But just what does that mean to you?
What if you don’t have a Kindle?

Here’s a surprise – you don’t need one!
That’s right. You can take advantage of the many thousands of e-books on amazon, right now, and all you need to do is download the free Kindle app (for your iPhone, iPad or Blackberry) or software (available for both PC and Mac) and you’re ready to start reading!

Just click here and look on the left hand side for the application or software that you need.
After that, you can go to my author page on amazon and there are my books!
Click on the one you want, look for the Kindle version, then look on the right hand side for ‘Buy Now With 1 Click” or “Send Sample Now” for a free preview!
That’s pretty sweet, right? Right.

What’s also very cool is that there are thousands upon thousands of free e-books that you can be devouring within minutes. Classics, poetry, mystery, science fiction, horror, self-help, philosophy, religion – you have an interest in it, I’m sure amazon has an e-book available to whet your appetite.

I personally downloaded the complete works of noted horror writer H. P. Lovecraft in a matter of minutes, for only $4. Sure, I could have gotten certain ‘printings’ for free, but I like downloading the free samples and looking at different formatting, different cover designs, and finding one that I like best aesthetically.
I recommend that you do the same. Its literally like going into your favorite bookstore, taking the book off the shelf and flipping through it before you buy it.
Freakin’ genius, that’s what it is.
Next, I got the complete Charles Dickens for free. FREE!
And Lord knows I love me some Dickens; and now I have his entire body of work, any time I want it, on my iPhone or on my home computer or my little netbook.

I guess my point here is that you don’t need a fancy Kindle, iPad or iPhone to get started in the e-book revolution. All you need is your computer and a few minutes of time and you’ll be ready to start exploring.

I wish you the best! Have fun! Discover something new!
And as always, thank you for your support of the series, Denton and Monty.

The Many Faces of Amazon’s Kindle is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

Resurrection Angel Now Available As eBook is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

As before, if you don’t wanna know now, turn away. But if you’d like to see who I cast, who I think would make a great cast, then read on, MacDuff.

The Cast of “Everlasting Life”

Denton Ward: Because this is my fantasy, I decided that Val Kilmer was too difficult during filming and we, in those famous words ‘decided to go in a different direction’ and signed Guy Pearce to play the tormented psychic Denton Ward in the second movie. I think he would play better off of Petty’s Monty Crocetti, and would bring the real wounded animal out in Denton that is necessary for this second movie.

Montgomery Crocetti: Of course, I went back to the well on this one; there will never be another actress that could play Monty Crocetti besides Lori Petty. I just think that she would get the character, get the part, get the combination of mother, nursemaid, punk rocker and ass kicker that is my Monty. Can you tell I have a crush on my own fictional character? How pathetic is that? (Answer: very)

Nicholas Shanley: Robin Williams was not difficult nor manic nor zany nor any of that other crap during filming, so he gets the callback as dying lawyer Nicholas Shanley. Again, I really think that he would do this part up right. He would lose the weight required, would portray the frail barrister as the hero he truly is, but sometimes fails to recognize. I can totally see the scenes between Williams and Pearce in my mind, and they would be brilliant together.

Emilio Gonzalez: I know who and what Emilio is in my head, so I went with that image when writing it, but when it came to casting for this entry, I realized that my knowledge of young Latino actors was woefully inadequate. But a stroke of luck had the movie “Crazy/Beautiful” on this weekend, and I found Jay Hernandez quite a good young actor. I think he could bring the necessary swagger and fragile facade to the role of the young untested lawyer.

Jean-Baptiste LeRoi: Okay, so I have no idea who this actor is. I remember vaguely seeing him in a sitcom years ago, and I grabbed this picture immediately to put in the binder for this book, but I didn’t write down the guy’s name and that’s a shame, because he would be the proud, reclusive, Jean-Baptiste. He’s got the accent, the looks, the dreads, the air of royalty. If you know who he is, drop me a line in the comments, I’d like to at least give him credit.

Rico: Proud, impulsive, brash, dangerous, with a certain feral sexuality – that’s our boy Rico, played by Antonio Sabado, Jr. If Jean-Baptiste is Gandhi, then Rico is Malcolm X. A hand grenade with the pin pulled. You never know when it will explode and blow off your hand. I think Sabado, Jr. could do that easily. And yes, he does look like Emilio/Hernandez above. Do you think that’s an accident? Discuss.

Adrienne Flaherty: There’s nothing like a good Irish girl to play a good Irish girl. This is Andrea Corr, from the Irish band, The Corrs. She’s got the tough, slightly rocker/goth chick look going on here, and I think that’s a good thing. There needed to be similarities between Adrienne and Monty and this works for me. She’s a small part of the story, but she’s the catalyst to everything that happens afterward.

Detective Williams: I forgot about him in the “Resurrection Angel” movie. The ex-NFL running back turned police detective, who had to serenade his daughter with a thoughtful, kind, rendition of “Hush Little Baby”. This is Roger E. Mosley, whom I am sure that most of you will remember from his stint as Tom Sellick’s sidekick on “Magnum P.I.”. Well, he’s assisting another private investigator and this one is better looking than Sellick.

Miss Charlotte: I tell you, sometimes I get more emails about my secondary characters than I do about Denton and Monty. With “Resurrection Angel” it was the Andersen family. With this book, it’s always Miss Charlotte. Everyone loves her. And of course, I have found the perfect actress to play her. Her name is June Gable, but several million of you will remember her as Joey’s agent Estelle from “Friends”. Who didn’t love Estelle? Who doesn’t love Miss Charlotte?

I hope you enjoyed this little casting session and I truly hope that it has brought some more enjoyment to your reading of the series. I certainly had fun doing it. It’s very satisfying to communicate with the fans of the series, show you a bit more behind the scenes. This is my equivalent of a DVD commentary track. I’d love to reveal more, but I think I’ll save that until after book twelve.

Thanks for your love, your emails and your support.

- Bill

“Everlasting Life”: The Movie is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

But then I thought that folks might not be comfortable sending me money or might not have a PayPal account, or perhaps are living in a cave and can’t read this right now.

So, I’ve started selling new, personally autographed copies via amazon.

Maybe you’re more comfortable using amazon, maybe you’ve got some gift cards burning a hole in your pocket – who knows?

All I know is that I’m all about the enabling, er, helping.

Perfect for gifts, holidays, wish lists and midnight impulse buying.

Autographed Copies Now Available on Amazon is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

In Hollywood, looks are everything.
How thin you are, how good looking you are, how unique you are.
It’s all about the outside.
The facade.

While I bemoan the fact that it’s so superficial, I also applaud the fact that there are so many different and individual actors out there.

Why?

Because they are the folks who star in my movie.
Well, okay, they actually star in my novel.

When starting on a new book, one of the first things I do is cast the movie. I usually have a pretty high level view of who the character is, and what they look like, but I like to play around with Google’s image search and narrow it down to one or two actors. Once I get the actor, I then have to find just the right picture of that actor to really nail the part down in my mind.
After a quick click, the picture is sent to my color printer and then put in the appropriate three ring binder for that book.

Yes, I have a binder for each book. Twelve books = twelve binders. Office Depot loves me.

I thought that it would be fun to share with you those photos that I used for the first book, “Resurrection Angel”.

Now be warned, if you want to keep Denton and Monty and the rest in your mind the way you see them, then go no further. But if you want a peek in to my brain and how I view my characters, then let’s go:

The Cast of “Resurrection Angel”

Denton Ward: Halfway through writing Resurrection Angel, Denton became Val Kilmer. When I first created the character, he was based on a young Sting, and after ol’ Gordon got a bit long in the tooth, I went for Guy Pearce. I’m thinking “Memento” era Pearce combined with “L.A. Confidential” Pearce would do a hell of a good job. I reserve the right to go back and forth on this one.

Montgomery Crocetti: There has only been one actress that I would even consider to have the attitude, looks and depth to play my Monty, and that’s Lori Petty. “Point Break” era Petty is Monty Crocetti. I even went so far as to find her address and mail her a copy of the book. Hey – you never know. It could happen. Petty has been Monty since day one. Her inspiration to me has been invaluable.

Amy Hughes (The Momma): This one was pretty easy, too. Mo’Nique has the sass and the attitude, and frankly, the size to play the big beautiful woman who answers Denton and Monty’s phone and has an affinity for bingo. As we will see in the third book, “Spear of Destiny”, the role of the Momma needs to be brought to life by an actress who can be humorous, but also have great depth and strength.

Nicholas Shanley: Part lawyer, part confidant, part mentor, Nicholas Shanley also has to walk the fine line between comedic relief and touching compassion. This is the only character whom I based physically on a real person, so I had to kind of fudge this one. Normally Robin Williams annoys the shit out of me unless he’s doing a darker, serious role. Like in “Good Will Hunting”. I still think it works.

Dr. Michael Robbins: If there is anything that I have learned by reading and writing mysteries, it’s that there are no pure villains, and no pure heroes. The days of white hats and black hats are gone. And I think that Michael Robbins is a great example of that. I love this photo of Chad Everett. The suspenders, tie and perfect hair nail the character perfectly.

Diana Hunt-Robbins: Brittle, acidic, drunk, shrewish, Diana Hunt-Robbins would be an understated tour-de-force for Sharon Stone. I think she could really show the same depth and tragedy that she had in “Casino”. We need to see why Michael Robbins became the man that he did, and you need an even stronger woman to show that.

Lisa Rappaport: Man, if you’ve read the book, you saw this one coming a mile away. The fact that Reggie is watching Silverstone in “Clueless” on his VCR is not a coincidence. Lisa’s based on a younger Silverstone, one with the innocence and vulnerability that is necessary to have the audience root for her and want her to me safe and protected by Denton and Monty.

Reggie: I love the late Michael Jeter. I think I first saw him in the Burt Reynolds show “Evening Shade” and I just thought he was a hoot. Reggie, our janitor, is also a tormented character. Jeter could show laughter, could show anger, could show sadness with just a twinkle in his eye and a twitch of his mustache. It’s a great shame that he’s gone. He would have been perfect for this small, but pivotal role.

As you can see, selecting just the right actor, just the right photo to illustrate your characters can be immensely helpful in your writing. Looking at the photo, looking into the actor’s eyes, can reveal layers upon layers, even to the most superficial and small role.

I hope that you’ll have fun with this. As I mentioned, google image search is your friend. Start searching, start looking, be visual.

Cast the movie that’s going on inside your head; your characters will thank you.

“Resurrection Angel”: The Movie is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

They got their start as a writing assignment for Jerry Williamson’s Writer’s Digest Correspondence course in short story writing.
Denton was a difficult child, but Monty pretty much appeared to me as if in a vision.
Okay, so it wasn’t religious, but she was a good character when first created, and then as time passed, she became even more well-rounded and flesh began to appear on the skeleton.

She was such a great character, a wonderful archetype, that I lifted her, wholesale and made a simpler version of her the love interest in my firs completed novel that was called Significant Others. 

Significant Others began in 1990, several years after the cyberpunk short story that brought Denton and Monty together.  I was a student at San Francisco State University, in their Creative Writing program (one of the best in the country) and I was doing Graduate level novel writing work with my first mentor, Phyllis Burke, who had just published her novel, Atomic Candy.

Being new to San Francisco, I was reading a steady diet of San Francisco authors, and got caught up in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of The City series.  Significant Others was my own version of Tales of the City.  Bookish protagonist, punk rock love interest, and the gay bookseller who brought them together on Haight Street.

Yeah, there’s a reason this book will never see the light of day.
Well, actually two.  The first one is that it’s crap, and the second is that I’m too lazy to actually type it into a Word document and format it for publishing with Lulu.  But the first reason is the one that is important.

Monty was given a different name in Significant Others, but her spunky, punk rock exterior remained.
We now go forward to 1997 and I’m working on the first draft of Resurrection Angel and it’s time to give Monty a full name.

I knew that Montgomery would be her first and I knew that Elaine would be her middle name.  Elaine was the name of my birth mother, who died when I was six years old.  It was Elaine Mize who taught me to read at such an early age, and I’d like to think that her passion and love for books and reading was part of the puzzle that has brought me to where I am today.  Her love and passion for books and stories are my passion for books and stories, and perhaps even my love and talent for writing.

When it came to Montgomery Elaine’s last name, I was stuck.  I knew that she’d grown up in San Francisco.  I knew that she was of Italian descent.  I knew that I wanted her name to reflect that and I knew that I wanted it to be somehow old school Italian.  Something out of Good Fellas or The Godfather.

The answer came from not from a piece of literature, but from a singer.

As many of you know, I’m a big Frank Sinatra fan.  I love his music, his life story, his swagger, his machismo.  I love the fact that no matter how imperfect he was, his voice was quite perfect.  And part of the Sinatra mythos is the Rat Pack.  His friendship with Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford and their exploits in Las Vegas and Los Angeles are legendary.

One lazy day, while wandering around Al Gore’s collection of tubes and wires, I decided to explore the Rat Pack and in particular one member: Dean Martin. I think I was looking for a good “Greatest Hits” collection and Wikipedia usually has a good discography, so off I went.

Upon opening his Wikipedia page, the first thing that stunned me into silence was that Dean Martin was not his real name.

Say what?

His real name was Dino Paul Crocetti, and he reflected everything that was good and classic and perhaps even stereotypical about Italians and Italian-Americans and I knew that my girl was home and she had a name.

Montgomery Elaine Crocetti.

A Character By Any Other Name – Monty Crocetti is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

The character I created first was Denton.  He and Monty both started bubbled up from my subconscious around 1984.  At the time I was stationed in the United Kingdom at a highly controversial Air Force Base called RAF Greenham Common. I was 4 years into my 6 year enlistment, and, drunk on travel, Jack Kerouac and the need to express myself, I was taking a short story writing correspondence course through Writers Digest.

My instructor was a kind gentleman, noted horror writer J. N. Williamson. This was before the time of the Al Gore’s Internet, so Jerry and I corresponded and exchanged assignments the old fashioned way: via the US Post Office.

I was working on a short story featuring Denton and Monty that was more cyberpunk science fiction (William Gibson’s Neuromancer was all the rage at the time) than present day mystery.  I had a picture of Monty in my mind, but Denton eluded me. I knew what I wanted him to be, but I didn’t really know who I wanted him to be until I saw a book cover that just haunted me.

I was in Waterstone’s bookstore one weekend in London, and I saw this image on the cover of a book. The image is of noted UK fiction writer Denton Welch. Once I saw this, everything seemed to click.  The glasses, the thin face, the haunted look, the cheekbones – this was my psychic detective.

I also liked the first name. Denton.  I didn’t know any Denton’s, never heard of any famous Denton’s (except maybe Doctor Denton’s) so I figured that the name was relatively rare and unused.

But what of the last name? I liked the syllable pattern of Welch’s name.  Denton Welch. Da-Di-Da. But Welch didn’t really say psychic detective.  Welch said grape juice, or maybe grape jelly.

Then I remembered my Lovecraft.  Ward. As in “The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward”.

I re-read the story and knew I was on to something.  The hospitalization, the insanity, the darkness, the demons – both inner and outer, the madness, the New England sort of isolation and secrets kept behind closed doors.

Denton Ward.

Perfect.

A Character By Any Other Name – Denton Ward is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

I got to the hotel about noon and got the coveted Parking Spot In The Hotel Parking Lot. While there was plenty of parking around the hotel, some of it was legal, and some of it was not, as I heard reports of police cars, metering golf carts and tow trucks circling the area pretty much the whole weekend. Sure, it cost me $10 a day, but getting your car out of the impound costs even more.

Met some amazing people. They were kind, funny, supportive and very welcoming to your loyal scribe, who was a first time Guest Author. People such as award winning and best selling horror writer Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc, and her publicist (and maybe soon to be mine) Katrina Stiles, epic Fantasy writer M. B. (Michelle) Weston, well-known horror writer Richard Lee Byers, actor Jeffrey Breslauer, triple threat actor/director/producer Joel Wynkoop (I even filmed a promo for his Wynkoop TV!), and many others.

The above folks have great websites, and are also probably on MySpace and Facebook, so I hope you’ll visit them, support them, find out about their various projects and tell them that Bill sent you. Of course, that will mean nothing, but I’ll think it’s funny.

My Myrddin peeps didn’t make it for the most part, due to illnesses, children and other real world catastrophies, but special thanks go out to Zan and Skip, who did make it. Especially to my girl Zan, who stalked me at every panel I did, and got some great photos of yours truly in action. I hope to post those later.

5 minutes after meeting Andrea, we discovered that we were both self-publishing mavericks and evangelists, and both think that Lulu.com hangs the moon. She was kind enough to invite me to speak and teach with her at her “So You Want To Self Publish” panel. I recorded it for posterity and will hopefully be posting that hour long session here soon in MP3 format for everyone to enjoy and hopefully get empowered and educated and excited about sharing their stories and characters through quality writing and self-publishing.

We also decided that amazon was The Man and The Devil, in that we can’t keep track of our book sales and royalties, so I’ve deleted all the amazon links from my site. All links now go to Lulu, who will provide you faster service, better packaging, and take PayPal, which is very important to folks, I found out this weekend. Con folks love them some PayPal, and Lulu takes PayPal, so there you go. I bow to the wisdom of the masses. Of course, if you still want to purchase the books through amazon, have at it, but it will make the Baby Jesus cry. Just saying.

Oh, and for the folks at the “Creating Memorable Characters” panel I was on, the name of the book that I was struggling to remember is Victoria Schmidt’s 45 Master Characters. As I said, this is an amazing book, and one that there is totally no shame in using when starting to create your main characters or even your secondary characters; start with one of these archetypes and then flip it and spin it and add those great details and quirks that make it your own. Bonus points to anyone who can write me and tell me which archetypes Denton and Monty are. I didn’t use the book to create them, but they happen to fit nicely into two specific archetypes that Schmidt discusses.

As I said above, this was an amazing convention. I didn’t get to do a lot of the stuff that I did as a regular member (read: drinking, carousing, smooching) but I did get a lot of networking done and met some great fellow professionals. That and it’s a tax write-off! Yay!

As soon as the dust settles, I’ll write another update and post photos and the Self Publishing sound files. There will be some great things happening real soon; I can feel it in the air, like a cool brisk December breeze. I’ll keep you up to date, but must close and say a very heartfelt thank you to all of you for your kindness, your support and your friendship.

NecronomiCon – The First Report is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

10pm, Friday
You Don’t Have to Write F& SF – Authors who’ve written in genres other than fantasy & science fiction talk about their reasons for moving outside those genres and how you can make that move.

10am, Saturday
Florida Unreal Estate – Authors discuss the use of our native state as the location for their stories and novels.

11am, Sunday
Creating Memorable Characters – Authors clue you in on how they write the characters you love or love to hate.

My Schedule At NecronomiCon is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?

There wasn’t much else to do, as we were out in the middle of nowhere. Erhac was a small Turkish Air Base, which as this would lead you to believe, was owned by the Turks. The American presence was limited to a small cluster of buildings near the main gate.
This place was so remote, so desolate, that it didn’t even have a fence around it.
You could get up on a step ladder and see someone coming from a mile away.
It was remote, quiet, isolated and perfect for learning about the art and craft of mystery writing.

Like most writers, I am a vociferous reader. I spent those 12 months reading one series. Rex Stout’s “Nero Wolfe” novels and short stories. If I remember correctly, there were about 48 books on the shelf of my small room, and I went through them all at least 2 or 3 times.
I didn’t take notes, but I know that my subconscious mind was learning important lessons.

Lessons that would come in handy when I arrived in England in 1983.
I was 23 years old and knew that I wanted to be a novelist. I knew that I had something to offer but really wasn’t sure what. The vision was still blurry, as if Vaseline had been smeared over the lens of my inner camera.

I needed help crystallizing that vision and I found my accomplice, my first teacher in Gerald N. Williamson. J.N. Williamson was a horror writer, and a good one, but it was his expertise as a horror editor that Jerry solidified his impact on the horror genre forever.
And it was those skills as an editor that he brought to his role as my instructor in the Writer’s Digest Short Story school.
Yes, I have taken a correspondence course in short story writing. This was in the days before email, before the internet, before Writer’s Digest even had a novel writing course. Hungry for knowledge and guidance, I took what I could get and luckily for me, the Gods brought me Jerry Williamson.

He was a short, grey-haired, bespectacled gnome of a man that I always called Obi-Wan. When I deserved praise, he gave it, but when I started coloring outside the lines as I was wont to do, he was quick to pull in the reins and show me, in blue ink, scrawled over my manuscripts, the error of my ways.
Error in dialogue. Error in plot. Error in characterization. Jerry caught them all and for that I am forever grateful. It brings me great sorrow that I recently learned that Jerry had passed away several years ago. He always promised me that he would find a place in one of his Masques’ collections for a story of mine.
That never came to pass, as I had moved out of the strict horror genre and taken up residence in the mystery genre. But the things I learned from him – pacing, suspense, tension – essential elements of both horror and the mystery genres, I will never forget.

So every time that I make you turn the page, make you jump in your seat, make you exclaim “What the hell?” at some plot twist or turn, please take a moment and say thanks for Jerry Williamson.

After passing the Writer’s Digest Course (I think I still have the certificate that Jerry mailed to me), I spent the midnight shift (11pm to 7am) in the Communications Center hunting and pecking on an old IBM Selectric. The round Times New Roman font ball whacking the typing paper before me. Letters group together to become words, words join others in sentences, become characters, become worlds.

In 1984, William Gibson and his seminal novel “Neuromancer” brought a new type of writing into the world. It was called cyberpunk, and it was the Hot New Thing. I was still reading a great deal of science fiction at the time and loved the book. I loved the dark, dystopian world that Gibson had created, but I really didn’t have the world building capability that it took.

But I could create the attitude, the characters, the gestalt of the sub-genre.

I decided to create a cyberpunk mystery series.

Genesis Of A Mystery Series, Part 1 is a post from: William Mize. All content © William F. Mize. Why not follow me on Twitter or Facebook?