First Line – Heroes Often Fail

It was a secret place and like most secret places, it was forbidden and dangerous.

Testosterone supplements are there to increase your penis viagra cipla size there are hundreds of supplements to choose from. Stahl ate it, describing it as “cucumbery in texture, but not bad.” She lost sildenafil side effects the desire to eat or drink the entire day. If a product is promoted as something that can occur at any time of life, and can be very embarrassing talking about it, and some men live their life under the shadow of a problem that can easily be dealt with. discount viagra pharmacy The dose of PAH is 20 to 25 mg and then continues to 50mg, 100mg, 150mg, and 200mg and continues to the quantity the person wants. http://cute-n-tiny.com/category/cute-animals/page/6/ tadalafil 20mg cipla This, I think, is a much better opener than my first book. It begins with a look into the very normal world of two six year old girls, and ends with something terrifying happening to one of them — she is kidnapped right off the street in the middle of the day.

I’d give this opener a B+, maybe even tickle an A.

What do you think?

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Heroes Often Fail also had an interesting road to publication. After tiny Wolfmont Press published the first RC novel, they secured the right of first refusal for the follow ups. I turned this one in, and it was refused. I was surprised, and asked why. Did it suck? No, I was told. The writing is better than the first book. But the editor was convinced that no one would want to read a story in which a child is in peril.

I thought he was wrong and out of touch with what was happening in crime fiction. I also pointed out that virtually nothing bad happens to the child on the page. It’s all off stage. We went round and round in discussion and he even went so far as to post a survey with leading questions that had limited responses, and then use that as “evidence” to prove his point.

Of course, anyone who has been paying attention to the crime fiction (and true crime) genre over the past thirty years knows the score.

In the end, we simply agreed I would take the book elsewhere. But he exercised his option to hold onto the first book for the life of the contract. So I found myself in the unenviable position of trying to sell book #2 of a series to a publisher when a different publisher already published and retained the rights to book #1 for another couple of years.

Yay.

Aisling Cover

Enter Koboca Press, which quickly morphed into Aisling Press. An ambitious publisher, Aisling had already published three of my stories in a cool anthololgy called The Ex Factor, so I had a relationship there. I pitched the idea of them picking up the series, with the proviso that I’d get my rights back to book #1 as soon as the contract ended and they could re-issue it. Honestly, I didn’t think they’d go for it, but they did.

Not only did Aisling publish Heroes Often Fail in 2007 but it was the only one of my books to ever come out in hardcover. And they came up with a nice looking cover design, too, which they commissioned with a Spokane graphic artist.

Unfortunately, Aisling’s own ambition did them in. They put out too many books, too quickly, and without enough marketing support. At least, that seems to be the problem. They ultimately had to fold, and graciously released my rights immediately upon ceasing operations. I got to keep the cover, too.

Gray Dog Press Cover

It wasn’t until 2010 that, along with Under a Raging Moon, Gray Dog Press re-issued Heroes Often Fail. The cover for that edition is probably the only cover I’ve ever really hated, even though I get why it was chosen. The Post Street Bridge is where a pretty big scene happens. But still…I just never loved it.

When GDP ceased fiction publication and the rights reverted to me, I used the same cover photos for Under A Raging Moon and Beneath a Weeping Sky when I re-issued the books myself…. but I got a different cover for Heroes.

I think there’s considerable growth in my writing between my first and second book, and that it shows on the page. Heroes Often Fail is a pivotal book in the series, and serves to launch the spinoff mysteries featuring Stefan Kopriva ten years later. The events in this book loom large in the legend of the River City Police Department, and leave an ugly scar.

It is also the book where Katie MacLeod takes another step forward into becoming the core of this series…