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Friday, July 4, 2014

SPOTLIGHT: Justified

Justified is a crime novel with a dark humor satire screaming to come out!


Purchase the e-book at http://amzn.to/1oyJtSP
and the paperback at http://bit.ly/KaliJustified

There is no mystery: we know what has happened from the very beginning, even if not all the characters share in this knowledge.

There is a crime committed, but as is the case in real life these days, the crime becomes secondary to the reality of media coverage. 

The truth becomes sound bites and the faces of the talking heads giving credence to the facts they want to assume are in evidence.

No crime in the 21st century is truly complete without a media tour and a spokesperson.

Justified offers all that plus a road trip that transports the freak show from Brooklyn, NY under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, to Los Angeles and then San Francisco, under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Justified also offers a diverse cast of characters from the Colombian sexpot, to the angry African American lady, to the queer anti-hero and the Israeli commando with the faint Southern drawl… 

The book also savages two special cameos by media stars (both old and young), and how we treat crime stories differently on a generational level—but always in the interest of selling soap and bigger ratings.

Is morality dead or does it manifest differently to accommodate the ridiculous times we live in?

Race, religion, and politics all play a role in the story Justified tells, but it’s the characters that will stay with you: from the police detectives investigating the story, to the opportunist lawyer trying to cash in on the action, and especially Edmond Styles, the protagonist, who is a whole lot more than the quiet, aging civil servant everyone assumes him to be.

What makes this good summer reading? The scandal! 

The raw element of reality (as well as our own guilty pleasure and our part in the conspiracy as we follow the details, the blood trail, the facts that lead to the inevitable end). 

And it is an inevitable end, because at heart, Justified is a conventional story of the good triumphing over evil despite our basest instincts.

Sex, murder, violence, and objectionable language: it’s all there! The only thing missing is a car chase, but there is a scene in a crazy cab in San Francisco that fills in for it. 

More than that, Justified has heart, passion, and laughter. And in the end, you'll also learn what a manly haiku is all about.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Paperbacks are Here


These are the choices from Amapola Press to start your summer reading: a collection of vignettes of a dozen women taking the reins of their own destinies or the story of a queer man from humble beginnings to a life of civil servitude in Brooklyn, to a life of crime and a road trip and instant fame... Slices of life, rolling out of the pages and inviting you into a dozen different worlds, or one strange trip. Short stories or satire.

Of course, the Kindle version is also available at Amazon, but some people have a pathological need to lick a finger to flick a page and to dogear the corner of a page. Some people get a special satisfaction to carrying a small paperback with them to the beach or the pool or a lake... And their predilection for paper is okay.

In fact, if I could get myself doodling again, I was thinking of putting together a coloring book for the bored.