VOTE FOR MY NEXT STORY

I'm going to try something with you all on my blog. You can help me choose what my next short story will be about and which hardboiled detective it will star. I will use polls here and on Facebook to ask you what you want to see. First we choose the basics of the detective, next poll we will go into further detail.
So, all of you... Please vote and ask your friends to vote as well. Just have a look at the poll at the right frame...

Windy City Blues (Jules Landau) by Mark Krulewitch

I pretty much enjoyed the first one in this series so I was eager enough to read this one.
When a parking cop is killed Jules Landau is hired to find out who did it. Jules is still pretty new at this game, but he's got a good mentor who is unfortunately very old so might not be around for long.
His investigation takes him into Chicago corruption and has him falling for a beautiful Georgian baker while he is forced to take on the Georgian Mob as well.
It's all pretty standard modern day PI stuff but written with heart and I fell in love with the Georgian baker a bit. I have to admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the first novel which had that special first novel energy this one lacks.
Still, if you want a solid PI series that ticks all the necessary boxes of the genre you will like this one.

Q & A with Lynn Chandler Willis

I was very happy with the first Gypsy Moran novel, Gypsy was my favorite new PI of 2014 even. A good reason to talk to his creator, Lynn Chandler Willis...


Q: What's next for you and Gypsy?
I'm working now on the second book in Gypsy's story and am super excited about the story direction. He revisits the situation with his father and the missing girls.

Q: What do you do when you're not writing?
Chase toddlers, change diapers, and supervise art and playdough time. I'm the granny nanny to eight of my nine grandkids which gives me a tremendous amount of blog material. Did you know the easiest way to get a fruit snack out of a nasal cavity is to tell them to blow?

Q: How do you promote your work? 
Social media, social media, and social media. I hear so many writers complain about the time vacuum social media can be, but I think it's great. We as writers have never before been giving such an opportunity to share our work with potential readers. I'm also doing the more traditional things like media interviews and book signings.

Q: What other genres besides crime do you like? 
I like general fiction and am a sucker for very well written literary fiction. The beauty of way words work together in some pieces can take my breath away.

Q: What's your idea about the psychotic sidekick in PI novels like Hawk and Joe Pike? 
I adore Joe Pike! Love him. I think the role of the sidekick should be to compliment the main character and offer a good balance. The psychotic sidekick, like Pike and Hawk, offer ways for the main character to get things done that he/she may not be able to otherwise.

Q: In the last century we've seen new waves of PI writers, first influenced by Hammett, then Chandler, Macdonald, Parker, later Lehane. Who do you think will influence the coming generation?
Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, Lee Child...and I think, like with each of these great authors, their characters are in an "investigative" field but not necessarily the "private investigator" of days gone by.

Q: Why do you write in this genre? 
I've always enjoyed digging a little deeper to see what else can be unearthed—thus, uncovering the mystery page by page. The "why" a crime is committed is more fascinating to me than how, when, where, etc...I think many people share an interest in what makes people do the things they do. It's like driving by a car wreck and not being able to look away. It doesn't make us morbid, just curious.