Heroes Often Fail will be released on September 28th, 2007.

Here is a preview of the front cover, designed by Spokane graphic artist Martina Iribarren.



So far, I have set up the following appearances promoting Heroes Often Fail:

Saturday, October 6, 4 PM to 7 PM at Hastings North, Spokane

Friday, October 12, 5 PM to 8 PM at Hastings South Hill, Spokane

Saturday, October 13, 1 PM to 4 PM at Hastings Shadle, Spokane

Friday, November 23, 1 PM to 4 PM at Hastings, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

I’ll be signing copies and gladly answering your questions at each appearance. Hope to see you there!

Another writer, Clair Dickson, chose to spend a little of her blog time reviewing Under a Raging Moon. You can read her review HERE in her August 11, 2007 entry.

I think the part I like best is where she writes, “Not only is the tale taugtly woven, dragging a reader on and on, the characters are very real.” Coming from another writer, that’s a great compliment to hear.

Okay, enough horn self-tooting. Let me toot Clair’s for just a moment. Clair writes, among other things, Bo Fexler mysteries. Bo Fexler is a little bit jaded, a little bit bitter and a lot funny. She also gets into a scrape or two (sometimes even resulting in a scrap). I think of her like a female Jim Rockford with a little dash of female Denis Leary thrown in for good measure.

She’s had a number of Bo stories published, so give them a try. If you like one, there’s others on tap.

With the completion of the short stories that were burning a hole in my head, I decided the next project I’ll tackle will be the revision of my hockey novel, All That Counts. In fact, I’ve already begun.

This novel, if published, will be under my real name.

Some of the other projects mentioned in the recent list of pending projects will also be under my real name or, depending on the material, a different pseudonym. I’ll tip you readers here in case you’re interesting in trying something besides crime fiction, though.

Anyway, with All That Counts, the puck has been dropped and it is "game on."

Well, I shipped off the final submission draft of Heroes Often Fail to my publisher this weekend. That’s not to say the final FINAL version of the book, as there will surely be a collaborative editorial process before the September release. But it felt good to get the revision finished.

That is, it felt good and bad. The novel is pretty dark and I definitely tapped into the current of emotion traveling through it. Some of the scenes I added or heavily revised dealt with the emotional core of the book. When I hit SEND on the email to the editor of Koboca Publishing, it was with relief and a heavy heart. Relief for having finished this stage and being able to move on to other projects in the interim. A heavy heart because of the emotional hangover from the book itself.

Don’t let a little darkness scare you. Just remember the creed of the series: In River City, the good guys usually win...but never completely...and never without cost.

Heroes Often Fail is the immediate sequel to Under a Raging Moon in the RIVER CITY SERIES of police novels. It will be released in September 2007 from Koboca Publishing.

I am working on the final submission revision of Heroes Often Fail.

This weekend was mostly tweaking and preening, as I downplay one storyline, tweak it and make it more palatable while amping up another. I’m adding a half dozen scenes or so and re-working a couple fairly radically.

Welcome to Revision Land.

One of the scenes I wrote this weekend involved Lieutenant Hart, the man everyone loves to hate. It was a fun scene, and a successful one, I think. The other major scene I worked on (still in progress) is a new scene with Detective Browning.

The novel needs to go to the publisher soon, so I’ll be working on this fairly steadily over the next couple of weeks, at least. The publication date is still Septemeber 2007 and I’m pretty excited about it.

The review website “Curled Up With a Good Book” has posted a positive review of Under A Raging Moon. You can read it HERE.

The reviewer says that “the excitement is fast-paced and loaded with sharp dialogue,” among other things. Take a look!

There is another favorable review for Under A Raging Moon at Front Street Reviews. Check it out!

Under A Raging Moon is featured in the Fall 2006 issue of the Alumni Newsletter for my alma mater, Eastern Washington University.

The link is HERE.

Under A Raging Moon is now available not only at the Spokane City library, but in the County Library system, too!

My thanks to Kimberley Lussier, who pushed things along! She works at the Deer Park branch. I grew up in Deer Park, graduating high school there before going into the Army. My Dad still lives there. The Deer Park Tribune did an article on me and I drove up to the Deer Park library to see about getting a copy. I found it in the library (nice write-up—thanks to Tom at the Trib for that!) and ran into Ms. Lussier. She recognized me (it is a small town and our paths had crossed more than a few times) and we spoke for a little while. I’m certain that she is directly responsible for the library getting multiple copies of the book. Thanks, Kim!

Another review of Under A Raging Moon has come in. This one is from Kevin Tipple, who is a prolific, quality reviewer. He also reviewed Seven By Seven recently.

He liked both!

In addition to being a writer and an independent reviewer, Kevin will be doing articles and book reviews at Mouthfull of Bullets.

The link to his blog and the two reviews is right here.

I am happy to report that Under A Raging Moon is now part of the city library system here in River City...er, I mean Spokane, Washington.

Only two copies, but here’s the good news–when I checked today, both copies were CHECKED OUT.

Not languishing on the shelf, but CHECKED OUT.

How cool is that?

Wanna see something cool?

Go to the City of Spokane Library website and do a search on Under a Raging Moon.

Guess what?

It’s there.

[grin].

There have been more reviews for Under A Raging Moon popping up.

On the website for Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine (my short story “Five for Fighting and a Murder Misconduct” will be appearing in the July/August issue), the lovely Dr. Cynthia Lea Clark wrote:

River City is like any other city. It has crime, political problems, and police officers with lives, disappointments, fears, tragedy and hope. But UNDER A RAGING MOON which has created River City is unique. It begins with one of River City’s police officers having to deal with a psychological evaluation to see if he or she is fit for duty...and then story begins.

River City is plagued by a gunman robbing convenience stores. The more he robs, the more violent the robber becomes. This incites the police department to catch him all the more. But it’s not that easy. The powers that be, tie their hands.

As the police officers, Thomas Chisolm, Katie Macleod, and Stefan Kopriva do their job, we also follow them in their life. We see their ups and downs, their losses, and gains, their compromises and compromising positions. We see these police officers and other members of the force as real people not just stereotypical characters. Frank Zafiro’s characters come to life. When reading UNDER A RAGING MOON, you feel as if you are transported into the action, you are viewing it, living it, not just reading it. Zafiro has an uncanny way of making these character’s seem as if they are your neighbors, your cops, your friends.

UNDER A RAGING MOON is a fast paced, easy to read police procedural novel written by a policeman who has put his soul into it. It is strong in emotion with lows and highs that flows with a steadiness. UNDER A RAGING MOON is a wonderful escape into the world of River City and I highly recommend it.

On a scale of 1 to 5, I’d give a 5!

From Amazon.com:

If you like the police life, or even the stories of cops on the street this book is the one for you. While reading this book not only could I not put it down, I found myself sitting in the pasenger seat as the characters preformed their jobs in River City. I have not read writing that pulled me in quite like this. This is the first book I have read from this author but I assure you that I am eagerly waiting for the next in the series.
–Eric Erdman

Under A Raging Moon takes place in River City. A fictional city loosely based around Spokane, WA. I truly liked this book alot...couldn’t put it down once I had picked it up. This book was a pleasant surprise for the reader with its plot twists and blow by blow accounts of police procedure about a serial robber that is getting more and more violent with every robbery. I am looking forward to the author’s next novel with eager anticipation.
–"So Many Books" (this user is actually a reader in Spokane named Stephanie. She contacted me after finishing the book)

There have been some written reviews of Under A Raging Moon...all of them by independent readers so far (though the review copies have gone out to publications and reviews will hopefully begin to appear in those mediums within the next month or so).

Here are three:

For those of us who can’t pass by the latest works of Ed McBain and John Sanford without making the purchase...add Frank Zafiro to your list. Finished at 2:00 a.m. this morning, UNDER A RAGING MOON left me bruised, depressed and exhilarated, all at the same time. Tough and inescapable, it races down the tough streets and back alleys with the men and women who lay their lives on the line for the good folk of River City.

Meet Thomas Chisholm, a field training officer (FTO), who will teach you how to stay alive. Tie one on with Kopriva, Giovanni, Ridgeway, and Karl Winter. Yes, “Choir Practice has never been this lively and twisted since the days of Joseph Waumbaugh. Laugh and cry with MacLeod and all the others, when you join me as a groupie at Duke’s.

Meet Scarface, the antagonist from hell, to know him is not to love him, who leads the force on a wild ride through River City, his actions become bolder, leading to high tension, edge of the seat reading...with grim results. An inventing, twisting plot, with characters vivid and entertaining, UNDER A RAGING MOON’S street-savvy dialogue and fast-paced action took me on one long, deep-into-the-night reading.

Frank Zafiro’s River City series debut has left me wanting for more. From the sympathetic to the destitute to the desperate people they deal with, the Department should have many more thrills in store. When I reach back to read my favorite authors’ first works, UNDER A RAGING MOON likens propitiously.

Dennis Leppanen, Free-Lance Journalist

And from Amazon.com:

River City convenience stores are being robbed by a gunman with a deep scar on his face. Nicknamed, Scarface, by the cops... with each additional robbery he becomes more and more violent.

Without a doubt, the best police procedural I’ve ever read! Having read several of the authors short stories, a number of them based in River City, I was compelled to read his first novel. The way the book, and realistic dialog proceeded... kept me up late into the night. Zafiro manages to get us deeply involved into both the personal and professional lives of his River City cops. Don’t keep us waiting long for a sequel!

Reviewer: M. Campio “Book Maniac” (West Hills, CA USA)

From the Wolfmont Publishing website:

As he sits talking to a psychiatrist about the critical incident that has brought him into the doctor’s office on this day, an unnamed police officer embroils us directly in the saga of how he got to this place. A riveting, hard-hitting tale of cops in action against the bad guys, Under a Raging Moon delivers a very real vision of how the police operate in an environment of constant threat.

Combining action and intense emotion, the novel is a winner on the hardboiled side of the mystery equation. Expect something fresh and different though, a step forward in the renaissance of crime fiction that appeals to the masculine side of any gender reader.

G. Miki Hayden, award winning author of The Naked Writer, a complete style and composition book for all levels of writers

All in all, a very nice start.

I’ve begun work on Beneath a Weeping Sky. I’ve also started work on the next Kopriva novel, yet untitled.

Odds are, I’ll tinker on both at the same time until one takes over and then it’ll get full attention until the first draft is finished. Both are so far ahead in the River City timeline that there is no rush, but I like to write on a story before it becomes stale.

I am about 7500 words into book three in the River City series.

Book One, Under A Raging Moon, is available now as an ebook and will be released in print on June 15th.

Book Two, Heroes Often Fail, is completed and ready for the editor.

The first draft of Book Three, Beneath a Weeping Sky, is underway. I’ll post updates on word count. Percentage-wise, I’ve completed the first two chapters of 29 projected chapters.

I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold the print rights to Under A Raging Moon to Wolfmont publishing, the same publisher that released Seven By Seven.

The book is scheduled for release on June 15th, 2006!

Here’s what the cover will look like:



Pre-orders are being accepted, no money down. Email me at frankzafiro@msn.com and let me know you want a copy. All pre-orders get their $9.95 instead of the $12.95 cover price. Shipping for pre-orders is FREE!

If you prefer an ebook over a hard copy, ePress-Online will be releasing an ebook version as well. More to come on that.

A pre-release review of Under A Raging Moon is up at Novelspot.

If you want to read it, click HERE.

The review was written by Ilona Hegedus, a Hungarian poet who writes in both English and Hungarian.

For those of you who don’t want to follow the link, here’s the text of the review:

When I start to read a police story, I expect an exciting one with lots of action and great, loveable characters I can identify with. Above all, however, I expect heroism and grandeur.
The best police characters are the ones that risk their lives day after day, not only for each other, but also because they are committed to making the world a better place to live in. For this they are willing to make sacrifices, even if it puts their most important human relationships at risk. Nevertheless, they somehow feel that it is worth it to continue, because they are doing the right thing.

This is how the characters in Frank Zafiro’s novel Under A Raging Moon are like, and I came to love them immediately. The author really knows how to make you care for the characters, as his greatest talent is in making them very human. The style is enjoyable, the writing is superb, and the book is full of witty dialogue that make you laugh out loud. Zafiro’s cops use humour a lot to ease the stress of everyday life and to show their feelings for each other. Reading their witty exchanges, the reader feels a sense of warmth, while reading about their losses and disappointments makes one root for them even more.

The novel is set in a fictional city in Northeast Washington State, and is the first book in the River City series. The main characters include male and female officers of the River City police department, Thomas Chisolm, Stefan Kopriva, Katie Macleod and many others. In this particular book they have to catch a very dangerous man, a veteran army officer who has committed a series of armed robberies.

Under A Raging Moon is highly recommended for lovers of police stories, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it made it to the big screen. I really hope it will.

Reviewed By Ilona Hegedus
© March 2006

I have received two great blurbs for Under A Raging Moon from two great writers: John Floyd and Earl Staggs.

John wrote:

Under A Raging Moon is an extraordinary crime novel. Like Ed McBain’s Isola, River City is a combination of the best and worst of the human species, and its cops are as complex and haunted as the criminals they battle each day. Frank Zafiro has created a gritty, totally authentic world with believable characters, nonstop action, and snappy dialogue (think Hill Street Blues in Washington state). Don’t miss this book–It’ll keep you turning pages well into the moonlit night.

Earl wrote:

In “Under a Raging Moon,” Frank Zafiro doesn’t tell you about the mean
streets, he takes you to them with clear, concise writing as solid as the
asphalt beneath your feet. You feel the tension between those out there
to prey and those there to protect. You feel the anxiety of knowing
every routine traffic stop could turn into a killing, and every junkie
and pusher you bust wants you dead. He also takes you deep behind the
badge. His ensemble cast of cops have issues within themselves and with
each other and can’t leave them at home any more than we can. You’ll be
there with them in the squad room, in the patrol cars and in their
favorite watering hole.

Frank Zafiro has woven a powerful story with realistic, memorable
characters, a suspenseful plot and a climax that will leave you
breathless. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it would be like to put
on the blue uniform, wear a badge and carry a gun, this one is highly
recommended.

Look for parts of both of these on the back of cover of my book when it is released sometime in June 2006. There will be an ebook version from ePress-Online for those of you who prefer that medium, as well as a print version from another publisher (I’m working out the details on that right now).

In addition to the FREE download of Chapter One, an Audio Book version is also available for FREE download.

The chapter is narrated by the talented Dan Nachtrab, a professional voice talent. He gives a great reading of the opening chapter of my book.

You can download the print version or the new audio version right HERE. And remember, both are 100% FREE.

I’d love to hear feedback on the chapter itself and the audio book version.

I’ve made the first chapter of Under A Raging Moon available for FREE download at my site.

Obviously the hope is that if you read chapter one, you’ll want to read chapter two and the rest.

I’ve also added a page showing the cover of Seven By Seven and listing the names of my stories in that.

You can get to both pages via my site, or go directly there via this link

The anthology should be released in April 2006. The novel, I’m not sure yet...I’m hoping for June.

Oh, and I am working on another angle with promoting UARM...something very cool. More to come on that. Stay tuned.

As I review my projected novels, I am starting to think that A Village of Strangers will likely be more of a novella or a very long short story, a la Good Shepherd or so. I’m not certain the story will support a full novel or have the impact it might have as a shorter piece.

I’m also not so sure I want to use this “new” character, Peter Conway, or perhaps put a different, existing character into this role. It will have more emotional impact with a character that a River City fan already knows. It is also an opportunity to deepen the background of an existing character rather than create a new one.

Anyway, if it goes novella (which I think it will), I’ll move it to the SHORT STORIES page...on the plus side, that length increases the likelihood of the story being completed in 2006 (see my back-dated New Year’s Resolutions for more– 1/1/06).

I have reached the end of this now...the completed first draft is about 72,000 words.

Now I will ask a couple of test readers to give me some feedback while I work on finishing up the eighty-seventh revision of the first two River City books. Hopefully, by the time I get All That Counts back from my readers, I’ll have a little clinical distance and can effectively work the first revision.

I had two different endings in mind...we’ll see what my beta readers think of my choice.

As always, it feels good to have finished the first draft of a novel.

I’ve slowed down on this a little over the past couple of weeks, but I got a couple thousand words done today. There were two important scenes in this small block here where a crisis with the main player’s teammate is resolved and one with his wife begins.

I’ve been working on too many things, including editing and website stuff and this novel has been mildly neglected.

I’m going to try to get a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday, if I can.

I modified and somewhat completed (for now, anyway) a River City timeline chart. It includes all the different River City novels and short stories in chronological order. The characters involved in each book or story are listed as well.

Two of the short stories included were written by Colin Conway and will eventually appear in Tales of River City. Likewise, Some Degree of Murder, a novel, was co-authored by Conway.

This isn’t the slickest of charts, but it’s a start. As I add stories and characters to the River City canon, I’ll update the chart. The novels are all linked to the novels page, but when published, each novel will have it’s own page. The published shorts are linked to their publication site and the unpublished ones are linked to the page where all unpublished shorts are listed. As they get published, the links will change.

Hope you find the chart interesting or helpful.

The other thing I did was add a short blurb about another novel in the pipeline. This one is called River City: Patrol. As it was, in the first two River City novels, I had a number of scenes in which patrol officers responded to calls for service in the course of duty. The scenes were good, but some of them didn’t serve to advance the story. On sage advice, I pulled these out of Under A Raging Moon and Heroes Often Fail and they will be part of a novel that will focus on exactly that–patrol calls for service.

Meanwhile, one or two of the calls-for-service stories have the makings of stand-alone short stories, so I will revise them to fit that mode.

I got Heroes Often Fail back from Conway a week or so ago. He was pretty thorough in his editorial pass.

One of the main points he made was that there are a number of scenes in the book that, while interesting and fun, did little to either advance the plot or develop characters.

He was right.

The same is true of Under A Raging Moon.

I’ve given it some thought and I am going to do a revision of both books, cutting out those ‘slice of patrol’ scenes. The ones that will stand alone as a short, I will revise as such. There is a particularly good one in HOF with Matt Westboard, for instance, that I really like.

The ones that don’t stand alone, I will collect together as the basis for a different book. Conway’s suggestion was something like River City: Patrol. This book would be without the emphasis on a serial robber, kidnapped child, serial rapist or organized gangs...just focus on life in patrol.

The down side to this is that I have a contract offer from an ePress that I was about to sign. I can’t do that in good conscience with this revision planned. I’ve written them and we’ll see if they are receptive to reading the newer, slimmer Under A Raging Moon.

Lots of work in the pipeline, boys and girls. All That Counts, revisions, several books in the queue to be written...why can’t I just win the lottery and write full time?

I guess it might help if I ever bought a ticket...

Got some more done today on this book today.

I’m just a shade over 50,000 words now. The problem is that I’m probably only half way through. I’m not going to try to trim it on the first draft, though. I’ll write the book and see where it comes in and then decide where it needs to be cut (if it does).

The main character is about one chapter away from a major turning point in the story. After that, it is a pretty straight drive to the end of the book. The conflict thus far has been him learning a new position (goaltender). The conflict will sharpen after the next game and deepen in the games to come.

I’m hoping to capture the flavor of beer league hockey, as well as show how important recreational sports can be to guys...and yet still show that all things have to be kept in perspective.

It’s a delicate balancing act. We’ll see if I can pull it off, even partially.

I’m up to 44,000 words now and the story is moving right along.

Another 3000 words or so during my days off. I’ve injected a little more seriousness as things have progressed. I also penciled in a very loose outline of the sort I’ve used on my police novels. It allows me to keep track of where I am and where I’m going, as well as being a place for note-taking and such.

I’m enjoying this story quite a bit. I hope that it will have appeal outside the very small circle of recreational hockey players. There is much in it that is universal and yet some that is unique to hockey, so that is a nice mixture.

I’ll keep plugging away on this until I’ve finished the first draft. I may increase my reader pool a bit over my normal 2-3 people for this particular book.

Well, the title will work for now. I got up to just over 34, 000 words today and this may be a bigger book than I thought. I have a feeling, though, that since I’ve laid a nice foundation for the games, I can go with much shorter chapters as the season winds on.

I’m still injecting humor where I can, but I’ve also started hinting at a drinking problem one player has and tossed in a little bit of a race issue.

I think I can safely say that this is the project I’ll be working on now until it’s finished.

I got another few thousand words on my hockey novel done today.

I think I might have the first working title for it..."All That Counts."

The title comes from a line that an opposing player says to the main character in the parking lot after a game. The main characters team kicked the shit out of the other team. The main character says, “You played well” to the opposing player (the other team’s goaltender).

The opposing player snarls back, “All that counts is what’s on the scoreboard.”

One of the themes of this novel is that this statement is patently untrue.

Anyway, if I still like it when I sit down to work on the next chapter, we might have our first working title. No more “Hockey Novel.”

I’m around 28,000 words right now. Long way to go yet.

I’m just over 25,000 words on my hockey novel. It still doesn’t have a title, but the words are flowing easily.

Sometimes it works that way. I’ve sat down to write a story or a book with the title already chosen before the first word is out. Other times, like with Waist Deep, I didn’t have a title until 2/3 of the way through the book. Up to that point, it was just Kopriva Novel. So, right now, my title is Hockey Novel.

I’m having a lot of fun writing this. The characters are fun and like I said, the words are coming easily. There’s some humor in it for layman and hockey aficionado alike (the hockey folks will laugh more and louder, but not alone), but it will have some serious elements, too.

It’s also a nice break from the crime fiction I usually write. Not that I don’t enjoy that–I do immensely–but you should take breaks even from the things you love sometimes.

Besides, I haven’t taken a total break...I wrote two very short pieces, discussed above.

I wrote another 5000 words today, thanks to my wife’s patience. I’m now at about 22,000 words and reached a point after the team’s first game of the season. I have one more scene in that chapter to write and then that chapter is finished.

I’m enjoying writing this, as the scenes spill out fairly easily. I’ll have to work on a couple of things in the revision process, but as far as a first draft goes, this is rolling along well.

A friend of mine, also a hockey player, is acting as a reader for me, and his feedback is good, too, so that is encouraging.

I managed to write some more on my hockey novel today (still no title for it...but it’ll come) to the tune of about 4200 words.

I introduced most of the players on the main character’s team in this chapter. It was a lot of fun to paint these different characters and write the locker room banter as they all get dressed for the first game of the season.