Dark Chicago

Hey all, dipping in quickly today to post a link to the Chicago Vampire website. They've posted a blurb on To Touch the Sun on their site. I've worked before with the Chad Savage, the man who runs Dark Chicago's websites and he's been great. He provided a great piece of art for the introduction to my book Vampires' Most Wanted.

If you're into horror and vampires, check out the site: Chicago Vampire.

In the meantime, it would appear that, like any good vampire, one of my friends is only too anxious to put the bite on my novel. He likes to take good literature and drain it for all it's worth. And my novel is worth pahlenty!

Andy is actually a newly minted author himself. As Andrew Martello he wrote a wonderful book titled The King of Casinos: Willie Martello and the El Rey Club. Yes, they share a surname, but the two aren't related. It was Willie's last name that helped fuel Andy's interest in his story. What Andy discovered was a fascinating story of a man with a dream at a time when, with a lot of perseverance, could make it become reality. I'm reading it now and enjoying it very much. Andy's love for the subject is apparent on every page. Check it out. 

The Adventure Continues

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest on The Nick Digilio Show on WGN radio in Chicago to talk about To Touch the Sun. Nick's show is broadcast at 2 a.m. on 720 AM, a station that has a great deal of history in Chicago. Nick's producer was very attentive and cordial and passersby through the "green room" as I waited for my turn at the mic made me feel very welcome as did Nick himself when I went into the booth. I observed this the last time he interviewed me, via phone, when my book Vampires' Most Wanted came out. Any broadcaster is at the mercy of scheduled commercial and news breaks but Nick keeps the interview relaxed and conversational which I really appreciated. 

It was particularly appreciated after the trip I had downtown to the Tribune Tower. I had planned to take photos of the imposing building as well as other sights along Michigan Avenue but by the time the taxi got down there, we were lucky to be able to see Michigan Avenue through the snowstorm (though there was something cool about driving along the Kennedy expressway and seeing the shapes of tall buildings trying to emerge from the frosty visibility of a snowstorm). 

Maybe it was because I didn't mind snow (and I realize after living here all my life that in March in Chicago you never say "never" when it comes to snow). Maybe it was because I wasn't the one driving in the snow (giving me a new appreciation to how hard a cab driver's job can be). Maybe it was because I'd been up since 7 a.m. the day before and probably wouldn't be getting to bed until 4 a.m. after the radio show. Whatever it was I was able not to fixate on the fact that a snowstorm chose that morning to occur. Instead I was able to appreciate the adventure of it all. The fact that after being up for a few hours shy of 24 I was being driven downtown in a snowstorm at 1 a.m. to be on a radio show so that I could tell people about a novel I'd never expected to write but wound up being so much more that I wrote three more books in the series. A novel for which I'd been hunting for a publisher for years, finding one in an unexpected way when my hope was at its lowest. Even  better, now that the novel is published, it seems to be selling well. 

Life can be unusually sweet sometimes. Oh there are times when it can pick you up and toss you around like a rag doll. But there are those moments that can make you float.

The lobby of the Tribune Tower

I was floating as I entered the vast lobby of the Tribune Tower. And it is vast. The kind of place where footsteps echo dramatically as you walk up to the sign in desk. 

The walls of the lobby are etched with historical quotes

You'll have to excuse me for geeking out a bit here. I did after all write a book featuring Chicago history and here I was stepping inside Chicago history. For centuries the Tribune was Chicago's big gun when it came to journalism (oh sure, much of it early on had a bright yellow tint). It billed itself as "The World's Greatest Newspaper" hence the call letters WGN when the radio station came along. It was the radio station that offered a live broadcast of The Scopes Monkey Trial. It was WGN that was instrumental in putting radio in cop cars. In 1929 five squad cars were equipped with one-way transmitters. Prior to 1881 a beat cop calling for back up meant that that beat cop had to run back to the precinct to call for back up. In 1881 the Police Patrol and Signal Service set up booths around the city with telephones hooked up to the stations but that didn't do much for the police cruisers that came about after the proliferation of squad cars. Installed in the five squad cars were one way radios that were able to receive reports broadcast over the Tribune's WGN radio and could roll instantly on the reports. A year later, the department created its own radio broadcasting system and by 1942 two-way radios were installed in all squad cars.

WGN TV was of course home to the news but also to some of the finest children's TV programming like Garfield Goose and Friends, Bozo's Circus and Ray Raynor. Then there was also the Creature Features program which featured scary movies late on a Saturday night. One of the strongest memories I have is hiding behind my older brother Dennis as we lay on the floor in the dark watching the opening to that show.

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This is my third foray into live radioland. As I mentioned I was on Nick's show when Vampires' Most Wanted came out. At some point I had turned off the ringer to my phone. I was also up very late into the morning so I slept late into the afternoon. At some point I was awakened by the knocking of my friend who about a half hour from Palatine to tell me that the producer of the Nick D. show had been trying to get a hold of me. The producer had tried calling me and got no answer, so he tried the library and they contacted my friend. They needed someone for the show that night and wanted to interview me. Thank goodness for good friends, huh?

Years before, when Chicago's Most Wanted came out I was a guest on The Mike North Show on, I believe it was The Score radio station. It was at 7 a.m., so I drove down at 5 a.m. to the down to the NBC towers. It was a fairly easy drive at that hour. Mike was pleasant and enthusiastic about the book and I enjoyed myself. It was when I tried to get my car out of the parking garage that I ran into a problem. You needed to get some sort of voucher from some sort of machine but since the building was connected to a nearby hotel, I found myself going to the wrong machine to get the wrong voucher. The bottom line is what should have taken 10 minutes ended up taking 45 minutes just to get out of the parking garage. By that time, downtown Chicago was ripe with pedestrians and cars alike, none of which were that keen on letting me pass.

So I suppose a snowstorm on the morning I was to be on a radio show to promote my latest book was in keeping with my radio appearance and inconveniences. Still, it could have been much worse.

When I walked into the lobby and signed in the night guard teased me about the topic of my novel. You could tell he wasn't a big fan of the genre when he said the only vampire movie he liked was the one with Roddy McDowell...and Tom Cruise. Unless he was actually a fan of two movies, he was getting the one he was referring to (I believe it was Fright Night) wildly wrong.

The open door to the green room

Nick's producer Dan brought me upstairs, then down marble hallway (I'm telling you...history) and into a "green room" that was admittedly kind of casual after you've walked through an ornate lobby the size of a baseball diamond in a building built in the 1920s. But it was comfy. It also had some great old radio memorabilia.

I'll admit I was never a huge WGN radio listener in the past. When I was younger, I was more a Top 40 station listener until talk radio host Steve Dahl burst onto the scene (later to be partnered with Garry Meier) and shook up local talk radio. 

Radio history in that case

Even still, I got a little goose bumpy seeing the WGN Radio painted on the door as well as seeing the glass case of old radio equipment. WGN radio grew up with radio as a whole. Other stations have come and gone but 'GN stood the test of time drawing to it personalities who could connect with local listeners unlike anyone else could. And now it seems it's drawing new personalities, like Nick Digilio, that I myself find more listenable then others who came before.

The interview went well. Nick is a very engaging host and I never felt rushed even though I know how tight these programs can be planned out sometimes. The studio itself was dark with a huge table and microphones in the middle that spanned out like spider legs. Nick was in the middle of it all, his attention divided between me and the computer screens in front of him which alerted him to the next break. It was fascinating to watch. 

When it was over, his producer Dan walked me down to the lobby where the guard teased me some more. Then Dan and I wandered around the falling snow on Michigan Ave. until a taxi stopped and picked me up. There was a bit of nostalgia as we passed by the Hotel Intercontinental where my friends and I spent many a weekend at Creation Science Fiction Cons wandering the hotel slightly drunk and flirting with sailors on leave from Great Lakes Naval Base. This was back in the 80s. I think the hotel has classed itself up a bit since then.

Driving on the Kennedy even in perfect weather can at times be an adventure. Driving on it at 3 a.m. in the midst of a blinding snowstorm as semi's sped past you, snow flying off the roofs of the trucks giving already overworked window wipers more to contend with is it's own unique experience. I had to give the cabbie credit (well I gave him credit and a generous tip). Midway through the trip he must have been regretting allowing me access to his cab but like a trooper he soldiered on and got me home safely (the poor guy would have to brave the Kennedy again for the return trip downtown). 

All in all it was a unique experience. Best of all, I got a great interview out of it. Click on the link and have a listen.

Now on to the next adventure.

Radio Radio

Things have been exciting since To Touch the Sun was published. The marketing machine is in full swing. I'll be a guest on the Nick Digilio show on WGN radio at 2 a.m. March 12. Nick was nice enough to interview me when my book Vampires' Most Wanted was published and I had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to this. And I'll be live in the studio. Should be interesting to head to downtown Chicago at 1 a.m. The Tribune Tower has a great gothic-look to it. This design was the one chosen by the Chicago Tribune after a design contest held in 1922. Completed in 1925, it's 36 floors, 462 feet high and at night, you might even see some bats flying around the top of it. Maybe even a few vampires.

To Touch the Sun

Today's the day! It's finally here. To Touch the Sun, my vampire novel set in Chicago, is finally available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle format. It's been quite a ride. Years of searching for a publisher. Finding Dagda Publishing out of the blue (they've been great to work with). The back and forth on details. And finally it's here. And of course now the real work begins as I strive to get the word out about my 

My editor posted on YouTube my reading of the prologue. Hope you like it.



And if you'd like to know more about the novel or the writing process that went into it you can check out my Sentient/Feral Vampire series blog. 

The Approachng Launch for To Touch the Sun

The poster on my wall says it all!

Well this is pretty exciting. The big day is coming up and Dagda Publishing will be having a Facebook book launch for To Touch the Sun Feb. 25. I'll be popping in as often as I can during the day and am looking forward to meeting people and discussing the novel. And those who attend will have the chance to win a copy of the novel. 

She's on the case!

As I've stated often before, this novel is my baby. I've even taken publicity photos for press releases and I do NOT take photos.

Finding a publisher for it was like finding gold. I've been doing some interviews on it and writing a few guest blog pieces. It's given me a chance to reflect on the story and the various inspirations that went into it. I've been covering that in my blog for the series, The Sentient/Feral Vampire Series. 

I remember when I was writing Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murders Mobsters, Midway Monsters and Other Windy City Oddities (My first book published in 2005 by Potomac Press). The day I signed the contract for that was the happiest and scariest day of my life. Happiest of course because I was finally going to be published. Scariest because I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, especially since I'd never done anything like that before. Once it was published, and I looked back on the writing of it, I have a lot of good feelings (even though I was going crazy while actually doing it). I guess it's all hindsight. 

On the left you'll see Lake Point Tower, home to Narain Khan

It's a bit like that with this book. Slightly different though because I didn't have a contract for it and it was a work of fiction, so there was nothing pressing on me in the way of deadlines. But I remember, once I had fallen in love with it, being very concerned that I'd never find a publisher for it. I really wanted that story out. And as I say, looking back on it, I can see things perhaps I didn't realize as I was writing it. For example, I didn't realize how vital the character of Sophie is to the plot even though she really only appears in a few reminisces. Sophie helped Narain live a relatively normal life (in light of his condition) for decades. When she died, his motivations were colored by trying to retain that normalcy. 

The trenches of World War I

I used World War I as a backdrop for Narain's conversion to vampirism. I was inspired when I read that Albin Grau, producer of the film "Nosferatu" served in Serbia in World War I and heard the locals tell folk tales of vampires. It's what inspired him to produce a vampire movie. Narain left that war a very changed man. But it wasn't until I was writing up a blog entry that I stopped to consider that even if the feral attack hadn't occurred to so drastically alter his life, Narain would probably have returned to his family a very changed man. As most veterans of war do. Whether they wear that change on their sleeve or keep it buried deep inside, there's no way that the violence of war wouldn't change them in some way.

On a more personal note, and this is something I realized shortly after writing it, Narain's family dynamic somewhat mirrors mine. There were four siblings (though we had two and two). There's a wonderful scene in It's A Wonderful Life where Mr. Baily tells a young George, "You were born older." That's how I feel about Narain. He was actually born 12 years before the next child Aziz comes along, 15 before their brother Zaheer and a full 20 before their beloved sister Ujaali. So in some respects, even before he goes to war, he's on his own among the siblings. 

Denny and old time radio

It was such with my siblings. My older brother Dennis was only two years older than my sister Barbara (I came along seven years after Barb, my brother Robert a year after me). Yet from an early age, he was off working on jobs with my dad, an electrical contractor, while the rest of us had more to do with each other. Often, he came home very late at night, whether he was off working late, or with his friends. When I was ten, he had moved out of the house and popped in infrequently. I'd never even been to his apartment. Consequently, I knew very little about him. So while the age between us wasn't as expansive as Narain and his siblings, Dennis was just as apart. And sadly, as Narain was "lost" to his family (though he survived the war), my brother died at the relatively young age of 42. 

It's possible that's why I wrote Narain with so many regrets (and why he feels he needs to see if his sister, who would be in her late 90s, is still alive). He regrets never taking the chance to try to reunite with his family and help them understand what he'd become. It's that stuff that was left unsaid, for whatever reason, that makes loss difficult.

So reflecting on the novel for pieces to publicize it has led me to consider what went into writing it. Some of it done without even thinking about it. Which can be some of the best kind of writing.

And as I say often, I hope people get as much enjoyment out of reading To Touch the Sun as I got out of writing it.

My reaction to finding a publisher.

Visit the link above on Feb. 25 to stop in at the launch on Facebook and say hello. The novel will be available on Amazon for Kindle and paperback format. There have already been some wonderful reviews on Goodreads for it also. 

We're getting close to the book release day. To Touch the Sun will be released Feb. 25 and the excitement is building, as is the worry.

More so than my other books, this is my baby. It's my first fiction book to be published (not self published) and while I discovered a new found love of nonfiction (and plan to write more) with my books Chicago's and Vampires' Most Wanted, fiction has always been where my heart is. 

The other reason TTTS is such a dear project for me is that it was so unexpected. As I stated on the blog for the Feral/Sentient Vampire Series, I never had a desire to write a vampire novel. I did it hoping to catch the interest of an agent. I was also fortunate to have an idea for a character. And when I say "idea" I'm being kind. It was a two word description: Vampire chef. I had no idea what to do with the character, no focus on plot or motivation. Didn't even have a history on the poor guy.

Five years later look at me. I'm awaiting the publication of the first novel in an entire Sentient/Feral Vampire Series.

That's why I say it's so special to me, more so than any other novel I've written. I felt my way in the dark on this (I appropriate I suppose since it's a vampire novel) and created a satisfying story.

The worry comes around because, like any creator I want to make sure I do right by my creation. That I help it grow and be strong.

That's how it is with any project you've sweated over and are preparing to show the world. Literary stagefright I guess you could say I'm experiencing.

I guess like any parent watching her child take its first steps, you just have to stand back and hope for the best.

Right now there's a give-away contest on Goodreads. Visit to the TTTS page to enter.

And Dagda Publishers is working on a Facebook book launch to coincide with a Google+ hangout session where you can meet...me! This will hopefully take place next week. I should have more details in a day or two. I'd love to see everyone there and touch base. Keep an eye out for information on this blog or visit the Sentient/Feral Vampire Series blog.

The Cover of My Book

Pretty exciting news! I now have not only a book cover for To Touch the Sun but a release date. Feb. 25 is when the book will be available on Amazon and in stores. And here is the book cover:

 
 As you can imagine, it's pretty exciting to see the actual cover. This book has truly been a labor of love. I wrote it simply to try to get an agent and I ended up falling in love with the characters and the setting. I think that's why it's so special. It came out of no where in a way. For five years I looked for an agent or publisher, writing three more books in the series in the meantime and a spin off featuring two characters from book number three. To finally find a publisher in Dagda Publishing was especially joyous. To finally see the book taking shape is even more so. I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.