The Words and Worlds of J.M. Hayes: News & Signings

With the recent release of Broken Heartland, the latest in the Mad Dog and Englishman series, there's been a small flurry of things happening.

J.M's just completed a rash of signings (with more to be announced shortly) and there's a great new interview with J.M. on Betty Webb's blog, with some pretty intriguing background on the inspiration for the Mad Dog and Englishman books.

Speaking of interviews, J.M. kicks off the new The Writing Life segment of this site with him on the other side of the desk, as he interviews fellow mystery authors Elizabeth Gunn and Betty Webb.

UPCOMING SIGNINGS

Left Coast Crime
March 6-9, 2008.
Denver, CO
Adam's Mark Hotel,
J.M. will appear as a panelist, along with Richard A. Thompson, Carl W. Brookins, and Roberta Isleib. The topic will be "Over Medium: Soft v. Hardboiled." The panel will be held Friday, March 7, 8:30-9:15 am.

A LAGNIAPPE FOR READERS

J.M.'s annual survey of his favorite books is now online, with some keen insights and some frank appreciated of the books that revved his motor in 2007.

You can read his choices here....

PUT TO THE PAGE 69 TEST

In December, J.M. submitted Broken Heartland to the Page 69 Test, Marshal Zeringue's amazing blog ( part of the much larger Campaign for the American Reader blog).

The test dares authors to judge their own book, not by its cover, but by its page 69. No muss, no fuss, no context -- just one single page to weigh the relative merits of a sin, an "independent initiative to encourage more readers to read more books."

J.M. handles the task with his typical blend of integrity and wit.

SIGH...

J.M.'s has just informed us that his 2004 novel, Prairie Gothic, has made a "Best of" list, although he confesses it's one he'd "rather not be eligible for." A friend just sent him a copy of the June 4, 2007 New York Magazine. On page 56, the article (also blurbed on the cover) is titled "The Best Novels You've Never Read: Sixty-One Critics Reveal Their Favorite Underrated Book of the Past Ten Years," by Katie Charles."

The kind and generous (and perceptive) John Orr of the San Jose Mercury News picked Prairie Gothic. "It's no easy trick to write about America with a clear eye for its faults and with warm humor. Mark Twain managed it, and so does J.M. Hayes, with admirable wit in the face of horror."

Sleepy Benteen County, Kansas turns frantic on election day. Sheriff English, better known as Englishman, faces his toughest re-election challenge yet. The radical religious right is out to unseat him, their candidate an Iraq war hero. Englishman’s only available deputy isn’t winning him votes, not after ramming a school bus carrying a local teen choir during a pre-dawn chase. The occupants of the vehicle being pursed seem involved with involuntary organ donors and secret surgeries. Englishman’s brother, Mad Dog, a born-again Cheyenne, rushes back from a quest to the Black Hills. Instead of a vision, he had a premonition that the sheriff is in serious danger. Finding his farm vandalized and a cruel political billboard in his front yard, Mad Dog complicates the sheriff’s life by investigating the hate crime himself. The sheriff’s daughters, attending separate colleges, wake with similar premonitions, then cut classes and hurry home to keep their father safe. The sheriff sees them as the ones in need of protection as his day grows progressively wilder. A student smuggles a gun into the school and begins shooting and taking hostages. Then there’s the private army that’s seized a nearby farm and holds citizens against their will. And, when he finds some spare time, Englishman needs to clear up one little thing about his deputy’s accident. Benteen County doesn’t have a teen choir.

To find out more about Southwest Crime Ink, click here.

Authors are supposed to promote themselves. That's so we sell enough copies of our books to keep our publishers happy and, with luck, avoid living in dumpsters during our golden years. My most recent effort is Southwest Crime Ink.

Southwest Crime Ink is a group of four Tucson mystery writers: Elizabeth Gunn, Susan Cummins Miller, J. Carson Black and myself. We've been friends for years. We critique for each other. If you put us together in front of a crowd, we're a ready-made event.

We debuted at one of Tucson's libraries. We drew well, had a swell time, and no one got bored enough to walk out. Next up, bookstores. Our first mistake was probably taking our act so far on the road. We went to Sedona, where the four of us drew a crowd of three. These are not good odds for profitable book marketing. More readers turned out for our next try, a Tucson Borders. Unfortunately, the store only ordered paperbacks for one of us. Guess how many of us sold any books?

In spite of our spectacular start, we're determined to keep trying. Watch this space for future outings.

Oh, and if you don't like our name, don't tell us. Imagine only if you can, how hard it is to get four creative writers to agree on a name. As soon as one of us found a good one, someone topped it. And, of course, we all liked our own ideas best.

Finally, we developed a complicated voting system that didn't let us pick our own suggestions, and we promised to stick with it. I'll keep you posted if that changes.

Regardless, I'd like you to meet my partners in Southwest Crime Ink. To find out more about them, just click here or go to their individual web sites.

Elizabeth, Susan and J. are all terrific writers and wonderful people and I recommend them all highly. And I'm proud to be associated with them.