Showing posts with label noir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noir. Show all posts

Thursday, November 6, 2014

A detective with no way out

Musa Publishing is proud to announce the release of Milo James Fowler's most recent science fiction novella Yakuza Territory.

Take a moment to discover what happens when a hardboiled detective story is set in a science fiction world:

A detective with no way out.
A telepath with something to prove...


World-weary detective Charlie Madison has seen more than his share of war. When he stops by the 37th precinct late one night to check on his old friend Sergeant Douglass, the place is as quiet as a morgue. The last thing he expects to find: half a dozen Russian gunmen with a score to settle.
What starts out as a vicious Alamo-style battle soon evolves into something more sinister as Madison's past comes into play. Will his ties to a branch of the Japanese mafia be a help or a hindrance? And who is the strange man in holding? Why are the Russians determined to break him out?
Struggling to survive the night, one private eye must rely on his wits to solve a mystery where he's outnumbered, outgunned, and trapped inside a police station with a soulless killing machine.

Available from Musa Publishing
Add Yakuza Territory to your Goodreads bookshelf


Get to know the man behind the book:

1. When did you start seriously pursuing writing as a career?
I've been writing since I was a kid, but I started submitting my work for publication in the summer of 2009. I'd always thought I would pursue publication at some point—probably after I retired from teaching or turned 40. My first story was published in January 2010, and I've had another 96 accepted for publication since then. I won't turn 40 for a couple more years, and I'm still teaching full-time. Doesn't look like I'll be retiring anytime soon!

2. How did you create the character Charlie Madison?
When I was a kid, I learned to type on an old-school manual typewriter. That's where I learned to write, too. My first novels were messy, full of typos and plot holes. But they were fun. And at age 15, that's what it was all about for me. Private eye Charlie Madison was one of the first characters I created, based on Box 13 and Dixon Hill, and The Double Murder was his big debut. By the end of it, I had over a hundred pages of snappy banter, mob hits, double-crossing dames, car chases, and even some alligators on leashes. It was a horrible parody, and I knew it.
 
Halfway through Write1Sub1 2011, I came up with the first Charlie Madison story I'd written in decades: Girl of Great Price. It wasn't anything like his original case, but he was the same quick-witted, intrepid detective I'd known before. I transplanted him into a more serious and gritty "future noir" sci-fi setting, and once I'd envisioned that world, I knew I'd be back. Immaterial Evidence soon followed, and Yakuza Territory will be available from Musa Publishing on November 7th.

3. Are you working on more Charlie Madison stories?
I'm outlining the follow-up to Yakuza Territory, and it's going to be full of assassinations, kidnappings, killer robots, and maybe even a mad scientist. The working title is The Gifted Ones, and it follows the origins of the mysterious suprahumans who have appeared in all three Charlie Madison detective stories so far.


Author Bio:
Milo James Fowler is a teacher by day and a speculative fictioneer by night. When he's not grading papers, he's imagining what the world might be like in a dozen alternate realities. He is an active SFWA member, and his work has appeared in more than 90 publications, including AE SciFi, Cosmos, Daily Science Fiction, Nature, Shimmer, and the Wastelands 2 anthology.
Visit www.milojamesfowler.com and join The Crew for updates about new releases as well as exclusive promotions.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

First short story acceptance of 2012

My first short story acceptance of the year!
My noir story, "Lady Blood" will be on A Twist of Noir tomorrow.
It's a great site with quality dark and oneiric stories.
Please pop over and comment.
I'd love to hear what you think about my story.

Do I win some cool points for writing a noir story?

Friday, February 17, 2012

Finally Friday update

It's been a busy week. The Origins blogfest was so much fun. We need to start our own League of Justice Writers. I'm following a bunch of a new blogs. Welcome to my new followers too!

In case you missed the post yesterday, I'm celebrating reaching 200 followers with the Learn Your Craft Giveaway! Free books. I don't care where you live in the world. Free books because I adore you all.

I revised two and a half chapters of my current WIP this week. I'm at the point that I need to rewrite a foretelling/prophecy. I'm horrible at doing those things. Why can't mystics or oracles just bluntly say what they mean? I feel my protagonist's frustration in trying to figure out what the vague references and strange symbolism mean.

I critiqued three stories for my writers' group. We meet tomorrow. I submitted my Steampunk Cthulhu story to be critiqued. I wonder if any of them are familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos. Once I have their critiques, I will edit and revise again, send to my CPs, and then revise again before submitting it to the anthology.

I also revised a short noir story I wrote a while ago and submitted it to a site that features stories of that flavor. One extra submission for me this month!

I cut my son's bangs today. Toddlers don't sit still. You can imagine what it looks like. I think I ought to consider not cutting his bangs myself any more. At least he's happy not to have his bangs in his pretty long eyelashes any more.

Have a wonderful weekend!