Very glad to have been recently given a Literary Titan Book Award for my bodybuilding murder mystery. With all the work and time that goes into producing a book, it's rewarding to receive an award "bestowed on books that expertly deliver complex characters, intricate worlds, and thought provoking themes."
I hope you check it out!
And how could I have been remiss to mention a very successful book-signing event recently at Saint Peter's University's O'Toole Library. And yes, I sold all those copies of FATAL POSE, raising money for our chapter of the National Communication Honor Society!
Then, in the twentieth century, the news media would once again satiate a public appetite for knowledge about real criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floy, Machine Gun Kelly, and underworld kingpins like Al Capone. Among the most popular films at the time were the gangster films that made superstars out of actors like Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson playing underworld thugs and tough guys. But even before frontier justice or stories of organized crime in the United States were turned into public entertainment, we had millennia of people all over the world turning out to see the brutal public flogging, skinning, burning, disembowelment, decapitation, and dismemberment of people who had defied the law. It is remarkable to behold the incredible level of mathematical and architectural accomplishment of the ancient Romans thousands of years ago, and then to consider the fact that they applied such advanced knowledge to the construction of the Colosseum, an immense amphitheater dedicated to displays of violence and brutality. For the ancient Romans, watching marathon sessions of gladiatorial combat where people from criminals to slaves, prisoners of war in the empire’s foreign campaigns, and all sorts of imprisoned undesirables being forced to fight each other to the death was as entertaining as watching football or baseball is to us.
So, taking in such a history of violence, we have to recognize that the twenty first century’s violent entertainment, like movies or documentaries discussing true crimes, pales in comparison to the blood lust of our ancestors. We merely hear about serial killings or see actors recreating crimes in TV shows or movies. We no longer watch people torn limb from limb in front of us or watch see them get crucified, scourged, or burned at the stake.
The point is that we need to realize that a fascination for all manner of information about or depictions of violence is a part of human nature. There are areas of science that have long sought to understand this. Perhaps there was an evolutionary advantage to constantly thinking about possible threats, possible sources of violence. An imagination of threats kept our ancestors on the lookout for dangerous predators. This fixation on the violent and morbid, in turn, kept them alive long enough to reproduce and pass those traits on to descendants who merely enjoy a TV show like "You" about a murderous stalker. Today’s threats we need to be on the lookout for, the new unseen danger that haunts the imaginations of modern humans, is not a wild animal hiding in the bushes but the serial killer who might be living among us. It is the friendly person who lives down the street or a boyish coworker we talk to every day who might be a twisted, blood-thirsty psychopath. Our fascination with true crime then is merely our evolutionary programming at work. Films, TV shows, and documentaries dramatize this programming.
Seeing a story you had spent years crafting, polishing, rewriting, and just generally fussing over night and day until it's ready for publication connect with readers and critics is always fantastic. Very happy to have gotten this excellent review of FATAL POSE by Literary Titan.
I was recently interviewed about a subject that's quite a favorite of mine because it's so hard to come to conclusions about. It's a topic that requires and open mind, but one that won't be easily filled up with garbage...
UFOs.
This article on the How Stuff Works website (and you can listen to its podcast version as well) details the complex classification system of alleged UFO encounters, everything from strange lights in the sky to encounters with otherworldly beings and all the way to purported human/alien hybrids walking among us. The classification system was originally devised by the legendary astronomer J. Allen Hynek, and it would eventually provide the title for Steven Spielberg's iconic science fiction film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Hynek's system only had three kinds of close encounters. As the article details, at least seven more have been added, including complex subheadings of encounters.
But Hynek's involvement in UFOs I find very intriguing since the eminent astronomer who had originally worked for the Air Force's research projects into the phenomenon was originally a skeptic. He changed his mind while working on the infamous Project Blue Book.
I'm quite open minded about the topic of UFOs myself, but I guess I would consider myself an open-minded skeptic. The recent Pentagon report on UFOs (or UAVs as they like to call it), I thought, made an intriguing case for the consideration of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. There is something flying around in the skies, physical objects of some kind, aircraft that could not have been built by any known technology on Earth today. So where does that leave us about this issue...?
I don't know.
I kind of like the Sherlock Holmes approach to UFOs: once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, has to be the answer. So far the Pentagon report made a pretty good case for the elimination on Earthly technology behind the phenomenon.
So does that leave aliens?
I don't know.
So my mind is open about the issue, but just as long as we don't get into the territory of absurdly complicated government conspiracies about back-engineered UFOs, demonic UFOnauts, and U.S. presidents having made deals with aliens in abduction/technology-exchange deals.
It's always great to see your work recognized and I'm very excited to receive this 5-Star review from Reader's Favorite for FATAL POSE. Check it out right here.
In the world of LA's pro bodybuilding scene, health and fitness can be deadly!
With the release of my new novel, FATAL POSE, take a sneak peek at its entire first chapter!
CHAPTER 1
With a face like a homecoming queen, she had a body that must have been some one hundred and seventy pounds of lean muscle. At about five feet and six inches tall, her physique was flawlessly proportioned. She had a disarming smile, wore her hair in a well-styled pageboy, and sported a low-cut flowery summer dress. The wide neckline of her dress was snug atop the dense pectorals and reaching toward a pair of wide, hulking deltoids. The tight fit at the top, though, allowed for the dress to slacken at the waistline. There, her torso tapered from her hard-pumped lat muscles, creating the precision V look of her upper body .
“Perfect,” Laura Preston whispered as the flash bulbs strobed around their model.
They were snapping the final pictures for Muscle Quest magazine’s “Bodybuilding R&R” segment for next month’s issue. Laura was about to worry the shoot would run too late again. She had made a point of staying all the way until the end, but now she absolutely had to get going. Her mind was on the drive up to Big Bear Lake more than anything else. Well, the drive, the Smith and Wesson automatic handgun in her desk upstairs, and the meeting with Brad Holt.
“All right, and that’s a wrap,” Dave Sachs, the photographer, called and glanced at Laura.
She nodded her approval.
“We’ll have the proofs for you by tomorrow,” Dave told Laura. “My word on that.”
“I know,” Laura said.
“I’m sorry we had to reshoot.”
“At least we’ll make the deadline. That’s what matters.”
“Hey, Laura,” called Christy Gilmore, the model with the spectacular physique. “I think it’s a good thing we had to do a second shoot, you know.” “How’s that?” Laura asked.
“I got a full circuit in since last time. Chest, legs, back, everything. This morning it was biceps and triceps.”
She quickly raised her right arm and contracted her bicep. The fresh pump in the gym had the athlete’s muscles gorged with blood, looking as if the hypertrophied hunks of muscle were straining to explode right through her skin.
Back when she used to compete, Laura was merely a shadow of the enormous musculature on Christy Gilmore.
Christy flashed one of the winning smiles that helped propel her to victory three times in a row over the past year and a half. Winning the Ms. California Invitational, the National Physique Association’s All-National pro-qualifiers and the Muscle Extravaganza women’s championship had earned her the photo spread in the next issue of Muscle Quest.
The “Bodybuilding R&R” column was the human-interest section of each issue. It profiled what normal lives the physique competitors really lived outside the gym. Fighting the ongoing battle to mainstream the sport, Laura had conceived of the column three years ago. The R&R feature alternated between male and female athletes from month to month, and Laura knew most of the attention had to go into the women’s version. In the twenty-first century, she still had to fight wars to get the female athletes the respect they deserved. Someone like Christy Gilmore making it to the pro ranks was a godsend, Laura realized. Not only did Christy have an otherworldly physique, but her dimpled, girl-next- door smile might just generate a renewed interest in the floundering women’s division of the World Body Building Federation. Or maybe one day, Christy could start making movies and get herself elected governor of California.
That’s when Laura felt something like a spear of pure, solid ice ramming into the middle of her chest again. The blast of adrenaline flooding her body felt as if someone was deliberately tearing into her soul.
Because they were, Laura knew and fought to keep a convincing smile on her face as she said goodbye to Christy. Laura knew how precisely, how deliberately, her life and her career were targeted for complete destruction.
Brad Holt.
No, it was more than her career, Laura knew. Brad Holt would not be satisfied with that. He wanted to step on, to defile everything she believed in, everything she stood for in the WBBF organization, everything she wanted this sport to represent.
Except she would not give him that chance.
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