Title: The Black Song Inside
Author: Carlyle Clark
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Pages: 435
Language: English
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
Purchase at AMAZON
Atticus Wynn and Rosemary Sanchez, newly engaged private
investigators, have seen the dark and violent side of life. Nothing, though,
has prepared them for an explosive murder investigation that threatens to tear
their relationship apart as they struggle to solve a case that could leave them
in prison or dead.
Atticus’s
manipulative ex-girlfriend bursts back into their lives wielding a secret about
Rosemary’s family that she exploits to force the couple into investigating the
execution-style slaying of her lover. The case thrusts Atticus and Rosemary
headlong into the world of human trafficking and drug smuggling, while
rendering them pawns in Tijuana Cartel captain Armando Villanueva’s bloody bid
to take over the cartel.
The Black Song
Inside is a vivid crime thriller rife with murder and madness, melded
with gallows humor and the heroism of two flawed and compelling protagonists
who, if they can save themselves, may learn the nature of redemption and the
ability to forgive.
The Story Behind
The Black Song Inside
I started out with the idea of
writing a mystery and wrote one in first-person and finished it, but it wasn’t
quite right. It was solid but nothing special. After reflection, I realized I
had hampered myself by sticking to the restrictions of a first-person story and
that I was more suited to writing a mystery thriller because it’s more fun to
have multiple POVs to show “all sides of the story” and portray the good and
bad characters on a collision course.
So then I needed some antagonists
who were very compelling because for me the less a reader root for a character
to succeed the more entertaining that character should because cookie cutter
villains are snoozeville. So then I dreamed up, or rather nightmared up, The
Priest. My wife, also an author, was a big help here because she slapped down
any cliché aspect that appeared in his character keeping him fresh and
frightening.
Finally, I had it all done and
professionally edited but I knew from previous experience that it takes
years to get an agent and then years to sign with a big publishing house if
that’s what you want to do. By then (October 2012) I had been studying the rise
of self-publishing and the birth of Thomas & Mercer and I deduced that I
would be better off going Indie since, not having an agent, I had no way to
approach Thomas & Mercer. So in November I self-published to moderate
success.
Then out of nowhere on May 31st
I received an email from a senior editor for Thomas & Mercer stating that
he’d read The Black Song Inside and that he loved it and wanted to
re-publish it as a Thomas & Mercer title. Naturally, I was thrilled.
The fact that Thomas & Mercer
paid travel, room, and board for every one of their authors who had a novel
published in 2013 and who wanted to come to Seattle and participate in the On
The Lam conference for a weekend confirmed for me that I was with the right
company. At the conference I got to meet people I’d been reading for years like
Barry Eisler and decades like Aaron Elkins who both said an all expenses
event like On The Lam was unheard of.
I was unique as the only author at On
The Lam who didn’t have either ridiculous self-pub success or an agent. How
they found The Black Song Inside is, ironically, a mystery as they won’t
reveal their trade secrets as they call them, but obviously I’m thrilled they
did. Regardless I was, and still am, just some yahoo who chased a dream and had
a bit of luck.
Thank you for hosting me!
Carlyle Clark was
raised in Poway, a city just north of San Diego, but is now a
proud Chicagolander working in the field of Corporate Security and writing
crime and fantasy fiction. He has flailed ineffectually at performing the
writer's requisite myriad of random jobs: pizza deliverer, curb address
painter, sweatshop laborer, day laborer, night laborer, security guard, campus
police, Gallup
pollster, medical courier, vehicle procurer, and signature-for-petitions-getter.
He is a married man
with two cats and a dog. He is also a martial arts enthusiast and a CrossFit
endurer who enjoys fishing, sports, movies, TV series with continuing
storylines, and of course, reading. Most inconsequentially, he holds the
unrecognized distinction of being one of the few people in the world who have
been paid to watch concrete dry in the dark. Tragically, that is a true
statement.
His latest book is
the mystery thriller, TheBlack Song Inside.
Visit his website
at http://carlyleclark.wordpress.com/.
Pump Up Your Book & Carlyle Clark are giving away a $100 Amazon Gift Card!
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
- One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the Accelerate Your Power Grand Prize.
- This giveaway begins December 2 and ends February 28.
- Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, March 3, 2013.
- Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!
0 comments:
Post a Comment