The Killing

Joel Kinnaman as Detective Stephen Holder in AMC’s The Killing

I am coming late to AMC’s The Killing party.  I am one of those poor wretched souls that does not have cable.  Why?  It costs too friggin much, and most of what is on cable, in a word, sucks.  I don’t need to know how to keep up with the Kardashians or know what a Honey Boo Boo is or watch brides freak out before their wedding.  For the most part, I am happy with my cable-less lifestyle.

I do miss AMC.  They have fantastic original programming.  Breaking Bad is my absolute favorite show.  Pound for pound, it’s the best writing I’ve ever seen on a television show. The Walking Dead has set the benchmark in the zombie genre.  Hell On Wheels, is entertaining as… well, hell.  And then there’s The Killing.

The Killing is a show that took me a long time to warm up to.  They made the first two seasons available on Netflix some time ago, but I passed it by because it didn’t seem like my type a thing.  Frankly, I’m tired of all the cop shows.  They’re all the same.  Someone’s murdered.  Cops with dysfunctional lives hit brick wall after brick wall until miraculously they piece everything together in an hour.

I started watching the first episode of The Killing a few months back, and I was interrupted about halfway through, and I just never went back to it.  To that point in the episode, I was at best, “Meh” about the show.  As I was wrapping up The Gore, I needed something to watch to just completely remove me for the book’s storyline.  I clicked on the first episode and resumed watching.  I made it through about 90% of the episode thinking I was done with the series.  It just wasn’t for me.  But, bam!  The last scene hooked me enough to watch the next episode.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the performances by all the actors in that scene were spectacular.

I can’t say too much about the storyline of the first two seasons, because every episode leaves you questioning everything you thought you knew about what had happened so far.  Yes.  It is about dysfunctional cops, and they do hit those brick walls, but the show goes much deeper than that.  You witness the effects of a murder investigation on both the family of the victim and the suspects.   And the crime isn’t solved in one episode.  It took them two seasons to solve the murder.

The acting is what sets this show apart.  In my opinion, Joel Kinnaman is the shining star in this series.  He plays Detective Stephen Holder, a former meth-addicted narcotics cop.  To say he’s got demons is putting it mildly, but somehow Kinnaman makes his character not only likeable, he makes him relatable.   Brent Sexton comes in a close second with his portrayal of Stanley Larsen, the patriarch of the victim’s family.  You can feel his rage just beneath the surface.  He wants to do the right thing, but he’s not sure what that is. The rest of the cast are excellent as well.   This is more or less Mireille Enos’ series, and she does a superb job of carrying it, but without Kinnaman, the show doesn’t work.

If you haven’t watched The Killing, check it out.  It is worth a subscription to Netflix. Do yourself a favor.  Stay away from any and all spoilers, because I guarantee you won’t guess who done it

The cutest animal that will terrify you

The hamster horror!

BTW – I’ve owned every small, fuzzy aquarium pet you can buy and here they are in order of “regrets that ever I tried to pick them up, and offer them unconditional love.”

1. Gerbil – Bites the second you lay a hand on it.
2. Hamster – Bites once you’ve cleared it of it’s enclosure.
3. Mice – Sniffs around your hand briefly, lulls you into a false sense of security and then bites the crap out of you.
4. Guinea Pig – May give you a nip when you try to put it back in its enclosure.
5. Rat – I’ve owned a couple of pet rats, and they’ve never bitten me. They are actually highly intelligent and very trainable. It’s as easy to train a rat as it is to train a dog. I have no regrets that I ever owned rats.

One day I hope to konrath

Konrath (kon*rath) verb: To succeed in the world of publishing without the aid of a publisher.

Author Jude Hardin has an interesting post on Joe Konrath’s blog, A Newbies Guide to Publishing. For those of you not familiar with Konrath, he’s the author of a number of books under a couple of different pen names.  I’m most familiar with his Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels novels.  In recent years, he’s become the voice of the indie publishing scene.  He broke away from the traditional publishing world and has flourished as an indie author.  Every author wants to pull a konrath.

Jude Hardin is also the author of a number of books, the most successful of which feature a former rock star turned unlicensed private investigator named Nicholas Colt.  Hardin made the monumental decision to quit a good-paying job last year to pursue writing fiction full time.  He did so with a publishing deal in hand from Amazon’s publishing imprint, Thomas and Mercer.

Keep in mind, Amazon does not pay enormous advances (unless you’re Penny Marshall – $800,000).  In fact, I believe their general practice is to not pay any money upfront.  That doesn’t mean it’s not a great achievement to get a publishing contract from them.  It is.  I worked for an Amazon.com company.  They know who I am.  They’ve read my books, and they’ve never offered me a contract.  So, they do have some discretion. They won’t publish just anyone.  Bastards.

So, Mr. Hardin should feel good about his publishing deal.  Unfortunately, he discovered that not everyone can hit Joe Konrath’s numbers.  I don’t want to speak for him, so I’ll just direct you to his post – PUSHING THE BUTTON, PART 2: GOING INDIE.  Here’s a sample.

Sales haven’t been terrible, but they haven’t been great either.  Among the three series titles that have been available, I’ve sold about 20K copies over the past twelve months.

And here’s the deal, ladies and gentlemen: that ain’t enough.                      

It’s not enough for me to make a living, really, and it’s not enough for publishers to make an offer on future books in the series. Not the kind of offer I’m interested in, anyway.

My experience has been closer to Hardin’s than Konrath’s. I honestly believe my accountant must joke about my returns at dinner parties.  He even refused to imagine a scenario where I made a significant amount of money when we were discussing different tax structures for self-employed people.  He actually snickered with derision.

I’m not complaining, and I don’t believe Hardin is either. I think he’s just giving a factual account of his journey so far.  I am reminded of Brenna Clarke Gray’s post on Book Riot titled Readers Don’t Owe Author’s Sh*t.  Simply put, Gray is tired of authors pouring on the guilt trip because they aren’t selling enough books.  She points out it’s not her responsibility to support an author’s dream.  And I couldn’t agree more.

**To be clear, I’m not saying that Hardin is doing anything other than writing an informational post for educational purposes.

Writing is a job like any other.  Authors are no more entitled to throngs of fans than a dental assistant or a help desk associate.  I’ve seen authors on social media sites go nuts with ‘share’ requests and reminders that they ‘welcome’ reviews.  Early in my career, I may have done the same thing.  I may have even encouraged other authors to do so.  I know better now.

There’s an odd sense of panic when you first publish a book.  You feel an ever present clock ticking away in the back of your head signaling you’re running out of time if you want your book to be a success.  That finite window of opportunity only exists in the traditional publishing world.  Indie authors live in an evergreen world thanks to ebooks and POD.  There’s no need to panic.  We have no clock. There’s plenty of time for we indie authors to konrath.

The Takers Audio book and The Gore print version

John Anthony Davis is the narrator for the upcoming audio version of The Takers, and it is coming along nicely.  Any hang ups in the process have been my doing because for some stupid reason I decided to do the Audio book in the middle of finishing up The Gore.  Not smart.  Anyway, John has sent me a few clips, and they are fantastic.  I got unexpectedly emotional listening to his read.  It really hit me when Oz is begging Mrs. Chalmers not leave him alone.  Very powerful stuff.  I think you’ll all be pleased or as they say around here “Y’all will be pleased!”

To answer the question about the print version of The Gore, yes there will be one and soon.  I’ll have more info on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

The Gore so far and update on The Tree Readers

Thanks for the great comments!

I just wanted to post a quick update on The Gore.  Sales are going well for an indie guy like me.  I don’t have actual numbers to make an adequate comparison, but I think it’s doing better out of the gate than any of the other books that followed The Takers.  That tells me that Oz has picked up some loyal readers over the years, and I’m extremely appreciative of their support.  I would also like to thank those who have sent me feedback via email, Facebook, this blog, and Amazon.  Your comments have been encouraging and well-received.  Thank you!

On to the next R.W. Ridley book.  My plans are to finish The Tree Readers.  I’m not posting chapters on Wattpad as often as I had been the last six weeks or so for one simple reason.  I caught up to the point where I had stopped working on the story before I got sidetracked by a couple of other projects (including books 5 & 6 of the Oz Chronicles).  I had 78,000 words in my pocket when I started uploading to Wattpad, and I added a few more chapters as time permitted and the inspiration hit.  Now that The Gore is out of the nest, I’ve been putting more time into adding new chapters to The Tree Readers, and the word count now stands at a little over 100,000 words, and I’m probably about two-thirds of the way done.  This figures to be the longest book I’ve ever written, and I’m purposely structuring it with short chapters that average around 1,000 words (In fact, as it stands now, I have exactly 100 chapters). And it is hardcore science fiction with some fantasy elements thrown in for good measure. I think Alan Dean Foster’s influence may be shining through on this one.  I am not a “message” writer, not purposely at any rate.  What I have found is that “messages” usually find their way into stories organically, and that is definitely happening with The Tree Readers.  It’s hard not to examine the state of humanity when an alien race has made it their mission to exterminate humans.  Are we worth saving?  What purpose do we serve in the universe?  As the writer, I can’t help but address those questions.  It’s possible I won’t like the answer.

That’s it.  Again thank you all for your continued support of Oz and the gang.

BTW – I’ll have an update on The Takers audio book soon.  Stay tuned!

Superman and Oz

When is the Oz Chronicles not the Oz Chronicles?  When you compare my Oz Chronicles to the legendary L. Frank Baum’s Oz Chronicles.  I’ve been asked on a number of occasions if I was influenced by Baum’s work.  My answer is not intentionally.  I’m not blind to the similarities.  In some cases, they are starkly similar, but my experience with Baum’s series begins and ends the Wizard of Oz film.  As a kid growing up in the 70’s, I saw the movie every holiday season for years, but I was not aware that there were other stories featuring Oz.  When I settled on the name “The Oz Chronicles” after deciding The Takers would be the first in a series, I had no idea that Baum had already created an Oz Chronicles series of books.  I was just naming the series after the main character in my story.

Believe it or not, Superman is probably more of an influence behind my Oz Chronicles than L. Frank Baum’s books.  I devoured comic books as a kid and Superman was my go to superhero.  I loved the Fantastic Four (particularly Thing) and the Hulk, but Superman was always the first new comic book I would look for at the newsstand.  I’ve always said that to me the story of Oz Griffin is at its core a superhero’s origin story.  Thanks to the Délons, he even has the ability to call up superhuman strength, although he has to become something he hates in order to do so.

If I had a pot of gold, after I publish the seventh and final book, I would hire an illustrator and editor to release the series in comic book form.  I would even consider putting together a team to release comic books that extend beyond the seven books.  I don’t have the resources or expertise to do it on my own, so don’t look for it anytime soon.

However you can look forward to the new Superman movie this month.  Here’s a behind-the-scenes extended featurette about the summer blockbuster film.  I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

The Gore is live

Book Six is live!

That’s an odd way to put it for a book about dead things, but these are the publishing times we live in.  The Gore: Books Six of the Oz Chronicles is live in the Kindle store.  I uploaded about 11:00 pm last night, and I made my last change to the manuscript at 10:50 pm last night.  That is the great and horrible thing about the ebook format.  You can fix and screw things up literally just hours before the rest of the world has access to it.

I kept the cover as is, and I entered a very brief description.  The cover could change somewhat over the next few weeks, and the description will certainly change.

There is just one more installment of the Oz Chronicles left to write. In a lot of ways, writing a series is a foolish undertaking, and I wouldn’t recommend it to beginning writers.  There is a lot on the line with each new book.  You have to tear down and rebuild character archetypes, and you have to find someway to be both consistent and unpredictable. It can wreak havoc on your sleeping habits.

Stay tuned for information on the print version.