peaceful little pocket these days, as much white as black. I seldom have had to visit it to report on a dirt nap.
So, Stick’s violent demise is not just a loss to him but also a stain on a part of Richmond that usually encounters such activity by seeing it breathlessly reported to them on the evening news. A few of our residents still read my version of the carnage in the next day’s newspaper.
“You’re not going anywhere, are you, Willie?” the detective asks. I am offended that this pup, about half my age, is using my first name.
“What’s it to you?” I inquire.
The chief steps in.
“We got a very dead man here. You seem to have been the last one to see him alive. From what you say, he owed you some money. Do the math, Willie.”
I have known L.D. since we were teenagers, playing ball against each other. The fact that he would consider me a suspect in what is obviously a homicide kind of stuns me.
“L.D., …” I begin.
“You might want to get a lawyer,” my old acquaintance says before he and his smirking detective turn and walk out.
“Don’t go anywhere,” the pup says. I give him the finger. He seems to want to continue the discussion, but the chief grabs him by the elbow and escorts him into the next room.
I am in the odd but not unprecedented position of reporting on myself. How do I write, under my byline, that “Willie Black, a local reporter, found the body”?
There seems to be one, rather unpalatable solution.
I go to the contacts page on my iPhone.
“Hello, Leighton,” I say when she answers. “I think I have a story for you.”
***
Leighton Byrd, one of the two young reporters our penurious chain has let us hire in the past year and a half to make up for six it laid off, is here in 20 minutes. She is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, “Drink Up Bitches.” It comes halfway down to her knees.
“Pool party,” she explains.
I apologize for spoiling her holiday fun.
“Are you shittin’ me?” she replies. “When you told me what happened, I damn near forgot the T-shirt.”
That would have been a pity, I observe. Leighton, who is six years younger than my daughter, does justice to the shirt and no doubt the swimwear underneath it.
I don’t intend to permanently cede my byline on this story, even if it was me who found the body. It would be wise, though, to let Leighton break the story.
“So this guy, you were writing his autobiography, and somebody killed him before you could finish?”
She asks me what he was paying. When I tell her, she whistles.
“Wow, he was going to pay you more than I’ll make all year, working my ass off 50 hours a week.”
“Welcome to print journalism,” I tell her, looking about for an ashtray.
The cops are still hanging around, waiting for the medical examiner. Leighton manages to get a few words from the chief, who seems to give preferential treatment to attractive young women in pool-party attire. He does me the kindness of not mentioning to her that I seem to be his prime suspect.
Then she interviews me, one of the weirder experiences I’ve had in my ink-stained life. I realize how the interviewee feels, certain that my words will be mangled or misinterpreted.
“Hey, my eyes are up here,” she says when I glance down at her notepad. Then she laughs. “Don’t worry, Willie. I took shorthand in high school. I won’t misquote you.”
We leave just as the TV trucks start rolling up the tight little street. This will give some otherwise quiet holiday newscasts a caffeine jolt. I get the hell out of there before the kids who got stuck with weekend duty at the local stations start shoving cameras in my face.
I can handle being a nominal homicide suspect and having to forfeit a hell of a breaking story, but being scooped by the good-hair people would be too much to bear.
“Be sure to post it, now,” I tell Leighton when I walk around to her car.
She has the laptop between her lovely knees.
“Already on it,” she assures me.
***
I’m home by 1:30, in time to take Cindy to a swim party of our own, at the Philadelphia Quarry. The text message I sent her was short on details. She wants to know more than “Stick dead. Waiting for cops.”
I tell her the story. She knows I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time the past few months working on Stick Davis’ life story. The promise of a big payday salved the pain of not getting to spend more quality time with me.
“So he was just lying there, dead on the floor?”
I explain that he was indeed deceased, and had been for some time.
“Did he bleed a lot?”
“What?”
My right ear’s not been the same since part of it was shot off last year when I got a little too close to a story.
“Bleed. Did he bleed a lot?”
“Fuck, I guess so. I mean, that carpet’s never going to be the same.”
“That’s a shame,” my beloved says. “About the carpet, I mean.”
</div>Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-85565843509707559932020-12-01T13:39:00.000-08:002020-12-01T13:39:52.637-08:00Willie Black goes to ItalyThe first Willie Black mystery, O<i>regon Hill,</i> winner of the Dashiell Hammett Prize in 2012, was launched in Italy in November (NN Editore). The second one, Th<i>e Philadelphia Quarry</i>, will come out it Italian next year. In the meantime, Willie Black No. 10, J<i>ordan's Branch</i>, launches in the U.S. (Permanent Press) in February or early March. And, I've done the first draft on the one after that, which I'm excited about. It is set in Richmond in 2020, with Black Lives Matter, toppled monuments and the pandemic as the backdrop. In the midst of a pandemic, what are you going to do except write, right?Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-64100652435941479542020-09-06T13:43:00.000-07:002020-09-06T13:43:21.175-07:00The next Willie Black mystery, Belle Isle, comes out this month. It was supposed to launch in May, but the publisher wanted to wait until the pandemic had passed. Well, that didn't happen, but Belle Isle is out anyhow. Promoting a book these days is a little different. I'm doing a couple of virtual book talks and one live one, socially distanced. And, it's on Kindle and as an audio book and on Audible, and somebody's doing the Willie Black books in Italian. The next one, Jordan's Branch, will come out in 2021, which has got to be a better year than this.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-17613894659114488932019-07-02T14:19:00.002-07:002019-07-02T14:19:56.575-07:00<h2>
The AP likes Willie</h2>
<div>
The Associated Press review of Evergreen, the eighth novel in the Willie Black series and my 18th novel overall, came out yesterday, and it was very pleasing. With any series, there is the fear that the latest installment will be met with something less than enthusiasm. It is my hope that each of the Willie Black mysteries will be a good read on its own, even if the reader has no previous knowledge of Willie. There is the fear that reviewers will not pay it much attention, being, in this case, the eighth book with the same protagonist.</div>
<div>
That is why Bruce DeSilva's review for the Associated Press (which has a pretty big audience) is so encouraging. Bruce is a great mystery writer, much respected in the journalism and mystery writing communities.</div>
<div>
Here it is:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
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<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By BRUCE DESILVA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; line-height: 13.8pt;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Associated Press<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
cover image released by Permanent Press shows "Evergreen," a release
by Howard Owen. (Permanent Press via AP)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Evergreen,” by Howard
Owen (Permanent Press)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When Willie Black was 15
months old, his father, Artie Lee, was killed in an apparent automobile
accident. That’s all Willie — police reporter for a Richmond, Virgina,
newspaper — knows about his dad. He’s never been curious about the man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That changes when
Willie’s aunt on his father’s side summons him to her deathbed. She’s been
tending Artie’s grave in Evergreen, an abandoned cemetery, and now it’s up to
Willie to inherit the chore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Readers of Howard Owen’s
underappreciated Willie Black novels already know that Willie’s father was
black, that his mother was white, and that they weren’t allowed to marry in
1960s Virginia. But in “Evergreen,” the eighth book in the series, they’ll grow
as curious as Willie about what really put Artie in his grave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finding out is no easy
task.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Willie’s mother won’t say
and urges Willie to drop it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Artie’s old pals
reminisce about his saxophone playing but clam up about his death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The police chief says
there were rumors that the car crash was no accident but has no details.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Old newspaper files are
no help. The death of a black man didn’t merit a news story in 1961 Virginia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Patiently, Willie
squeezes a few minor details from townsfolk old enough to remember Artie. Each
time he gets a scrap of information, he circles back, telling the witnesses
what he knows and teasing out a bit more. He does this so skillfully that it is
a pleasure to watch him work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Eventually, he learns
that Artie’s death was connected to a Ku Klux Klan rally, a car bombing and a
series of betrayals by friends and relatives who were threatened by racist
police officers unless they talked. The result is a conclusion that is both
wrenching and satisfying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Readers seeking the
thrills of most popular crime fiction won’t find it here. Instead, they will
find <i>a </i><b>textured, emotionally charged tale about coming to terms with growing up
biracial in America told in the precise language of a writer who honed his
craft during 44 years in the newspaper business.</b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>___</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: whitesmoke; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<a href="http://www.brucedesilva.com/"><span style="color: #104ba5; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Bruce DeSilva</span></a><span style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> , winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award,
is the author of the Mulligan crime novels including “The Dread Line.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-86191119478570155622019-04-17T13:36:00.000-07:002019-04-17T13:40:36.820-07:00More Willie Black<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hFugkBq2r3I/XLePAbljH-I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/jBDPFWqb2ygjI7Re2mepzVa0TlKaLwLxACLcBGAs/s1600/evergreen-cv-v3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1303" data-original-width="844" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hFugkBq2r3I/XLePAbljH-I/AAAAAAAAAEQ/jBDPFWqb2ygjI7Re2mepzVa0TlKaLwLxACLcBGAs/s320/evergreen-cv-v3.jpg" width="207" /></a>My eighth Willie Black mystery, and 18th novel overall, "Evergreen," comes out in late July. In this one, Willie is asked to take over the maintenance of his late father's grave, in an abandoned cemetery on Richmond's East End. Willie didn't even know where his father was buried, but when he starts digging, so to speak, he finds out that there was a lot more he didn't know about Artie Lee.<br />
<br />
I've been doing the Willie Black series for about a decade now. A ninth installment is coming; I'm finishing up the first draft. I find that there is no dearth of settings around Richmond for Willie's adventures and misadventures and hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them. I'm sure that I will occasionally step back and write something non-Willie, like the well-received "Annie's Bones." However, I can't stay away from Willie and his large population of friends, family, enemies and frenemies for very long. It occurred to me early on, as I was writing the short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," that gave birth to Willie Black, that a hard-ridden night cops reporter in the waning days of print newspapers was a gold mine for anyone trying to write noir.<br />
<br />
Evergreen Cemetery is on the far east end of Richmond. It is an African-American cemetery that was abandoned after it was built out and is now a ghost land of tombstones overtaken by kudzu and greenbriers, overshadowed by full-grown trees and only recently the focus of a major reclamation project. All in all, not a bad place to set a mystery.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-58854195042307881882018-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:002018-03-18T11:26:07.788-07:00Review of Annie's Bones<br />
<br />
My latest novel, <i>Annie's Bones</i>, just got a very good review from PW. Willie Black has only a cameo in this one. Willie will be back in <i>Scuffletown, </i>which is set to come out in January of 2019.<br />
Here's the review:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fH_wzuv3nFo/Wq6ug6JWI7I/AAAAAAAAACo/Z3hnOxENp-UiX8yXG299SvGxbWq_VTxRQCLcBGAs/s1600/annies-bones-150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="497" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fH_wzuv3nFo/Wq6ug6JWI7I/AAAAAAAAACo/Z3hnOxENp-UiX8yXG299SvGxbWq_VTxRQCLcBGAs/s640/annies-bones-150.jpg" width="412" /></a></div>
<br />
Publishers Weekly March 16, 2018<br />
Annie’s Bones by Howard Owen. Permanent, $29.95 (264p) ISBN 978-1- 57962-522- 1<br />
<br />
In 1968, Grayson Melvin, the protagonist of this moving, well-crafted standalone from Owen<br />
(The Reckoning), meets the love of his life, Annie Lineberger, when they’re both college<br />
students in North Carolina. When Annie breaks up with him, he tells her to get out of his car. She<br />
scrambles out and is never seen again. Grayson is the primary suspect in her disappearance, but<br />
without any evidence he moves on—always followed by a cloud. In 2016, Annie’s bones are<br />
found in Portman, Va., and Grayson’s nightmare begins again. He gets support from only a few<br />
people, including Richmond, Va., reporter Willie Black (the lead of Owen’s The Devil’s<br />
Triangle and five other mysteries). Arrayed against him are public opinion, seemingly every<br />
lawman in the area, and Annie’s unforgiving brother, Hayden. The discovery of Grayson’s high<br />
school senior class ring, which he last saw when he refused to take it back from Annie at the time<br />
she left him, puts Grayson on a tortuous path that eventually leads to answers that may or may<br />
not explain what happened. This tale of loss and redemption will resonate with many readers.<br />
(Apr.)Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-83947421991317087622017-11-09T09:26:00.001-08:002017-11-09T09:26:33.903-08:00More Willie on the wayMy next novel, <i>Annie's Bones</i>, only employs Willie Black as a walk-on character. The protagonist is a man, an acquaintance of Willie's, who has lived under a cloud for almost half a century, suspected of murdering his girlfriend the night she dumped him in 1968. Now, with Annie's bones dug up by a backhoe operator in a small town on the Virginia-North Carolina border, Gray Melvin must deal with the past at last, taking a trip down a memory lane he'd just as soon have bypassed.<br />
The next Willie Black mystery, <i>Scuffletown</i>, should come out sometime in the next year or so. Like the other Willie books, it takes its title from a real Richmond setting, in this case Scuffletown Park in the Fan. It's all fiction after that, of course, but I guarantee you it will entertain you, whether you know where the Strawberry Street Cafe is or not.<br />
The series keeps getting praise and picking up readers. <i>Grace</i> was a finalist for Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion award. <i>The Devil's Triangle</i> got a starred review from Publishers Weekly.<br />
I'm working on something else Willie-ish. Probably will start writing, as is often the case, on New Year's Day.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-10355046823486727312017-08-12T12:50:00.002-07:002017-08-12T12:51:41.680-07:0020, 40, 60 …<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">Here's something I submitted for the Permanent Press blog run by Martin Shepard. A few insights into turning into a mystery writer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">My professional/public life has tended to run in 20-year cycles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">In my early 20s, I became a sports writer because the idea of getting paid to go to ballgames and write about them seemed to me to be a pleasant way to spend my adult life. Maybe I wouldn’t change the world, but, like a diligent physician, I would do no harm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">Then, just before I turned 40, I started my first novel, because I had managed to get promoted away from using the main talent I thought I brought to journalism: writing. I needed to write. That first novel, <i>Littlejohn</i>, was bought by The Permanent Press after a dozen large publishers had turned it down. Martin and Judith Shepard’s judgment was rewarded when the book got great reviews and word-of-mouth support from independent booksellers, and Random House purchased it from them/me and republished it the next year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">That made writing novels in my free time (I was still working as a newspaper editor) easier, because I was fairly confident someone would publish my work. Over the next 20 years, I wrote nine literary novels, some for The Permanent Press, some for Harper Collins and Random House.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">Then about the time I turned 60, still working as a newspaper editor, another fork in the road appeared, and, like Yogi Berra advised, I took it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">A friend, Tom De Haven, an outstanding novelist who teaches creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, asked me to write a detective noir short story for a collection that would become <i>Richmond Noir, </i>one of a series of noir collections published by Akashic Books.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">I had never written a mystery anything. I didn’t even read that many mysteries, but I’m always game to write something that people might read, so I gave it a try. That short story, “The Thirteenth Floor,” was the birth of Willie Black, a night police reporter for the Richmond daily newspaper who drinks too much, smokes too much and marries too much, a man with a good heart and bad habits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">I knew right away that Willie’s first-person voice was something I could use in a novel or two. Even before Richmond Noir came out, I was working on the first Willie Black mystery. That first one, <i>Oregon Hill</i>, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for best crime literature in the U.S. and Canada. The fifth one, <i>Grace</i>, is a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best Fiction Adult Mystery. The sixth one, <i>The Devil’s Triangle</i>, with a starred Publishers Weekly review, came out in July. I’m polishing the seventh one now. The first six have all been published by The Permanent Press as will, I’m hoping, the seventh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">What have I learned? Basically, writing is writing. I found that the things that carried me in literary fiction—a good plot, intriguing characters, quality writing—worked just as well in mysteries. And when I needed professional advice (What kind of gun should the bad guy use? What’s it like at an execution? What’s the procedure between the arrest and the trial?), there was always an expert, either in person or online, who could tell me what I needed to know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">The important thing is simply to have a good story and write it well. Genre doesn’t matter. The bonus, with mysteries, is that you have a protagonist and a setting already. If you have a likeable, compelling protagonist, you can use him or her over and over. And the setting doesn’t usually change. All you need is another story, and the world is full of stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">With literary fiction, I had to invent a new world every time out. With the mysteries, I always have Willie (he’s 10 years younger than me, so I can ride him for years to come), and I always have Richmond, a city with a history, with a wealth of nooks and crannies that you don’t find in most cities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">The down side, if there is one, is that the characters have to stay real and fresh. Willie can’t be fully redeemed, although he tries to be good. There’s not much of a market for Detective Blanc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">So, I’m seven novels into that third phase right now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16pt;">Twenty. Forty. Sixty. Can’t wait to see what 80 brings.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-43611085143215454102017-06-07T09:54:00.003-07:002017-06-07T09:54:58.345-07:00Devil's Triangle comes out this monthThe pre-pub reviews for <i>The Devil's Triangle, </i>which will come out this month,<i> </i>have all been in the good-to-excellent range. The starred review in Publishers Weekly was especially gratifying. I'm doing a couple of events in Richmond so far, one at Chop Suey on July 12, 6 p.m. and one at Fountain Books on Aug. 3 at 6:30. I'm also going to be at the Killer Nashville mystery writers event in Nashville Aug. 25-27.<br />
Meanwhile, I'm about two-thirds of the way through the first draft of the next Willie Black mystery, and <i>Annie's Bones</i>, a completed novel that only peripherally involves Willie, will come out in 2018.<br />
<br />Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-43248268638923295912017-04-17T13:18:00.002-07:002017-04-17T13:18:39.308-07:00<h2>
A starred review in PW!</h2>
<div>
The sixth Willie Black mystery got a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which makes me very happy.</div>
<div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the start of Owen’s superior sixth outing for Richmond,
Va., reporter Willie Black (after 2016’s Grace), a twin-engine Beechcraft plane
crashes into the Dark Star bar, killing 22, injuring 29, and fueling wild
speculation about the cause of the crash. Was it a terrorist act, suicide, or
an accident? The pilot is identified as David Biggio, a former Richmond
resident who was once arrested for stalking his former wife; the plane belonged
to James “Chopper” Ware, who owns a hardware store in a tiny town on the
Chesapeake Bay. Black uses all his journalistic resources, including such
strong supporting characters as Peachy Love, the police media relations person,
and elderly Jumpin’ Jimmy Deacon, who gives him a lead to Biggio’s ex-wife. As
usual, Black finds himself at odds with police chief Larry Doby Jones and with
his newspaper’s publisher, Rita Dominick. An unexpected insurance policy, the
discovery of a murder victim, and a man’s hidden past keep Black digging.
Owen’s informed treatment of Richmond and its declining daily paper is perfect.
(June) </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-47178206755966187832017-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:002017-03-31T09:32:44.244-07:00<h2>
Lovin' Richmond</h2>
<div>
<br /></div>
There's so much to do here, I don't know where to start. Yesterday, we went to the opening of the French Film Festival at the Byrd Theater, our fabulous 1920s era movie palace (it'll be even more fab when they replace the seats) to see Himalaya, a wonderful movie. Going back Sunday to catch another feature.<br />
Tomorrow is the Monument Avenue 10K, with 30K runners. I'll just have time to shower afterwards before we go to the UR-UVA lacrosse match and tailgate picnic at the University of Richmond. After that, who knows?<br />
Got the first review of <i>The Devil's Triangle </i>yesterday. Here's the kicker: ."Owen produces another grim, tightly woven, and resolutely
professional piece of work with a memorably nightmarish payoff."<br />
<br />
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<!--EndFragment-->Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-72871104493607131802017-01-22T10:41:00.001-08:002017-01-22T10:41:20.476-08:00<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">Be a sore loser</span></h2>
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I have heard a lot from gloating Donald Trump supporters since Nov. 8 about "sore losers." Bullshit. If you tiptoe around the enormity of Trump's election, afraid of being a poor sport, don't. This isn't a football game. It is way more than OK to oppose him. In fact, it is patriotic to be a sore loser when what you've just lost is the assurance that you won't be living in a Fascist state in the near future. They aren't handing sportsmanship trophies for graciously accepting the theft of the First Amendment (you know, the one that doesn't involve guns). Be a good sport when your favorite team loses the big game. This is not a game, and Miss and Mister Congeniality will wake up one day and discover, as Leo Durocher once said, that nice guys (and women) finish last.<br />
Good sportsmanship is a laudable thing––in sports. In real life, it doesn't always work, especially if the winner can't even avoid being a poor winner. Do not engage in magical thinking and believe that the strutting, lying, bullying, racist, sexist, xenophobic, pussy-grabbing Donald Trump, the guy who thinks it's fun to make fun of the disabled, was just kidding, that he'll turn into a sensible and responsible president. Face facts. He is who he is, and he is a threat to every one of us, from the basis of individual rights to the ability to cause World War III.<br />
Make America Great? Hell, we ARE great. Our unemployment is half what it was when Obama started dealing with it. Tens of millions have health care who did not have it before. We are less dependent on foreign oil than we have been in decades. Home prices are soaring. We have the largest, greatest military in the world. Our recovery from the Great Recession greatly outstrips that of Europe. The rest of the planet envies us.<br />
This isn't Clinton vs. George H.W. Bush, or George W. vs. Gore, or Obama vs. McCain or Romney. This is new and dangerous ground.<br />
Trump is the president, but he is not our emperor (yet). Oppose the tyranny he wants to impose. Work for justice.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<br /></h2>
Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-2740083968142684482017-01-17T10:03:00.001-08:002017-01-17T10:03:18.962-08:00I've just finished editing changes to The Devil's Triangle (June 2017, The Permanent Press) and am about to tweak one after that, Annie's Bones (2018). Then, it'll be on to another Willie Black project. Retirement has afford me more writing time than I ever had before, but I still only spend a couple of hours a day actually writing, if that. After 44 years of newspapering, I find that I have to have self-imposed deadlines--a certain time of day to write. Journalism might not teach you to write well, but it teaches you to write s<i>omething, </i>and do it in a timely fashion.<br />
The Devil's Triangle is my 15th novel. This stuns me sometimes. When I sat down to try to write a novel in 1989 right before I turned 40, carving out an hour a day from my newspaper job, my dream was to write just one book worth publishing, eventually. Sometimes I sit back and think what my life would be like right now if I hadn't taken that step off the cliff almost 30 years ago and tried to do what I wasn't sure at all was possible.<br />
As with our outgoing president, whom I would miss even if he weren't being succeeded by a demented joke, I am a big believer in hope.<br />
<br />Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-9808925108301406262016-08-11T12:01:00.002-07:002016-08-11T12:01:27.081-07:00Many thanks to the lovely and talented Jane Nardone for the poster of the first five Willie Black books, including <i>Grace</i>, which comes out in October. Number six should be out next year. Willie and I are working away.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-31829395119674085672016-08-11T11:48:00.001-07:002016-08-11T11:48:17.111-07:00<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqNjEKHR28k/V6zH0UxfsqI/AAAAAAAAAB0/y1-MsKcXmAcNcsv9oiGtd70-zYr3NtF0wCLcB/s1600/OWEN%2BBLOOD%2BDROPS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqNjEKHR28k/V6zH0UxfsqI/AAAAAAAAAB0/y1-MsKcXmAcNcsv9oiGtd70-zYr3NtF0wCLcB/s640/OWEN%2BBLOOD%2BDROPS.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster by Jane Nardone of the five Willie Black books, including Grace (Oct. 2016)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-30620836417118446642016-07-25T12:03:00.001-07:002016-07-25T12:03:05.848-07:00
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">Here's the Kirkus pre-publication review of Grace, which comes out in October. Feeling good about it:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-weight: 700;"> GRACE, by Howard Owen
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">Publisher: </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 12.000000pt; font-style: italic;">The Permanent Press </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">$28.00, 246 page hardcover, pub date October 31
</span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">ISBN </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 11.000000pt; font-style: italic;">978-1-57962-434-7 </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 11.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">Category: </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">Fiction </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPS'; font-size: 11.000000pt; font-weight: 700;">Classification: </span><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 11.000000pt;">Mystery
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Proof positive that despite the title of police reporter Willie Black's fourth appearance (The
Bottom, 2015, etc.), things can indeed get worse for both the city of Richmond and its daily
newspaper. No wonder Belman "Shorty" Cole, the paper's own security guard, is angry enough
to come to work with a gun he uses to threaten Willie, temporary publisher Rita Dominick, and
whomever else is within shouting and shooting distance. Shorty's 10-year-old nephew, a good
kid named Artesian Cole, has gone missing; the police don't seem to care; and his uncle is sure
the boy's dead. Soon enough the discovery of Artesian's body proves Shorty to be right, and
Police Chief L.D. Jones rouses himself enough to arrest Sam McNish, who ran Children of God,
an after-school program that had given Artesian some hope of pulling himself out of the city's
East End. The evidence against McNish is pretty much limited to the fact that he was the last
person to see the boy alive, supplemented by a steady drip of insinuations about his inappropriate
behavior toward his charges dispensed by teacher's aide Stella Barnes, who turns out to be his
spiteful ex-girlfriend. Willie's inquiries suggesting that Artesian may be only the latest in a series
of disappearances of young black males stretching back 20 years are suddenly eclipsed by the
discovery of an even more recent victim, Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-city council member James
N. Alderman, whose distinguished career of mentorship for people like Sam McNish ends when
he's tortured to death. This second murder clarifies things for Willie, but in ways that don't sit at
all well with Rita Dominick, and the race is on between his attempts to gather new evidence and
her attempts to shut him down for good. Owen uses his reflective, self-destructive hero to
illuminate both the racial problems of his hometown and the ongoing death of the newspaper he
loves, even though it doesn't love him back. </span><br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-82026139115937513432016-07-18T13:31:00.000-07:002016-07-18T13:31:54.937-07:00Fascism defined
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<span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 16pt;">This excerpt from a piece by Adam Gopnik, writing in The New Yorker, sums up why I'm not willing to accept Donald Trump as a harmless clown:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 16pt;"><b>What all forms of fascism have in common is the
glorification of the nation, and the exaggeration of its humiliations, with
violence promised to its enemies, at home and abroad; the worship of power
wherever it appears and whoever holds it; contempt for the rule of law and for
reason; unashamed employment of repeated lies as a rhetorical strategy; and a
promise of vengeance for those who feel themselves disempowered by history. It
promises to turn back time and take no prisoners. That it can appeal to those
who do not understand its consequences is doubtless true. But the first job of
those who do understand is to state what those consequences invariably are.
Those who think that the underlying institutions of American government are
immunized against it fail to understand history. In every historical situation
where a leader of Trump’s kind comes to power, normal safeguards collapse. Ours
are older and therefore stronger? Watching the rapid collapse of the Republican
Party is not an encouraging rehearsal. Donald Trump has a chance to seize
power.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 16pt;"><b>Hillary Clinton is an ordinary liberal politician. She has
her faults, easily described, often documented—though, for the most part, the
worst accusations against her have turned out to be fiction. No reasonable person,
no matter how opposed to her politics, can believe for a second that Clinton’s
accession to power would be a threat to the Constitution or the continuation of
American democracy. No reasonable person can believe that Trump’s accession to
power would not be.</b></span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-60269730169050192632016-07-13T11:08:00.000-07:002016-07-13T11:08:24.153-07:00Nice early review of Grace<i>Grace, </i>the fifth Willie Black mystery, will come out in October. Here's the first pre-publication review of it, by veteran book critic Joan Baum:<br />
<br />
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">With<i> Grace, </i>veteran Richmond, VA newspaper
editor, reporter and feature writer Howard Owen, still sticking with
investigative journalist Willie Black who continues to bite the hand that feeds
him, has arguably created the best book so far in the Willie Black murder
mystery series. Where the earlier four books garnered well-deserved critical
acclaim and awards, <i>Grace</i> exhibits a tighter, more confident
craftsmanship, as Owen shows that he knows how to work exposition into an
engaging plot while training a jaundiced eye on his protagonist, keeping Willie
the same but not quite the same. Willie, now 54, whose black father disappeared
at birth and who still delights in being the good bad boy of print journalism
at his paper (his nasty, venal publisher has pushed him into the late-night
crime beat), has evolved into an even more sardonic chaser of the justice and
truth. Hilarious at times and always cynical and selectively foul mouthed, he
seems aware of time’s winged chariot – the press of time and his history of
being a fuck-up. But he’s not afraid to use the L word for his lady love, whom
he just might make number four, if he can rout or, more realistically, diminish
his demons. He loves to drink, fight, stand pat when the dam breaks and,
go where angels fear to tread. A half bro, he can mix and mix it up with whites
and blacks, people of all classes, professions and vocations and relationships
to the law, earning the admiration of the innocent and the criminal.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"> Like some others in the hard-boiled detective genre,
Willie attracts because he is flawed and heroic, but he has limits about what
he will do and not do to get the story, the bad guy, the girl. His honesty,
integrity and ethics endear him to the various oddball men and women he
interacted with in the earlier books who are back again. These include
Peggy, his reefer smoking mom, Awesome Dude a former homeless derelict, his
ex-wife Kate, a lawyer who is his landlord, an Indian he has befriended, his
admiring colleagues both at the paper and in the police department, and his
slightly estranged but beloved daughter, Andi, now an unmarried mom
herself. Not to mention all those bartenders who know him well. Willie
also knows himself. Of his ability to judge others, which he thinks he usually
does well, he adds, “I’m my biggest fan, so maybe I’m a tad biased.” Unlike
many modern day protagonists, Willie believes in “social justice, the Golden
Rule, cold Millers, and forgiving women, in no particular order.” In other
words, Owen is not in the downer camp of contemporary noir. But he does know
how to read literary tea leaves. These say that the hot topics today that
inform best sellers include racial tension, class divide, pederasty in the
church, failed marriage and alcohol and drug abuse.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;">As with all the Willie Black books, Owen lets Willie speak for
his creator’s values, which are admirable, especially at a time when good
old-fashioned print journalism is dying, if not already dead, and when
so-called reporting, especially in social media and on certain channels makes
no pretense at accuracy, fairness or intelligence. As Willie says,
“First-person stories by reporters give me the heebie-jeebies. They smack too
much of the kind of `look-at-me’ journalism that some of my compatriots seem to
prefer to actually digging and sticking to the facts.” As for the state of the
world, it’s easy to take a nihilist line, but Willie is more nuanced that that.
He sees that the world is divided “into two equally reprehensible groups, both
earnestly involved in their life’s work: judging and affixing blame while
assiduously eschewing spell check.” If there is a God, he finds himself
thinking, he wonders “ why the hell are we still here? Isn’t it about time for
another flood?” But he knows why he is here, and that it to make things right.
He has for all his agnosticism a good smattering of . . . grace. </span><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><i>More Willie to come, assuming Trump doesn't get elected president and we emigrate to Canada. The sixth installment, </i>The Devil's Triangle, <i>is done and should be published in 2017. I'm working on something else, more in the lines of the nine literary novels I wrote before Willie came into my life.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-71126679831454588112015-07-11T10:06:00.000-07:002015-07-11T10:06:33.550-07:00Good reviewsThe reviews for The Bottom have been heart-warming. I hope readers will like it as much as the reviewers have so far.<br />
I'm off to Morgantown, W.Va., this coming week for the West Virginia Writers' Workshop and look forward to interacting with promising writers working on their craft. <br />
The next Willie Black mystery is written and edited by the lovely Karen. When I get back from West Virginia, I will do the final editing before sending it on to the publisher. This one should come out in 2016. It is (quelle suprise) easier to write when you don't work an eight-hour day at the newspaper and drive two hours a day.<br />
Among other projects, I have succumbed to the siren call of Ancestry.com. Took a one-month subscription and find that, when I sit down and start digging, I look up and three hours have gone by. Trying to track down all your ancestors is somewhat impossible, since you have twice as many in each generation. But it's fun. The Owens in my family, mostly farmers in eastern North Carolina, apparently weren't keen on keeping writtten records.<br />
And, it's time to start on the next book. I'm at that point where I'm promoting one book (The Bottom), tweaking the next one and getting started on the one after that.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-60068100828383810252015-06-04T09:44:00.001-07:002015-06-04T09:44:39.885-07:00The luxury of timeSince 1988, I have written before work, after work, on weekends, whatever. I retired as editorial page editor of the Free Lance-Star in April and am doing my best not to squander the gift of time. It's weird not to have a deadline. Before, I'd maybe get up, shower, write for an hour, wolf down some cereal and run out the door to work. Now, I can cogitate. I can ruminate. I can be lazy and still get in two hours a day. And, honestly, I think two hours a day of creating fiction is enough. That's 700 hours a year. I'm not sure I have enough readers to justify more than 700 hours a year.<br />
My 13th novel comes out in August ("The Bottom"), and it's got some good prepub reviews already. I am close to finishing the first draft of the next one. I'm trying to write a mystery novel a year now (and have done that while working the last four years). Not sure there's a market for TWO books a year. Plus, I hope to get back to literary fiction, which is what my first nine novels were.<br />
Anyhow, it's good to have time to write, and work out, and spend time with my lovely wife, Karen.<br />
And even to blog.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-69205679973204048472013-10-06T08:52:00.000-07:002013-10-06T08:52:52.879-07:00What a weekWhat a week! On Tuesday night, I was awarded the Hammett Prize for best crime literature in the U.S. and Canada. On Thursday, I was named editorial page editor of The Free Lance-Star, where I've worked the past seven years. I'm buying lottery tickets.<br />
The Hammett was a shock. We got to the hotel in Somerset, N.J., on Monday night. We checked in at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association desk. When I got back to the room, I saw that my name tag said "Howard Owen/Oregon Trail," rather than "Oregon Hill." Ki-yi-yippi-yi-ya. Then, in lots of conversations with folks from the International Association of Crime Writers, which gives the award, I got no hint that I might already be a winner. Usually, you get some kind of wink or nod beforehand. I told Karen that I'd put my odds at about 100-1.<br />
I had, however, written a speech beforehand, at the urging of IACW, which wanted all the finalists to write one so that, if you won, they could use it in their newsletter. I wrote it and didn't look at it again. Exercise in futility. I told myself I'd glance at it beforehand, just in case. Then, sitting at a table with IACW folks and other finalists, it occurred to me that it might be a little tacky to be going over one's acceptance speech, one that probably never would be read, at the finalists' table.<br />
So, when they called my name, as I was finishing off my dessert, I managed not to faint and stumbled to the rostrum to more or less read the speech I was glad the IACW and Karen had urged me to write. It is the most important recognition I've received as a writer, by far, and it made 24 years of slogging away at typewriters and computers more than worth it.<br />
As for the editorial page editor's job, I am humbled and honored that a newspaper as fine as The Free Lance-Star has that much faith in an old coot like me. I will try to make them proud.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-31375734818944476842013-07-08T12:16:00.000-07:002013-07-08T12:16:23.637-07:00<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;"><i>The Philadelphia Quarry </i>comes out in late July.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">Here are book events I've signed on for so far. Come see me if you're in the area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, Aug. 11, 3 p.m.</span></div>
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Fountain Books, Richmond, Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">Chop Suey Books, Richmond,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">Aug. 23, 6:30 p.m.</span></div>
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Griffin Bookstore, Fredericksburg, Aug. 24, 2 p.m.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">Richmond Public Library, downtown, Oct. 4, 7 p.m.</span></div>
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Cumberland Co. N.C., Public Library, downtown branch, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 14.44444465637207px;">James River Writers Conference., Richmond, Oct. 19-20</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"> </span>Richmond Woman’s Club, Jan. 20, 2014</div>
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I'm also going to the Bouchercon mystery writers conference in Albany, N.Y., Sept. 20-22 and the <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica;">New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association event in Somerset, N.J., where they'll announce the winner of the Hammett Prize.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica;">And the first draft of <i>Parker Field</i>, the third Willie Black mystery, will be done by the end of this month.</span></div>
Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-54507844899443470872012-08-10T14:19:00.000-07:002012-08-10T14:20:33.016-07:00Where I'm going to be on the book tour<br />
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Here's where I'll be doing readings and signings. Come if you can. Bring a friend. Heck, bring a bus full of friends.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Aug. 11: Flyleaf Books: 752 MLK Jr Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC , 2 p.m.</span></div>
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Aug. 12: Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, N.C. </div>
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Aug. 14: Fountain Books, Richmond, 6:30 p.m. </div>
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Aug. 18: Griffin Books, Fredericksburg, 2-4 p.m.</div>
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Sept. 11: Bon Air Library, Chesterfield County, Va. 7-8:30 p.m. </div>
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Sept. 13: Twin Hickory Library, Henrico County. 7 p.m. </div>
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Sept. 19: Chop Suey Books in Carytown.
6 p.m. </div>
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Sept. 27: Central Rappahannock Library, Fredericksburg. 7:30. </div>
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Oct. 27: Fayetteville, N.C.: Cumberland County Public
Library, Cliffdale Branch, 2 p.m.</div>
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Nov. 1: Prince George County (Va.) library. Janet Anderson. </div>
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<br /></div>Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8309203501300073428.post-86807403063928435352012-07-07T11:53:00.002-07:002012-07-07T11:53:44.393-07:00Getting close to pub dateOregon Hill comes out (about) July 22. The pre-pub reviews have been good. Three of them hoped a sequel was coming. Working on that right now.<br />
I don't have all the signings/readings set up but will very soon. None of them is before early August.Howard Owen Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10647983065350025943noreply@blogger.com1