A "Tiny Roast" to celebrate Spotlighted Author Bruce DeSilva - Happy Halloween!

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Book Reader's Heaven Has Been Thrilled to Host Well-Known Associated Press Columnist Bruce DeSilva...

But...

He had me arrange this Halloween Party to end the month...He explained I just needed some refreshments...and to let everybody know (women were only to be invited) that they should all wear this costume...

Puffing on that cigar he's never without so he looks like Mulligan (we all know that his lead is based upon himself), he told me he would provide the entertainment.




He would be showing and  reading all of his great writings, essays, excerpts, reviews, etc. during the evening...asking that all applause be held until the end! He has all of them taped, by the way, so we'll be watching on television, while he's watching that we are paying attention! (You can wear a mask to close your eyes once in awhile -- my personal suggestion, but don't tell anybody, like B....)

Bruce DeSilva Enriches Lives of Fans Sharing All Past Writings Including College Papers!

BYOB Party

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to have his book everywhere...so would you rush out and get your copy...It's a BYOB (Bring Your Own Book) party...


The Party will begin, of course, whenever Bruce gets here...And I'm sure he will have a wonderful time! Please come...otherwise, I have to wear that top above for the next month!

Where will it be? Please read Rogue Island...the address is somewhere there in the book...I'm just not sure where...

And a wonderful time will be had...By Bruce...





P.S. Thanks, Bruce, for allowing us to follow you around this month! I'm serious.....really...

Would Rogue Island Be as Great if Set in Another State?

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I set my new crime novel in Providence, Rhode Island...because

 
By Bruce DeSilva
 
 
 
This essay first appeared on a great blog called The Outfit, a collective of Chicago crime writers. When Sean Chercover, author of “Trigger City,” invited me to write something as a guest, I decided to explain why I chose Providence instead of Chicago, a city I love, as the setting for my first crime novel.
The most memorable crime novels transport you to interesting places and let you hear, see, smell, and taste them.

Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley, James Ellroy, and Michael Connelly have shown you Los Angeles through the decades. Read James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels and you have been to New Iberia, LA, even if you’ve never left your house. It is difficult to imagine Ken Bruen’s best novels set anywhere but in his native Galway.

As my friend, the crime novelist Thomas H. Cook, once said, “If you want to understand the importance of place, imagine Heart of Darkness without the river.”

The writers who regularly grace this blog provide a guided tour through the great city of Chicago—a city I have come to love. Through the years, I’ve gotten to know it from Wrigley Field to Comiskey Park and from Pilsen to the Loop. My wife, the poet Patricia Smith, grew up a West Side girl.

So when I wrote my first crime novel, Rogue Island, I decided to set the story in . . . Providence, Rhode Island.

Please allow me to defend myself.

This summer, Newsweek crowned New Jersey the most corrupt state in America. (Nice try, Illinois.) But the magazine declared that Rhode Island was the most corrupt per capita. There is nothing new in this. You can trace the smallest state’s culture of crime and political corruption all the way back to one of the first colonial governors dining with Captain Kidd.

For more than a hundred years, pirates slipped from Narragansett Bay’s hidden coves to prey on merchant shipping. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Rhode Island shipmasters dominated the American slave trade. During the French and Indian War and again during the Revolution, privateers skulked out of Providence and Newport to seize prizes with little regard for the flags they flew. After the Civil War, Boss Anthony kept his Republican machine in power by buying votes at the going rate of two bucks apiece. At the turn of the century, Rhode Island’s own Sen. Nelson Aldrich helped the robber barons plunder the country. In the 1950s and 1960s, a Providence mobster named Raymond L.S. Patriarca was the most powerful man in New England, deciding everything from who lived and died to what songs got played on the radio. And more recently, Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. did federal time for conspiring to operate a criminal enterprise, a.k.a. the city of Providence.

One of the many quirks of Rhode Island history is that no one knows how the state got its name, although historians have come up with several half-baked theories. According to one of them, the name derives from the fact that the state resembles the Isle of Rhodes. The only problem with that one is: It doesn’t.

My favorite theory is that “Rhode Island” is a bastardization of “Rogue Island,” a name the God-fearing farmers of colonial Massachusetts bestowed upon the nest of pirates, heretics, and smugglers who first settled the shores of Narragansett Bay. Hence, the title of my novel, Rogue Island. I decided not to go with the Cotton Mather’s pet name for Providence: “The sewer of New England.”

However, Rhode Island and its capital also share a culture of decency and integrity that began with its gentle founder, Roger Williams. The competing strands of good and evil wind all the way thorough the state’s history, and the tension between them makes for great storytelling.

But that’s not the only reason I set my tale in Providence.

Most crime novels unfold in big, anonymous cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and, of course, Chicago. There are also many fine mysteries set in rural areas. But Providence is something different.

The city is large enough to have the usual array of urban problems, and it’s surprisingly cosmopolitan; yet it’s so small that it’s claustrophobic. In fact, the whole state is so tiny that you can almost throw a baseball across it. Nearly everybody you meet on the street knows your name, and it’s almost impossible to keep a secret.

In Rogue Island, my main character, an investigative reporter named Mulligan, needs to have a face-to-face meeting with a cop. The two don’t want to be seen together, so they have a hard time figuring out where to go. Finally they pick a sleazy strip club in a bad part of town. No one there is likely to know them, they think; but as soon as they walk in, someone shouts: “Hey, Mulligan! How ya doin’?”

Mulligan is paid to root out corruption. But he was born in Providence. He is not just from but of this place. So while he digs to uncover the truth, he’s not above placing a bet with a mobbed-up bookie or paying a small bribe to get his decrepit Bronco through the annual state inspection. As Mulligan sees it, graft comes in two varieties, good and bad, just like cholesterol. The bad kind enriches greedy politicians and their rich friends at taxpayers’ expense. The good kind supplements the wages of underpaid state workers, putting braces on their kids’ teeth. Without the lubrication of good graft, Mulligan says, not much would get done in Rhode Island, and nothing at all would happen on time.

I strove to make the city of Providence and the state of Rhode Island not just the setting but something more akin to characters in Rogue Island. According to one reviewer, my portrayal of the place is “jaundiced but affectionate”—and that puts it exactly right.

I just finished the sequel, tentatively titled Cliff Walk, and it, too, is set in Rhode Island. But once the third book in the series is written, I’m going to co-write a crime novel with my wife. It’s going to be set in Chicago—on the West Side.












Used by Permission
of Author

Related articles

• Rhode Island To Vote On Name Change (npr.org)
• Can a Name Change for Rhode Island Heal Old Wounds? (theroot.com)

Review During Blog Tour - Russell Brooks! Pandora's Succession!

Pandora’s Succession



By Russell Brooks

Russell Brooks has created a first novel that is just waiting to be turned into an action movie! I’m wondering if he even might be looking to play the main character, Ridley Fox! Pandora’s Succession moves quickly into non-stop action that pulls you in to an exciting tale you will totally enjoy!

Russ Brooks as Ridley Fox???

Ridley Fox was a former JTF2 member (equivalent to SEALs) who had planned on getting out when he married Jessica. That had been two years ago, before the same group that now had captured him—the Arms of Ares, had killed her. He wasn’t sure whether he had been tricked or not—he was supposed to be there in Chechnya to help a scientist working for Ares and his wife to defect. In return Gregor Stechine would help put this group out of business! And Ridley wanted that more than anything else!

But something had happened and now his wife was here, to help him for he had been captured and imprisoned. She was also claiming that she had been the one who had contacted him, not her husband!
Both Gregor and Sveta were microbiologists who had been used to create weapons of terrorism to be sold by the criminal organization Ares. Her husband was now dead and Sveta had been afraid to contact regular agencies since she knew Ares members had infiltrated them. But now, they had created a microbe called Pandora so powerful that small amounts of it introduced into an area would cause as much damage as a nuclear bomb, except it would only kill the people! She claimed there was no defense against Pandora!

And it would be very dangerous to use normal methods to escape since Pandora was nearby...

For some the desire for money is all that is needed to choose sides. Valerik had been a former KGB operative and had no conscience about doing anything that was necessary to complete his job. And the “white-haired man” who had become his superior was no different than the rest as they discussed what needed to be done now that Ridley Fox had escaped and might have some knowledge of what was happening in the Groznyy, Chechnya lab. But for others, even money is not the absolute for choosing to go against the world. His mole in the CIA would have to be contacted by the white-haired man to find out what was happening! He had to know more...for The Promise!

Ridley worked alone most of the time but found that at least one CIA operative had been placed where it was most important, but neither Ridley nor Nita Parris knew about the other. Other than the heroic efforts of Ridley and Nita and their exciting endeavors to prevent Pandora's use, I found most intriguing the activities of the three villains who, though working together, had such diverse goals that, in the end, that diversity was part of their downfall!

Pandora’s Succession is so jam-packed with edge-of-seat action and adventure that the reader won’t even have time to slow down to take a drink of that tea cooling on your nearby table. Seriously, this is one of the best action books that I’ve read in a long time...and, like I said, would highly nominate it to be made into a movie—it has what it takes! Terrorism, traitors, killers with “causes,” biological warfare, top-thriller action for the hero to win, and peril to the world! Thankfully, it’s fiction!
Readers, not only do I highly recommend it...but if you’re an action fan like I am...don’t you dare miss this one!

Book Received Via
Facebook’s Reviewers Roundup Group

G. A. Bixler

Don't  miss book announcement and author interview posted immediately before this review!

Book Reader's Heaven Welcomes Russell Parkway on Blog Tour!

Book Reader's Heaven is delighted to welcome Russell Parkway on his Blog Tour to announce his Debut Novel, Pandora's Succession. Russell, could you tell us a little bit about yourself--Where are you from?

Montreal, Quebec

When did you start writing? When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

When I was in high school. In high school I had several ideas that stayed in my head constantly. It became a distraction because I’d be accused of daydreaming when in fact I was playing scenes of a potential story in my head. One day I decided to write them down on paper until I had a novel.

Your first book was very ambitious, don’t you think? How long did it take you to write it?

It was a lot of hard work because of all of the research that went into it. I didn’t take any writing classes either, most of what I learned was from trial and error until I got to know my writing coach, Victory Crayne, back in September 2008. She coached me through the last two rewrites of Pandora’s Succession. From the day I first started writing to today we’re going back 22 years, and that mostly because of dividing my time between school, track and field, and music.

Where do your ideas and subjects come from?

My ideas come from all over the place, but mostly from scientific journals and news events. I don’t go out “looking” for an idea, that doesn’t work for me. Instead I’ll just read several articles or I may overhear a conversation or catch a blurb. After going through that, a “What if… ” scenario pops into my head.

Your book is full of action with a lot of detailed information—how did you learn so much about guns and details of events you describe?

Again, it was all in the research. I also read a few books on how to write novels. I was fortunate to be surrounded by some excellent people that offered to help. I knew of the importance to be as accurate as I could in describing either an event, a location, or an incident because I knew that potential readers would be current and former government agents, people in the military, martial arts enthusiasts, scientists or people with a strong background in science, aside from avid readers of the thriller genre. I consulted with Belgian martial arts expert, Wim DeMeere, who helped me to write the fight scenes. After I started promoting Pandora’s Succession online by posting a few chapters, a reader—Jim from California—wrote me and informed me that my protagonist, Ridley Fox, was using the wrong sidearm. He recommended that he not use a Ruger but the Hechler and Koch. He sent me pics and explained the specs to justify why the HK was a more likely weapon that Fox would carry. He had me convinced and I changed the weapon immediately. My brother, Randy, is in the Canadian military and he helped me with various military aircraft. I wasn’t fortunate to interview any assassins or spies so I had to pick up some things from reading Barry Eisler’s novels, who’s also a former CIA agent. Former CIA director George Tenet’s biography also helped me with regards to references.

Well, I for one, am certainly happy that you didn't interview any real assassins and are alive, here and well to talk to us! But it sounds like you did have good professionals helping. What is the basis of your novel’s title?

Pandora comes from Greek mythology. Succession comes from the term, Ecological Succession. If you know about the Greek myth and about Ecological Succession, then you’d have an idea what Pandora’s Succession is about.

Hmmmm, Russell, so I have to be a mythology fan to understand your title...maybe you'll give us more info at another time for those who are not familiar...LOL Your book includes many variables that creates an action-packed thriller...frankly, do you think you can “top” this, your first novel?

LOL. I hope so, otherwise I’d be a one-hit wonder, which I don’t want. Seriously, I believe that I’ll top this novel because I’m still in the process of developing my author’s voice. There were a few things that I wanted to do with Pandora’s Succession, but based on the advice of my writing coach, I had to leave them out because the story would’ve been too long. For example, an original draft had Pandora’s Succession begin in the Canadian Arctic rather than outside of Groznyy, Chechnya. However I was recommended to cut the entire chapter, not because it wasn’t good, but because my protagonist, Ridley Fox, was not in it. Rather it was the antagonist whom, according to my coach, readers might mistake for the protagonist; may not like the character and not buy the book. In other words, since this is my first novel and I’m unknown, there are certain things I should hold off. Until I become better known, my name will be able to sell the novel before the story.

By that, perhaps, I can assume you might be considering a series with Ridley Fox...I hope so because I enjoyed him very much. Does writing come natural to you or is it something that you had/have to work on?

I’d have to say that the writing was something that I had to work on. The ideas came more naturally.

Does your story/subject change direction after you have begun writing it?

Pandora’s Succession changed tremendously. When I first wrote it in high school it didn’t even have the same characters. The plot wasn’t even the same. The book matured along with me and I had to accept what I could include in the story and what I needed to cut. In the last few years the story has been more consistent.

Well, I certainly was impressed with your writing...and you can tell that your ideas flow freely--there was much to consider in your book and you certainly gave us many villains to "hate!" Do you see your future writing coming from your life or from other people?

If anything there’s more of a chance that I’ll be writing more about other people than myself. My blog, The Big Picture, is comprised of essays in Op-Ed format where I comment mostly about social injustice. One of my essays, “Why does Vancouver not deserve to host the 2010 Winter Olympics” was published by the National Post in their online Op-Ed section. I got a lot of praise for it. But I also pissed off a lot of people that didn’t approve of my pointing out the reality of the struggles that Canadian amateur athletes faced before the Olympic games were awarded to a Canadian city. This was even though I was speaking from personal experience of having competed for Canada on a few occasions. I literally became an enemy of the state with that essay. But I won’t apologize for setting the record straight.

Well, congratulations on your nonfiction writing efforts (and am wondering whether that is why you are writing under Russell Brooks)...Who were the people or person that inspired you to write?

There were a few, such as my family, close friends that gave me their electronic typewriter as a gift when I was 12 when they learned that I was writing a novel. But I have to give special mention to my 6th grade teacher, Ms Bédard (back in those days, first names of teachers were classified (lol)). One day I decided to write a mystery short story. Ms Bédard saw it on my desk one day as she walked by, asked me what it was, and read it out loud to the class. I was surprised when she led the class in applause. She wrote me a note saying that one day she hoped one of my detective novels would get published. It was one of the nicest things a teacher has ever done for me and I still remember that day as though it was yesterday, right down to the location in the classroom where I was sitting and where she stood when she read my story.

That is indeed a wonderful memory for you...it shows the very real potential that teachers play to influence our young people! Sooooo, How many different drafts of a manuscript did you go through before you published?

Pandora's Succession took about 15-19 rewrites. So much has changed in terms of technology that I had no choice but to change things. For example, the internet and cell phones didn’t exist when I started writing. Even the publishing industry has changed tremendously over time. The story I have now, had it been written the way it was back then, would’ve fallen in the science-fiction category.

Very good point, especially for those authors that have written stories in the past and pull them out from files...lots of catching up to do on technology alone! What has been your favorite story/subject that you have written about and why?

In February of this year I wrote an essay titled, “I was fired for voicing my opinion. I guess I should’ve shut up.” This was about former CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, and her husband, Joe Wilson. I recommend her autobiography to everyone. Anyone that has the courage to stand up for their rights, especially when they’re alone, deserves every form of recognition possible. I also did a video blog about her book on The Russell Show.

Hmmm, I like that! I've have to tell you why I was fired once for wanting to actually "work" on my job...But that's another day...What kind of environment do you prefer when you’re writing?

I’ll either write at home or in a coffee shop. I like writing on the train or the plane when I’m travelling.

What tips do you have for aspiring writers?

Be patient. It’s very important NOT to rush into writing or publishing without conducting proper research. Depending on how serious you are with your writing, I strongly recommend that you research any literary agent or publisher you may want to do business with. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Visit the Preditors and Editors website. They research everyone in the publishing business and list which ones are recommended versus the people that you ought to avoid.

Keep reading. It’s important to keep up to date with the changes in the publishing industry. And most importantly be passionate about what you do. Your own passion will drive you to do all of the necessary things that you need to do in order to become a successful published author.

I especially like your feelings about being passionate. Frankly, Russell, your first novel demonstrates the driving passion you have and I can only see you getting better and better in the future! Where do you see yourself and your writing in 10 years?

I’d like to eventually write screenplays. My dream was to write a screenplay for the next Superman movie. I have some ideas I believe Superman fans would like. If given the chance I’d love to present them to Warner Bros. I wouldn’t mind co-writing a script with Quentin Tarantino and acting alongside Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson. Okay, that one’s a little out there, lol, but there’s no harm in dreaming big.

Hey, dreams are the beginning...Frankly, I love Samuel L. Jackson, especially in my favorite movie, The Long Kiss Goodbye...and I can see Ridley Fox gaining a lot of training and experience from an older character played by Jackson... In fact, I'm already seeing your book as an action movie! So just keep on dreaming big! What do you do when you get stuck in writing?

I play my violin. My best ideas come when I’m not sitting in front of the computer and thinking about how to write a scene or come up with a plot.

Cool, a man of many talents!  Have you ever wanted to quit? What did you do when that thought struck you?

No. I’m the person that likes to finish what they start. The day that I think of quitting something is the day that it’s time to move onto something else.

What are you working on now?

I’ll be doing everything possible to get my name out there so even after the virtual book tour ends I’ll actively be promoting Pandora’s Succession until Christmas 2010 and beyond...

What projects do you have for the future?

I have an untitled crime/mystery novel that I’m finishing right now. If all goes well I’d like to have it available sometime by Winter 2011. I’m currently outlining the sequel to Pandora’s Succession.

It looks like from some of your pictures, that you have some other interests in your life besides writing—tell us about those activities...

I was on the Canadian Track team and represented Canada at the World University Games in Palma di Mallorca, Spain in 1999. I was also the top sprinter at Indiana University while I studied for my BS in Biology. I play the violin, and once played four other instruments while I was in high school. I mostly sing right now in my church choir (I responded to a dare where I sang and posted it to YouTube. It’s in my blog under the Russell Show). I’m also active in an online poetry group called: The Artist Lounge, and I regularly participate in their radio show every Sunday as the resident poetry recitor. I started my own show on YouTube called: The Russell Show, where I’ve expanded on what I do on The Artist Lounge. Recently I’ve started promoting other authors by reciting excerpts from their novels. So far I’ve done this for JA Konrath and Cherish D’Angelo.

Can we find you anywhere online? Where?

I’m Russell Parkway on myspace and facebook. I’m AuthorRussell on Twitter. My website is http://www.russellparkway.com/.

Russell, thank you so much for allowing me to talk with you here at Book Reader's Heaven. Next up is my review of Pandora's Succession! Which I thoroughly enjoyed! Best wishes for the remainder of your Blog Tour and marketing efforts!

Russell Parkway Announces His Debut Novel on Blog Tour!

Russell Parkway, Author




CIA operative, Ridley Fox, never stopped hunting his fiancée’s killers—a weapons consortium called The Arms of Ares. When an informant leads him to an old bunker outside of Groznyy, Chechnya, Fox is captured, beaten, and left for dead. When the informant rescues him, Fox learns that his capture was no coincidence: someone had set him up—possibly another government agent. Fox barely escapes after learning that Ares has acquired a hyperdeadly microbe—called Pandora—that is believed to have wiped out ancient civilizations. The trail leads Fox to Tokyo where he discovers that people within the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Japanese Intelligence want Pandora for themselves. The only person Fox can trust is a woman from his past who he nearly got killed.

Brooks’s use of scientific subject matter combined with the adrenaline rushing, edge-of-your-seat action makes Pandora’s Succession a cross between the best of Michael Crichton and The Bourne Identity.

About the Author. Russell Brooks is a former Canadian Track Team member in the 100 and 200 metres. He has written several essays on his blog The Big Picture, one of which was published in the online Op-Ed section of the National Post in early 2009. He has also written the short story, To The Last Bite, and produced his own poetry/novel-themed show, The Russell Show, on YouTube. He currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.

To promote Pandora’s Succession, Russell Brooks will be taking part in a virtual book tour from October 24 to November 13, 2010. This tour will consist of visiting blogs and appearing on internet radio shows where he’ll be interviewed, answer questions from callers on radio shows, and even recite excerpts from Pandora’s Succession. You can find out more details by visiting www.RussellParkway.com

Pandora’s Succession, by Russell Brooks, will be available as an ebook on October 24, 2010 on Amazon and several other ebook retailers.
ISBN: 978-0-9867513-0-1

Next up is An Interview with Russell...Check it out!

Review: Rogue Island Once Again Receives Rave Review

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Many of Liam's friends were being killed in the fires

 Funniest and

 Best-Written

  Suspense...
















Howard Frank Mosher has long been one of my favorite writers. I loved his latest novel, “Walking to Gatlinburg,” and I consider “Waiting for Teddy Williams” a masterpiece. So I was both thrilled by and grateful for what he wrote in his blog today about my new crime novel, “Rogue Island”:

“Here’s a piece of very good news. Long-time Associated Press reporter and book reviewer, Bruce DeSilva, has written an absolutely terrific literary thriller. Right out of the ever-so-hardboiled, ever-so-good-hearted tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, DeSilva’s Rogue Island is the funniest and best-written suspense novel I’ve read in years.

“Meet Liam Mulligan, a newspaperman’s newspaperman, who covers the gritty, often-horrifying underside of Providence, Rhode (Rogue) Island. Mulligan’s a wonderful character. He’s on the run from his half-crazed, estranged wife, at odds with his boss (and, come to think of it, just about everyone else), and as anarchical – and ethical – as they come. He’s got a car named Secretariat that barely runs, a girlfriend who won’t sleep with him until he goes for an AIDS test, and a string of unsolved, murderous arson cases to investigate in the neighborhood he grew up in.

“Liam Mulligan’s whole life seems to be an illustration of Murphy’s Law writ large. But he is determined to get to the bottom of the fires that are literally burning up his home town before his eyes. Fire, in Mulligan’s beloved Providence, has become an absolute force of evil: ‘I heard the fire before I felt it, the flames sounding like a thousand flags snapping in the wind. I felt it before I saw it, the heat like a backhand slap from the devil.’


“Don’t be fooled, though, by the non-stop drama, horror and black humor of DeSilva’s first novel. For all its merits as a thriller, Rogue Island is a highly serious work of fiction combining a fascinating and authentic evocation of a 21st-century American city with a lyrical tribute to the dying newspaper business.”


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