This was the moon very early this morning over south Salem. A werewolf moon perhaps? But my “howling” was strictly in celebration. The contract I signed with Next Chapter Publishing last July is finally in process. This week they sent me the book description they will use on the back cover and in online promotions once the book is released. They asked for my approval, and I gave it both thumbs up. Here it is:
When psychiatrist Carter Lane inherits his best friend’s cases after his suicide, he’s thrown into the fractured world of Arthur Frampton: a patient with dissociative identity disorder whose presence triggers memories of a long-buried massacre known as the Hoffman Horror.
When Lane’s wife is murdered, he discovers that her death mirrors the gruesome details of the decades-old crime. Lane is convinced one of Frampton’s “alters” is responsible, but the detectives on the case have a different theory: Lane himself had motive and opportunity to commit the crime.
Now a man on the run, Lane races against time to clear his name while navigating the maze of false identities and repressed trauma. As the pieces fall into place, will redemption cost him everything?
A relentless psychological thriller, William J. Cook’s PERSONA explores the power of identity–and how the past never truly stays buried.
Needless to say, I am very excited. I expect to hear from their editors soon. Wish me luck! And I wish you all a kind and peaceful weekend.
I have good news to report: I have signed a publishing contract with Next Chapter Publishing, an independent press, for my latest manuscript, Persona. Their Tokyo office will be publishing the ebook, paperback, and hardcover editions, and their London office will do the audiobook. In addition, they have agreed to re-release my last book, All the BodiesDo, so I have “unpublished” it from Amazon until they put it back in the editions noted above. Of course, I am absolutely thrilled about all this–thrilled as in OVER THE MOON!
It has been quite a trek, a dream of many years. Between those two books, I queried about 500 agents, but wasn’t able to convince anyone to take a chance with me. Next Chapter was willing to step forward, and I’ll put all the energy I can into making this a successful venture for them and for me. I have just finished sending them the full manuscripts, so I’m awaiting word from their editors about next steps. I’m guessing the whole process will take several months at least, if not longer, but it’s all new territory and I suppose anything can happen. I feel a little bit like those young Pinot Noir grapes in the picture above–I’m growing!
I have to thank all those who have supported me along the way, especially my wife Sharon and my daughter Julie. They were the ones who kept me trying in the face of rejection after rejection. Obviously, this is only the very beginning of a long procedure, but Julie tells me I have to celebrate every success along the way, and that sounds like good advice!
Christian Fernandez of The Book Commentary said today, “The tension builds steadily in this engaging crime thriller…Cook skillfully marries crisp, atmospheric writing with emotionally charged scenes to offer an enjoyable reading experience.” Here’s the whole review:
In the scorching summer of 2022, Lake Mead’s receding waters reveal a dark secret: bodies long buried are rising to the surface. Someone must be behind bodies buried underwater. Investigative journalist Kate Temperance is determined to uncover the truth behind the murders, but Sofia Gemelli, the ruthless daughter of crime boss Giancarlo Gemelli, threatens her investigation. As Temperance digs deeper into the case, she finds herself entangled in a web of deceit and corruption that leads her from the glamorous Las Vegas Strip to the tranquil vineyards of Oregon. The stakes grow higher with each discovery, and Temperance must confront her mortality to uncover the truth. Will she survive the treacherous journey or become the next victim of All the Bodies Do?
All the Bodies Do by William J. Cook delivers a captivating crime thriller based on actual events within a sophisticated setting that links the present with the past. The narrative follows a female protagonist on a mission to solve a cold case. Kate is elaborately written with a sophisticated background and a strong motivation. But she meets a foe, the daughter of boss Giancarlo Gemelli. The author introduces readers to other intriguing characters, including Harry, a casino owner being taken out by a rival gang, and Bobby, Giancarlo’s son, torn between his loyalty to his father and his desire to distance himself from the criminal underworld. The novel offers vivid descriptions of the setting, like the moonlit lake scene where Harry is being held captive by two men, Tom and Bobby, taking him out for “a little swim.” The tension builds steadily in this engaging crime thriller. The deft exploration of themes such as power, loyalty, and identity are balanced by sophisticated family dynamics. William J. Cook skillfully marries crisp, atmospheric writing with emotionally charged scenes to offer an enjoyable reading experience.
Book Review by Amanda Hanson, The US Review of Books
“In the silence, Kate was staring into Jay’s eyes as if she might find answers there for the emotional storm that had engulfed her.”
Kate Temperance is an investigative journalist who is looking into the murder of Giancarlo Gemelli. Her dedication to the case has caused tension with her husband, Simon, and longtime friend Bonnie, who see her preoccupation as an obsession. Despite resistance, Kate meets with Sofia Gemelli, Giancarlo’s daughter, who refuses to cooperate with the investigation. Sofia believes that it would harm her father’s reputation and her business. After the confrontation, unsettling events start to occur in Kate’s life, such as her car being keyed and fake photos supposedly showing her cheating on her husband. Kate suspects that Sofia is behind these incidents to stop her investigation. Despite facing these challenges, Kate remains determined to uncover the truth.
In his novel, Cook boldly delves into the depths of human nature, uncovering the extreme measures powerful individuals are willing to take to safeguard their secrets. These influential figures shamelessly utilize a range of intimidating tactics to suppress opposition. Moreover, the author fearlessly sheds light on the harsh truth that no one, regardless of their standing, is exempt from the reach of the law. Each character possesses a distinct voice, intricately shaping their personalities, while the dialogue provides a compelling glimpse into their inner workings. Kate, for instance, emerges as an unyielding and relentless journalist, steadfast in her defiance against coercion and bullying. Her unwavering determination and spirit make her an inspiring and compelling figure in the story. Readers will undoubtedly find themselves captivated by this book, as it offers an abundance of unforeseen twists and turns, keeping them on the edge of their seats.
The Prairies Book Review has just published its review of my new book, All the Bodies Do. Here it is:
A page-turning thriller packed with magnificently complex characters, psychological intrigue, and murder…
In Cook’s gripping thriller, murder and deceit are seamlessly woven into the fabric of everyday business. As the relentless drought continues to ravage Lake Mead, it reveals its hidden secrets: bodies long submerged in its depths. As the dark revelations come to light, journalist Kate Temperance sets out to uncover the truth behind the skeletal remains and their connections to notorious crime boss Giancarlo Gemelli, oblivious to the danger ahead. The third-person omniscient narrative voice grants readers access to the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of multiple characters.
Kate and Jay are portrayed with depth and complexity, allowing readers to connect with their struggles, desires, and moral dilemmas. Kate’s quest for truth and internal conflicts enrich her character, while Jay’s motivations and challenges add emotional weight. Bobby, with his mysterious disappearance and connections to key events, and Sofia, with her formidable presence and influence in the Las Vegas gaming scene, introduce layers of intrigue and conflict. The Las Vegas Strip, with its glitz, glamor, and bustling energy, provides a vivid backdrop for the story, highlighting the dichotomy between its flashy exterior and the hidden dangers lurking beneath. In stark contrast, the vineyards in Oregon, particularly Enchanted Hill Winery, offer a serene and picturesque setting with lush greenery and rolling hills. Though the pacing may falter at times, unexpected twists and revelations keep readers hooked. Ultimately, this novel delves into the intricacies of human relationships, the complexities of identity, and the enduring impact of the past on the present. Intricate, suspenseful, and deeply engrossing.
At last, the pre-order of the Kindle version of All the Bodies Do is available! Just click on the image above to shop now. Kindle and paperback editions will be published on June 28th. Until then, you can pre-order the Kindle one at the reduced price of $2.99. After its release, the price will be $5.99.
This novel has certainly been a labor of love, from doing research in Las Vegas, to the extensive exploration of the ins and outs of wine-making at Willamette Valley Vineyards. (Okay, my research included substantial wine-tasting, but I had to take one for the team!)
I must give a big shout-out to Jette Rainwater, Winery Ambassador at WVV, who didn’t turn me in to the FBI (thank goodness!) and did provide substantial help with vineyard and wine-making details. Also, kudos to Roslyn McFarland for cover design and creation. And hugs and kisses to my darling daughter Julie, who insisted that I write this story in the first place.
No, All the Bodies Do is not the next great American novel, but I think it is a fine entertainment, and I hope you will, too.
Lake Mead is surrendering its dead. As its waters recede in the throes of a relentless drought, bodies once underwater are emerging on its shores. They appear, they’re discovered, they give up the ghosts they’ve been hiding for decades. Family secrets long buried—the affairs and adulteries, the lies and the scandals, even the murders—are one day revealed. No sins can remain covered forever. They all rise to the surface. All the bodies do.
Welcome to a thriller inspired by real-life events in the summer of 2022, when the skeletal remains of several bodies were discovered on the drought-ravaged shores of Lake Mead. Investigative journalist Kate Temperance is determined to prove they were victims of crime boss Giancarlo Gemelli—or die trying. Standing in her way is Sofia Gemelli, Giancarlo’s daughter, a woman as ruthless as she is beautiful. She will do anything, even kill, to prevent Temperance from uncovering her family’s dark secrets. The story will take you from the frenzy of the Las Vegas Strip to the tranquility of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the secret to making world-class Pinot Noir is killing the competition.
This summer, join Kate in her unrelenting pursuit of the truth!
I live with an artist wife, and Sharon never ceases to amaze me. She enters her studio (formerly, our dining room!) in “paint clothes” (of course, she’d be beautiful even dressed in rags!), starts blending different colors, and confidently approaches her easel armed only with a palette knife. Hours later, she emerges, the cutest smudges of paint on her nose and cheeks, and asks me to take a look at the initial phases of the piece she is birthing. (It seems appropriate that what she is painting on is called a “cradled birch panel.”) Her work staggers me. Here’s her website.
The Oxford Dictionary defines abstract expressionism as a development of abstract art that originated in New York in the 1940s and 1950s and aimed at subjective emotional expression with particular emphasis on the creative spontaneous act. Wikipedia says it put New York City on the map, eclipsing Paris as the new hub of art in the West. I don’t know about all that, I only know my wife’s work knocks my socks off. Here she is:
So why have I’ve called my blog “Art and Crime?” I don’t mean to imply that Sharon is in any way a criminal—far from it! But I write murder mysteries. As I’ve accompanied her to showings at the galleries that feature her work, I’ve learned that art galleries are far and away one of the best places to launder money! Oh, I thought, I can use that! And indeed I have.
Gallery of Gangsters is the final book in the Driftwood series (and one of Sharon’s paintings is on the cover!) If you click on the image below, you can read the first chapter. Let me know what you think.
The book will be released on August 24. Pre-order it now for only $0.99—a $5.00 savings. Here’s the link.
This month, I am interviewing USA Today Best-Selling Author April Aasheim. Her Amazon page describes her as an avid reader and researcher, an amateur ghost hunter, an author of witchy things, and a believer in all things magick. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family and her familiar, Boots the Cat.
Will: April, you are arguably one of the most successful indie authors on the West Coast, if not in the country. If I’ve counted correctly, you have five series out there, with more on the way, I presume. The first book of your juggernaut series, The Daughters of DarkRoot, has 1123 reviews on Amazon the last time I looked. What’s the secret to your success?
April: Thank you for that kind introduction.
As for my success, I used to think it was just marketing, and then nurturing your readership. Get eyes on your book and it will be read. But I now know that’s not entirely true. That’s only a few pieces of the puzzle. My Dark Root series do sell well. But when I wrote my Alchemy of a Witch series, which took place in another time with different characters, my readers didn’t all follow. (Even though I love this series).
So, I think the real secret to success is to just write. Write from the heart. Connect with people. Bring them into your world. My first book took 18 months to write, and I put my heart and soul in it. People responded. I still get emails and messages telling me how much my books meant to them. If you can get a reader to feel something, they’re going to remember you. The marketing only works if you have a product people want to buy.
Will: When did you first realize you were a writer? Can you give us a glimpse of your process?
April: I knew in first grade. I just knew. The teachers would always ask what we wanted to be and I’d always say, a novelist.
As for my process, the first thing is to sit down and write. I dedicate most every day, 9-11:30, Monday through Friday, to writing, rain or shine. This has taken a toll on my personal relationships at times, but it was important to me, and if something is important you find a way to do it. I also write most nights for an hour. One thing I am working on in 2022 is more balance. I’ve written 18 books now, and I think I’m ready to try other things too.
When I sit down to write, I first close my eyes and decide what must come in the scene. Then I just let my imagination go and it usually comes to me. Once you shut your brain off, your imagination can run wild. As soon as I’ve ‘seen’ the scene, I open my laptop and write it out as quick as I can, then fix it later. I notice when I don’t meditate first, it’s much harder to work out the scene.
Will: Not long after I started to read The Daughters of Dark Root, it occurred to me that although there’s plenty of paranormal stuff going on, that just serves as the backdrop or context for a saga of family relationships—mother/daughter, sister/sister—as well as a story of the growing independence and empowerment of a young woman. What was your inspiration for that series?
April: I had moved from Arizona to Portland, and was missing my siblings at the time, and I was nostalgic for our childhood. When you have siblings, especially as many as I have (5!) there is going to be drama. But through everything, love. So, a lot of the characters were drawn from my own sisters—at least pieces of them. And of course, a lot of the main character, Maggie, was drawn from my own tempestuous youth.
Miss Sasha, the matriarch and coven leader of the council, was based on my own mom. I’ve always had a complex relationship with my mother—who was a free-spirited, witchy woman who read tarot cards and removed curses. She was mostly ‘love and light,’ but had a dark side, too. One of the scenes in The Witches of Dark Root finds Maggie trapped in a dark room with a spirit, and Maggie is terrified. That came directly from childhood. I was afraid of ghosts and my mom thought the best way to get me over it was to put me in a dark room until I wasn’t afraid. It backfired. And to this day, I sleep with a nightlight. Writers often put their trauma into stories. That’s how we cope. Still, I loved and admired my mother until the day she died last fall. And she gave me plenty of writing material.
Will: Can you tell us about some of your other books? Do you have any favorites?
April: I absolutely love the Alchemy of a Witch series. I decided spontaneously to write a medieval witchy series set during the plague and witch hunts. As luck, or misfortune would have it, a few weeks after I started writing the first book, COVID hit. And so, I was experiencing the world of fear and suspicion, right along with my main character.
The story is an epic tale of a woman fleeing her village when the Witch Hunter General accuses her and her mother of starting the plague. During her travels, she meets an alchemist, who teaches her the ways of magick and transmutation. Later, she meets a priestess, a hedge witch, and a shapeshifter. And through these encounters learns more about magick and herself.
The research for this series was intense. I learned that alchemists were not only real, but there were many of them, including Paracelsus and Isaac Newton. Some even worked for kings. They worked to turn lead into gold, and to find eternal life. Most had to labor in secret, and write their recipes in code, for fear of being labeled a heretic or a sorcerer, and hung.
The book became bigger as the research grew, and one book turned into four. I love how the story turned out, and I adore the characters. Now, I’m obsessed with alchemy.
Will: You’ve told us you recently lost your mother. If it’s not too personal, can you share how that has impacted your creativity?
April: Thank you for that thoughtful question.
Well, my mom did provide me lots of writing material. She took me on adventures as a kid not many others got to experience. We were on the carnival circuit for several years, lived in a ghost town, and even a taco truck. And now that she’s gone the world seems a bit less colorful.
Luckily, I take my pain and write through it, and that’s where some of my best scenes come. And also understanding. I miss her every day, but she was my biggest fan, and I know she’d want me to keep writing. As a final gift to me, she left a review on my book The Good Girl’s Guide to Being a Demon, just a few weeks before she passed. And I didn’t find out until afterwards.
I believe my mom is here with me, and though I would give anything to have one more day with her, her presence is too big to be doused by her death. And now I feel freer to write my memoire, which I’ve always wanted to do, but wasn’t sure I could without hurting her.
Will: Marketing books well requires a whole different set of skills from writing good books, and for an indie author, that can be quite daunting. What methods of promoting your works have you found to be the most successful?
April: It changes yearly, if not weekly, haha.
Social media of course. I’m trying TikTok now, but it’s a challenge for me to keep up. Facebook worked for a while, and Twitter does sometime. There are also places you can promote your books for a fee, but I recommend waiting until you have a few books before you pay for that.
Network with other authors in similar genres. Do projects with them, like anthologies or signings. Do newsletter swaps and giveaways with them. Other writers are not your rivals. A book may take a week to read but a year to write, so your readers will need something else to keep them occupied until your next book comes out.
Will: Do you have any advice you would like to share with other indie writers?
April: Write from your heart. Invest in nice covers. Network with fellow writers. Develop a thick skin. Take feedback from bad reviews, but don’t let them cripple you. Savor the good reviews. This is a world of ups and downs. Some days you sell, others you may not. Love your books, whether others do or not. They are a piece of yourself.
Will: April, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences with us. You’ve given us a lot to think about!
For my readers who would like to know more about April and her books, click here to go to her website.
Sending well-wishes to all my friends on this fine fall day. I’m trying an experiment with Goodreads—giving away 100 copies of my latest book in a lottery sort of way. Enter the giveaway today!
And here’s a new update: Nye Beach Book House in Newport is now carrying my titles, and later today they will be on the shelf at Books N Time in Silverton. For Salem residents, they can be found at Reader’s Guide in West Salem. Ulrike Bremer, Chuck Tauer, and Kim Mainord, respectively, run these small community book stores and deserve your patronage. Please check them out!
William J. Cook 