If I Were a Mobster

"If I were a mobster. . . "

You're kidding, right? Oh, like an interview.

Hi. My name is Jerry Howarth. Do not call me Jerome. I don’t like it.

My boss?  I am the boss. I got my own little mob. Loansharking, collections, vice, mostly. Small stuff, but it pays.

Seattle, Washington is my turf. I grew up there. It’s not all Microsoft and techies.

 What's my look? Are you pulling my chain?  Sport shirt, chinos, a sport coat for dress up. Although my Emma picks them now. Sometimes she makes me wear a suit.

The last time I needed a gun, I used a Bersa Thunder .380. I don’t carry usually—don’t need to. I’ve got guys for that. Besides, if the cops pull me over, they hassle me if I’m carrying.

I like a car that’s not going to be pulled over every time I drive it, so no red Corvette. Something like ordinary folks drive. A Toyota, a Chrysler, a Subaru. Something like that, in gray or white. With enough room for shoulders and long legs. Enough cargo space. I shop at Costco more than I do car chases.

What I’m known for depends on who you ask. Cop circles, I’m famous for never having been tried for anything. My friends would probably say, Emma.   

I don’t have a catch phrase, if you mean something like Make it so. Maybe Huh. . . disorganized crime.

Sure, I got hobbies. Movie classics like Casablanca and Seven Samurai. A boat that sucks up money. Rye whiskey. Sometimes I like to read, a habit I picked up from Emma. She likes romance. I go for stories about guys like me, like 30 Seconds Before. 

30 SECONDS BEFORE BLURB:

Blake Herro is a cop in the Cleveland Police Force. Ever since he was a child he wanted to do right by the city he loved by cleaning up the streets and protecting its citizens. Red, a notorious mobster, has other plans.

On a bitter December night, ten police officers are drawn into a trap and killed by Red’s followers. Blake wants to bring down the Mob to avenge his fallen brothers and to prevent other cops from being murdered. Except the only way he can do that is by infiltrating the Mob.

Every minute he’s with these mobsters he’s in danger. Around every corner lies the threat of coming face to face with a gun. Will he make it out of the Mob alive or will he be their next victim?

BUY LINKS:

Amazon US / Amazon UK /  Amazon CA

NOOK / KOBO / The Wild Rose Press

To celebrate, 30 Seconds, the follow up story, is on sale for 99 cents!

Sale Oct. 21^st – Nov. 4th

SALE LINKS:

Amazon / The Wild Rose Press / NOOK / KOBO

BIO:

Chrys Fey is the author of the Disaster Crimes Series (Hurricane Crimes and Seismic Crimes), as well as these releases from The Wild Rose Press: 30 Seconds, Ghost of Death, and Witch of Death. Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Now please hop around to the other participants: 

https://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=272500" 

What a writer does . . .

Some of you know that my first historical romance novel, An Unsuitable Duchess, was recently accepted by The Wild Rose Press.

After completing it, I started on another romance, also set in the mid-18^th century, because there’s no point in waiting to hear if something you’ve written is accepted. Better to keep writing. It takes your mind off. I’m about halfway through my current project (working title, Cargo of Muskets) but suspended work to do the first edit on Duchess, fill out the paperwork for the blurb, suggestions for cover art, and the like.

I thought, while it’s in process, I’d take a look at two earlier novels which never went anyplace, and see if I could do something with them. One was . . . well, I don’t know what you’d call it. Getting By was the story of a dumpster-diving young loner and how he turned out with a little help from friends. No agent wanted to handle it so I eventually published it on Smashwords. I finished the second, Career Criminal, and wasn’t quite happy with it. It had funny moments, some screwball romance, action . . . but it didn’t quite come together. Or I thought it didn’t. A preliminary glance a few days ago made me wonder if I’d been mistaken.

So I have plenty of writing-related things to do. What am I doing instead? Why, helping to plan an Italian Renaissance feast for 150. Doesn’t everyone?

The menu is set. That was the easy part.

The hard part is converting a recipe for 6 to 8 people to one for 150. If the ingredients are given in pounds or cups, it’s not bad but how many apples do you need for a quart of sliced apples? But if I can find the drill for loading a Model 1717 Charleville musket on Google, I can find a cook’s site, or an apple producer’s site or a catering site with a quantity conversion chart.

At about 10 p.m. on November 5, the feast will be over and cleanup complete. Then I’m going to get a good long night’s sleep. Then, after de-compressing for a couple of days, I’ll pick up  Cargo of Muskets again.  Because writing is an addiction for some of us, and we write whether we get published or not, no matter what else we may be doing: holding down a full-time job, remodeling the house, or planning a bake sale or banquet. And even if we stop temporarily because we've had no success, or we're overwhelmed by a family crisis or crazy work schedule, at the back of our minds, we're still thinking about writing. 

Thinking, That abandoned mink jacket could be the clue in a murder mystery. Or If you were on the run from the mob, how would you disappear? Because writing, and thinking about writing, and yes, occasionally reading, is what we do.