NEWS

BOMBING THE BLOGS Join the discussion: Read David's interview with the writing community at Scribophile, with an extra forum for additional Q&A at the Scribophile Forum. (The interview is open to the public; the forum requires a free signup to join the community, which is much like Goodreads, but more writer oriented.) Scribophile is sponsoring a contest with free books and a free critique session as prizes. Read David's guest post on Joanna Penn's indispensable website for writers, The Creative Penn, on the Five Cornerstones of Dramatic Characterization. David explains why so many writers have problems with their protagonists on Melissa Donovan's Writing Forward. Read David's guest post, "Communication Breakdown," concerning how to craft realistic dialog, at Becca Puglisi's The Bookshelf Muse: "Dedicated to helping writers via descriptive tools, knowledge sharing, and support." Read writer/editor Eric Olden's praise for The Art of Character at Books by the Bed, and some kind remarks by Daniel McInerny (son of mystery icon Ralph McInerny) on his blog The Comic Muse. Read David's posts with bloggers Kristi Belcamino, Vince Keenan, and Jungle Red Writers. Read Excerpts from The Art of Character at Narrative, Zyzzyva, and We Wanted To Be Writers. And learn what David keeps nearby for pleasure reading at Books By The Bed.

BLOOD OF PARADISE GOES TO FRANCE!
A hardcover French edition Blood of Paradise will appear in Fall 2013, through Sonatine, and a mass-market paperback edition will appear in 2014 through J'ai Lu.

PUSH YOUR CHARACTERS
Read David's Article, "Push Your Characters to the Limit," in the January 2013 edition of Writer's Digest.

THE TOASTMASTER
David will be serving as Toastmaster at Left Coast Crime in Colorado Springs, March 21-24, 2013, and teaching a pre-conference class on character. For more info or to register, visit their registration page.

THE ART OF CHARACTER IS A MUST-READ!
November 28, 2012: The Writer Magazine named THE ART OF CHARACTER one of thirteen must-read books on the writing craft appearing in 2013 ("13 in 2013").

PUBLISHING NEWS!
David's new book—THE ART OF CHARACTER: Mastering the Craft of Characterization for Fiction, Film and TV—is now available! Excerpts are being featured on various literary websites and blogs, such as those for Zyzzyva and Narrative magazines.

LISTEN TO DAVID'S STORY
December 31, 2012: Listen to David's story "The Axiom of Choice" as read by Joe Samarco for StarShipSofa's Crime City Central.

EBOOK RE-ISSUES OF PARADISE AND RUNNING
November 27, 2012: David's third and fourth novels, Blood of Paradise and Do They Know I'm Running join his first two novels and story collection as ebook offerings from Open Road Media and Mysterious Press.

EBOOK RE-ISSUES OF REDHEAD AND DIME, PLUS BRAND NEW STORY COLLECTION
May 15th, 2012: David's first two novels, The Devil's Redhead and Done for a Dime have been re-issued in ebook format by Open Road Media and Mysterious Press along with a brand new story collection, Killing Yourself to Survive.

NEW SHORT STORIES
David's short story "Returning to the Knife" is included in the e-anthology West Coast Crime Wave, which can be purchased from Amazon. And his short story "What the Creature Hath Built" is included in the e-anthology SCOUNDRELS: Tales of Greed, Murder and Financial Crimes, available at: Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.

LATINO!
The Latino Author has graciously added David to its author listings due to his setting his two most recent novels in Central America and Mexico. Not bad for a güero!

ARTICLE SELECTED FOR INCLUSION IN WRITER'S DIGEST YEAR'S BEST ANTHOLOGY
David's article on characterization, "Hooked on a Feeling," written for Writer's Digest magazine, was selected as among the year's best content on the craft of fiction" for inclusion in the anthology, The Complete Guide to Writing Novels & Short Stories, as well as the Writer's Workbook 2012.

WE HAVE A WINNER!
Do They Know I'm Running? was named Best Novel—Rising Star category by Spinetingler Magazine.

SHORT STORY
The story David co-wrote with Luis Alberto Urrea for Lone Star Noir—"Who Stole My Monkey?"—has been selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories 2011, which will appear in October 2011.

AN INTERVIEW WITH J. SYDNEY JONES FOR SCENE OF THE CRIME
Read David's interview with J. Sydney Jones, author of the Viennese Mystery Series, for his blog devoted to mysteries and thrillers with a distinct sense of place.

DAVID BLOGS ON MURDERATI
David has been added to the stellar roster of the blog MURDERATI. His postings appear every other Wednesday. (For an archive of his postings to date, go here.)

PRISON LITERARY THROWDOWN
Read David's dialog with Michael Tolkin for the Mulholland Books website about their experience as part of the first ever Literary Throwdown inside San Quentin State Prison. (You can also listen to NPR's Weekend Edition piece on how the Throwdown turned out, and read David's Commentary piece about it.) Back in June David joined five other authors from the outside, competing against six inmate writers from the San Quentin Creative Writing Class run by Bay Area authors Keith and Kent Zimmerman, in association with Litquake, the largest nonprofit literary festival on the West Coast.

CRIME-THEMED POETRY
David joins Ken Bruen, Reed Coleman and others in Lineup #4, a collection of crime-themed poetry, available April 1, 2011. Read the poemsoncrime.blogspot.com to learn where you can find a copy. Go here for a blog tour featuring commentary from a broad range of authors on the collection's merits (David's can be found here.) And go here for a podcast of readings from David, Reed Farrell Coleman, and Keith Rawson among others.

BEST BOOKS LIST!
Read the stellar review of Do They Know I'm Running? in January Magazine's Best Books of 2010: Crime Fiction

SHORT STORY
Read David's short story "Stray" on the Fiction page for The Smoking Poet, an online literary magazine (his story is the second one, about halfway down).

MORE POETRY
David's poem "Youth on the Moon" was chosen Poem of the Week by Belinda Subraman for Gypsy Art Show, her blog on the creative arts.

DAVID'S LATEST ESSAY
Read David's essay, "Insulting Your Intelligence (Just gimme some noiriness)" on the impressive and always interesting Mulholland Books website.

DAVID'S INTERVIEW ON THE CRIME OF IT ALL
Read David's interview with Len Wanner of the University of Edinburgh, who has launched one of the most intelligent, comprehensive and just plain gorgeous websites devoted to writing and writers of any kind: The Crime Of It All.

VOOK EDITIONS OF THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT AND THE COPPER BRACELET (WATCHLIST VOLS. 1 & 2) NOW AVAILABLE
Vook ("The Smart Book") has issued both The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet in digital/video format. The latest innovation in book technology, Vook provides video commentary on the book from the author(s) as part of the digital presentation—at extremely affordable prices.

BIBLIO BAGGINS' JUNE READING LIST
Noted book blogger Biblio Baggins chose three thrillers for his June reading, and he has some nice things to say (and puts David in some stellar company: James Crumley and Lee Child).

MUTH CHOOSES DO THEY KNOW I'M RUNNING
Tim Muth, who writes one of the best blogs out there on what's happening in present-day El Salvador, chose Do They Know I'm Running? and Horacio Castellanos Moya's The She Devil in the Mirror for his summer reading. You can check his posting here.

DAVID'S RECENT BLOG POSTS
David's most recent blog postings on Red Room are titled "Women Make the Best Detectives" and "Life is Luck and the Lucky Are Scared."

NEW SHORT STORY
David published a short story titled "The Axiom of Choice," which appeared in The Strand, Issue XXVII 2009. The website Mathematical Fiction, devoted to the portrayal of mathematicians in fiction, offered a fascinating précis here.