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Of all the elements of good stories, I believe the most important, especially with novels, is character development. Through fiction we get to know people better than we’ll ever know anyone else… including ourselves. We get to peek inside their minds, to see past the deception and discover things they never admit. The greatest impact comes when what we discover differs from the way we first see them. Here are some characters from my latest novel, Pronounced Ponce: The Midtown Murders. Just for fun, pretend that you’re meeting them, for the first time, in a social situation, sixteen complete strangers, as different from each other as you and I. Some of them are exactly what you see. But among them are a vigilante, a fraudster and not one but three stone killers. See if you can pick them out. Everything they say is truthful, but not the whole truth. For that…

In my stories scene description is important, so I deliberately select settings I know (This also makes my research much simpler). In doing so, I recall them from memory when necessary, but when possible I refresh those memories with updated photographs. In doing so, I find that places and business names have changed and some are gone forever. Recently, my family visited South Carolina’s Isle of Palms, one our favorite vacation spots. Those of you who have read my second novel, Fly Away: The Metamorphosis of Dina Savage, will recall that a major character, Jeff Sax, retires there with his wife Barbara and their daughter, Misty. They purchase a home in Wild Dunes Resort overlooking Morgan Creek. Along with the house comes a sixty-five-foot pleasure boat for sunset cruises or for sunbathing while listening to music and laughter from the deck of the bar and grill across the creek. You’ll…

In August 1942 twelve-year-old Shulamit (“Musia”) Perlmutter and her mother escape the ghetto of Horochow in Eastern Poland following the murders of Musia’s father, sister and neighbors by the Germans. Separated from her mother, turned away by the family that had promised to shelter her, hounded by Nazis, Musia manages to survive for two years on what little she can forage in the woods. Jack Grossman’s factual account captures, as well as words can, the hardships and betrayals Musia faces as she tries to find her way to safety. Pillaged and conscripted by their conquerors, the Polish and Ukrainian farmers Musia encounters face their own struggles for survival. Many of them, as anti-Semitic as the Germans and Russians, see her as nothing more than an opportunity to reap a bounty from the Nazis, money they can use to feed their families. The few who dare offer her food, shelter and…

McFalls County Sheriff Clayton Burroughs has a problem. He’s spent his entire adult life distancing himself from his violent and dysfunctional family on Bull Mountain. Into Clayton’s office walks Federal Agent Simon Holly with an interesting proposition. If Clayton can convince his older brother and last living family member, Halford, to shut down his meth labs and rat out his gun supplier, Holly agrees not to burn down the mountain with a massive FBI, ATF, DEA and IRS operation. Halford, Holly promises, can simply retire on his hard-earned fortune and live out his life in peace. This presents Clayton with two problems. First, Halford is the kind of crazy that makes Charles Manson look like an Eagle Scout. He thumbs his nose at the law, Clayton especially, because he can. It’s not about the money and never has been. It’s about Halford’s notions of family. To make matters worse, we…

Chicago gallery owner Adam Barrow stages a gala event that he hopes will save his venture from financial ruin. He invites wealthy patrons from throughout the city. In stumbles an unwanted guest. Adam’s drunken brother, Wes, has found two letters, decades old, one from their now dead father and the other, dated November 1941 from an American diplomat in Madrid, also deceased. The diplomat claims to have rescued a lost and previously unknown van Gogh from Nazi art thieves. The father, an alcoholic and notorious fraud, claims to have hidden the painting but never discloses its location. The painting, if genuine, would have a value in the hundreds of millions. Skeptical, Adam agrees to search for it, with the financial backing of international financier and former British intelligence officer, Phillip Dansby. What ensues is a high-speed treasure hunt across Europe and the U.S. Adam and his beautiful ex-KGB companion must…

Every now and then, an historical novel comes along that casts a harsh light into a dark and unfamiliar corner of our past. The Hidden Light of Northern Fires is just such a work. Daren Wang’s story opens in the winter of 1861. Like any compelling story, it introduces us to complicated characters striving against adversaries without and demons within. Joe Bell is a runaway slave pursued by Northern bounty hunters and his obsessed and homicidal former master. His route brings him to the tiny hamlet of Town Line, New York, a bastion of pro-Southern sentiment on the doorstep of Canada and the elusive prize of freedom. Along his journey, Joe carries with him deep pangs of guilt for leaving his sister, Alaura, alone to the mercies of their owner and half-brother, Yates Bell. Bleeding from a festering dog bite, Joe happens upon the farm of Nathan Willis, where he…

What makes a well-crafted short story is the writer’s ability to create an identifiable character, distill that character’s experience down to a couple thousand well selected words and convey an underlying theme that teaches us something about life. I met author and singer-songwriter Rod Picott at an independent bookstore a couple of years ago,. I left with an autographed copy of Out Past the Wires. Each of Picott’s eleven offerings is a tightly distilled portrait, written in clean and straightforward prose. His characters are the kind of folks we might encounter on a commuter train, seated in a small-town diner or in a crowded hall outside a courtroom. We cross paths with them but for a moment, and leave feeling we’ve known them all our lives. In “A Cow Named Burger King,” for example, we meet reclusive dairy farmer Jim Miller, who, over the objections of his wife, purchased a…

In Last Gleaming – Love and Death in the Time of Pandemic, William Wakefield, whom Parker’s readers will remember from Pronounced Ponce, is now a college freshman. He meets and falls in love with Misty Sax, whom we met in Fly Away. William is pursuing his dreams of becoming a journalist. With help from his grandfather, Tom Williams, William is already penning features about the new life-altering technologies generated by Atlanta area universities. Misty’s plans to transfer to the University of Georgia, however, threaten to toss a wet blanket on their budding relationship. Detective Beth Long, recently returned to the Atlanta Police Department from maternity leave, investigates a grisly murder scene in West Midtown, one that lays bare a child prostitution operation that threatens a U.S. senate candidate’s career. Set against a backdrop of industrial espionage and international intrigue, William and Misty’s progress seems doomed… Then COVID-19 hits.