Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail…

Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion. That’s the title of a short story collection just published in which I have a short story entitled, “Murder…Then and Now.” I find myself in amazingly good company here–stories by Sara Paretsky, Paco Taibo II,Cory Doctorow, Gary Phillips (one of the editors.)
The publicity for the collection reads, in part, “From the turbulent days of unionism int he streets of New York City to the Great Depression…” and ithe stories are about people in a time and place who not only talked loudly and at length about what they perceived as society’s ills, but who more often than not were willing to walk their talk. You’ll understand, then, that some of these stories are out of print, though a few, like my own, are original–written specifically for this collection. Mine looks back a few years to the ’60s and Vietnam and Power to the People…then looks forward. To now…when things are a bit different. PM Press, publisher of this very cool collection, publishes lots of other very, very cool stuff. It’s a publishing company that walks its talk… and its talk is righteous! Check ‘em out if you’re not already familiar with them. And buy a copy or two or three of “Molotov.” Look them up on line: www.pmpress.org. And yes–I’m definitely aware that my initials are sitting right there. I assure you I wouldn’t mind claiming ownership of this outfit, but I’ll have to settle for being one of the many names in their long list of published authors. Did I mention into what extraordinarily good company that places me?

A View of the Past in the Now

En route to work yesterday…walking from the busstop to the library…turned the corner to behold five stately Black women “of a certain age” walking up the block, stopping at a gate to confer. Two entered the yard, the others continued up the walk. All wore pretty pastel-colored dresses and all carried lovely umbrellas. Not the large black things that shelter us from the rain but pale, pastel things with decorative images–flowers or butterflies–I couldn’t tell. But here’s the thing that really snatched my attention: They were Jehovah’s Witnesses delivering the message–and the Watchtower. I don’t know when I last witnessed the Witnesses on their rounds but I felt a warmth at the sight of them. Perhaps I’ve even missed them? Anyway, it brings me to this: I’ve got a short story in a new collection edited by my friend Gary Phillips called, SEND MY LOVE AND A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL. Provocative title, yes? Provocative stories, too, and I’ll go into more detail about them later. The point is, it’s a BOOK. The kind with covers front and back and pages within. It will, of course, appear in ebook format but I’ll be buying the BOOK. Yes, the publisher will give me a few copies, but I’ll be purchasing more to give to family…and just to hold in my hands. Books are no more extinct than Jehovah’s Witnesses, but perhaps we need the occasional reminder not to allow 21st century awe to blunt the small wonders of our lives. A 20,000 member church can’t hold a candle to five believers carrying the message door to door. And a book in the hand is worth thousands in the ereader.

Seven out of Ten…

Seven of my novels now are available in ebook format on Smashwords.com. Yes, it has taken a while, largely because I undertook to do the formatting myself. Those of you who know me know that technology is not my strong suit. Those of you able to re-format books from the standard format into ebook format probably wouldn’t consider that technology. But I felt I needed to it myself so that I’d really understand that component of the ebook phenomenon–and it truly is that. Observers of trends and such tell us that more people now read books on devices than read…well…books. I’m still ambivalent in my feelings about this shift but it doesn’t really matter what I think. What matters is that people are reading books electronically and because I want people–lots of people–to read my books, it only makes sense to make the books available the way people want to read them. So far, all four books in the Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione series are up and available, as are the two Phil Rodrirquez mysteries. The first Carole Ann Gibson nobel, ONE MUST WAIT, is ready for download, and I’m preparing the next one. Slower than I’d like for sure, but moving forward.

Believing What You Read…Or Not

As part of my delayed entry into the 21st Century and allowing New School thoughts and attitudes to permeate my Old School ways of thinking, I decided to believe the exortations on various sites that I could indeed set up my own blog! All I needed to do was read and follow the instructions.  Well. I’m certain that there are are hundreds or thousands or even millions of people who read the instructions and Bob’s Your Uncle! they’ve got their blogs or websites up and running, got their novels digitised and ready to e-format. I’m not one of them. In fact, I’m not even sure that this would-be blog of  mine exists anywhere but in my imagination, and I’ve succeeded in getting but ONE of my ten mystery novels ready to send to the company that I’m now happily prepared to pay to format and make available on all possible platforms for purchase by e-readers. I felt bad for a little while about my failure to launch, but then I got over it. After all, I’d already paid a professional to create www.pennymickelbury.com so there’s no shame in using another one to get me e-booked. I’m sticking with this blog, though, at least for the next little while. I’d really like to  accomplish getting it up and running. If you’re reading it, it means I succeeded!!

Schools: Old, New and In Between

My Old School self is feeling really kinda New School  with this blogging thing.  Better late than never, I suppose. After ten published mystery novels,  half a dozen unproduced stage plays, and a sorely underused and neglected website to my name, it seemed clear that it was way past time to enter the 21st century. So, not only do I have this Blog, but my Old School self is having my ten published mystery novels digitized and converted to ebook format. Of course, some things happen faster than others. For example, establishing a blog is quick and almost easy…for an Old Schooler like myself. However, ebooking novels requires some real skill and more technical know-how than I possess, so that’s a process. It’s happening, though, and the first Phil Rodriquez mystery, TWO GRAVES DUG, whill be downloadable (is that a word??) in the very near future. I’ll keep you posted in this space. By that time, I should have (I hope to have!) reconciled myself to this new and growing technology. My Old School self loves books–actual books.  Real books. I do understand, though, that progress is a process, too, and we have moved forward to the place where “ebook” soon will be a word in the dictionary. Maybe by that time I’ll own an e-reader.