MAY 5th IS CINCO de JUNIUS!

Check out Seth Harwood's special offer HERE

What is it: Tyrus Books and Seth are printing a limited run of numbered, signed special edition copies of YOUNG JUNIUS for you, the die-hard Palms Family fans. This edition will have special art by Jerry Scullion and Bob Ostrom, photos of some of the book's locations, special embossed dust-jacket, cover art, all-cloth covers, and much more!

When can you pre-order this? May 5th is when the pre-ordering begins. We're looking at a run of most-likely 500 copies total. Once we sell them out, they're gone!

When will I get my books? The edition will print in September and be shipped to you in October.

CRIME'S BIG GUNS

UK publishers are gearing up for the Autumn season by announcing some enticing crime and thriller novels from both newcomers and masters of the field.

One of the more interesting titles is, Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D.James. After fifty years thrilling readers with her cerebral crime fiction the author here talks about the genre that has been so good to her.

James Patterson's Cross Country will be published in paperback this October by Arrow - this time the writer is all on his own, no co-writers, for this Alex Cross mystery which is bound to sell like hot cakes.

Jeffrey Deaver also has a new UK paperback in October with The Bodies left Behind.

Avon books are banking on introducing a new series hero in James Steel's December. The press release states that Alex Devereux will be a series character for a line of books that are very much in the Len Deighton, Alister Maclean tradition.

Crime and thrillers made a healthy showing in the top ten mass market paperbacks in the UK for the week ending 30th June.

Sail by James Patterson
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
The Beach House by Jane Green
Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Someone Special by Sheila O'Flanagan
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Silks by Dick Francis with Felix French
Devil May Care by Sabastian Faulks


Hard Case Crime are offering T-shirts featuring their stunning pulp style book covers on their website. You can look trendy and wear your love of pulp fiction at the same time. Check them out.

Seth Harwood who took on the publishing industry by podcasting his novel, Jack Wakes up before securing a publishing deal with Random House, is making announcements of his latest stops in his signing tour. Find details on his website. If anyone hasn't bought Jack Wakes Up yet or listened to it in Podcast form then I urge you to do so. All details are available from Seth's own website.

Check out The Globe and Mail which is now updated by-weekly with the latest in crime fiction. The website has a US slant and seems to often delivered the goods on new releases before anyone else.

SETH WAKES UP THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY - SETH HARWOOD FEATURE AND INTERVIEW

California based, Seth Harwood is a writer who knows how to use the Internet. He has proven the naysayers wrong - people will pay for something they've already been given free.

First of all he gave away his novel, Jack Wakes Up in Podcast form, then he produced a print edition and with the help of the fan base he had gathered with the Internet podcasts he stormed the Amazon charts. The next step was for the major publishers to come knocking and now Jack Wakes Up will be published May 5th by Random House.

I've not read the book myself yet but I have listened to it in podcast form and it's a damn good crime thriller - Tarantino on Speed filtered through hip hop sensibilities. It's garnished praise from the likes of Michael Connelly and will also be featured May 10th in The New York Times Book Review. Despite moving to a major publisher the writer has no plans to abandon the podcast medium any time soon.

Seth's arrived in style.
I asked him if his initial move into podcasting was part of a master plan to get the book into print.

"I wanted to build an audience, get my work out to people. Shopping my book to agents just wasn't a good use of time. It sucked. So I wanted to let readers (listeners) decide. I wanted to put the book on the Internet, but disseminating text on the web seemed less effective than audio, so when I saw people were doing podcasts, I jumped in. I've had commutes where I always listened to books on CD/tape, and so it seemed like a natural fit. Then my plan was to lure agents in by telling them I had a few thousand folks who wanted to buy the book. Turned out they wouldn't listen. I had to team up with Breakneck Books and storm amazon to show them I could sell the book. Once I did that, they wanted to know what I'd done and how they could get involved.

But my goal all along was to get into conventional print and onto bookstore shelves. That's been my goal for about 13 years now. I went to grad school for creative writing at Iowa and graduated in 2002. Before that I was writing novels and stories on my own. It's been a long, long road."

The music industry could take a lesson from Seth and stop running scared of the Internet. Is the electronic medium the future of the printed word?

"I think in fact, I'm following the music industry with this podcasting model. Bands have been doing similar things and giving their music away for a few years now. It's time for publishing and writers to catch up--we need to realize that giving something away is free advertising: it may not bring in money in the immediate, but you're not spending anything to advertise yourself. The publishing industry seems too intent on finding ways to spend money on an ever-shrinking advertising market. The Internet really is about free. If the mp3 doesn't cost anything to make, why should it cost money to hear it?

I see this all as a way to let readers/listeners/book buyers know who I am as a writer. That's never going to hurt me.

In terms of books, I'm not sure what the future will bring. Kindle still has a lot of drawbacks that make it harder to adopt than the iPod ever was--you can't put the books you have already onto it, for instance. Amazon would be wise to give away some free eBooks, at least the books you've already bought through them, but I'm not holding my breath. Truth is, the future of books is going to be Kindle, iPhones, books, Trade Paper, Hardcover, all of it. As writers we need to work on getting our work onto as many platforms as possible. Ultimately, it'll be the readers who decide how they want to read; I just want to be sure my book will be an option to them on the platform they choose!"


Another successful podcast that Seth set up is Crimewav which has featured works from many top writers in the crime field. What does Seth look for in selecting works for the podcast?

"With CrimeWAV, my main goal is to introduce the podcast listening audience to some of the great contemporary crime writers that I've come to know in the past few years. I also really want to show those writers how easy it is to make a podcast and read to a large audience without leaving the house. When I first started approaching people about podcasts, it scared off a lot of writers, now I want them to see they can do it too, without much difficulty.

We're looking for good, hard-edge stories that run about 3,000-5,000 words. But we've already put out a lot of stories that aren't those things. We're looking for good work. Good crime fiction."

The Tainted Archive wishes Seth's every success with the Random House Edition of Jack Wakes Up and looks forward to many years of podcasts from the one man production line. Below Seth talks about how he got involved in podcasting. And below the video is a series of useful links relating to Jack Wakes Up and Seth himself. Check it all out folks - this guy's gonna' be huge.

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Seth appearance details HERE
First Three Chapters HERE
Buy signed books HERE
Crimewav HERE

Crimewav - new episode available now

The new edition of Crimewav features a story by fellow Hale author, Rafe Mcgregor. I'm a huge fan of Crimewav, it's one of the best crime fiction podcasts on the web and I subscribe via Itunes.

I'll hand you over to writer Seth Hardwood to tell you all about the latest offering:

This is episode 33 of the CrimeWAV: we go overseas for Rafe McGregor's "Blue Mail."

Yes. And because the number 33 is special, I'd like to dedicate this episode to old Larry Bird, who was looking terrible at this week's NCAA championship game. Here's to feeling OK when you wake up in the morning, Larry.

Rafe McGregor worked in law enforcement for eleven years before becoming a crime fiction author. He writes both historical and hardboiled mysteries, and enjoys reading Philip Marlowe as much as Sherlock Holmes.

His first novel, The Architect of Murder, was published in February: twenty thousand war dead, the will of the wealthiest man in the Empire, the coronation of Edward VII, and a hero with post traumatic stress disorder… murder and mayhem on the mean streets of 1902 Westminster. Awesome!!

You can find Rafe online at either http://www.rafemcgregor.co.uk/ or http://www.rafemcgregor.blogspot.com/