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John K. Manos was a magazine editor in Chicago for 20 years. Since 2001 he has earned his living as a writer, editor, and occasional musician. He is a graduate of Knox College. Dialogues of a Crime is his first novel.
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Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
I tend to start with personal experience and then expand from there. I’ve found that with very few exceptions, truly autobiographical writing—my own included—is simply not very interesting. It’s like hearing about someone else’s dream—intriguing to the individual, but not to the audience. However, everything I write sparks from a personal experience or an event I happen to notice, perhaps in the news.
Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
It’s often a combination of both approaches. But most often, I know where the story is going to end and on occasion have even written the last line almost at the outset. However, even though I also know where the story begins, it unfolds according to its own reality as much as it unfolds according to an plot outline I have on paper or in my mind.
Your routine when writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
I treat writing as a job, albeit a job that can consume seven days a week. So I start writing once the dogs have been walked and I have a cup of coffee at hand. I take breaks but will work into the evening when I’m accomplishing something. But there’s nothing particularly idiosyncratic about my usual routine.
Is writing your full time job? If not, may I ask what you do by day?
If I can include editing other people’s work, then yes, I have done almost nothing other than writing to earn a living since 2001. Prior to then I was a magazine editor.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
This list is almost too long. The prose writers who immediately spring to mind are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Thomas Pynchon, J.M. Coetzee, Pete Dexter, Cormac McCarthy, Kurt Vonnegut, Ann Patchett, Joseph Conrad, Flannery O’Connor, Saul Bellow, and Toni Morrison, but a recitation of my favorite authors could go on and on. I love many different authors and many different writing styles.
What are you reading now?
I read multiple books simultaneously. The ones that are underway at the moment are Bad Reputation by Matt Hader; House of Meetings by Martin Amis; Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead; TransAtlantic by Colum McCann; The Long Home by William Gay; Seeing by Jose Saramago; Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon; and Life by Richard Fortey.
Are you working on your next novel? Can you tell us a little about it?
Yes. It’s the story of a 35-year-old woman in 1960 who is in no way prepared to raise four children by herself. The novel follows the twists and turns of her efforts to make her way under what, for her, are nearly impossible circumstances.
Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie. Who would you cast?
Ryan Gosling as Michael Pollitz; Kevin Dunn as Detective Klinger.
Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
Both, but mostly keyboard.
Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
Playing guitar.
Favorite meal?
There are far too many to list—it would take dozens of pages just to compile the finalists. So here’s just one out of at least a thousand: A souvlaki dinner with Greek fries, slathered in white wine sauce and tzatziki, at The Athenian Room restaurant on Chicago’s north side.
(from Kirkus Reviews)
In Dialogues of a Crime, Michael Pollitz must decide whether to protect the mobster who has protected him.
When Mike, a college student in 1972 Illinois, is arrested on drug charges, his father insists he use a public defender. His childhood friend’s father, Dom Calabria, head of the Outfit in Chicago, wants to help Mike by providing a first-rate lawyer, but Mike goes with his father’s wishes. The outcome is a plea bargain for a short stay in Astoria Adult Correctional Facility—but after he’s brutally beaten and raped by three inmates, Mike spends most of his sentence in the infirmary. He doesn’t give up his assailants’ names but threatens their lives right before he’s set to be released. When Mike is picked up by the head of the mob, people notice.
Flash forward to 1994, when Detective Larry Klinger begins investigating the murders of two former Astoria inmates who were violently killed shortly after being released. An informant—the third man who beat Mike—tells Klinger that the murders were committed by Calabria, the kingpin whom Klinger would like to see taken down. Klinger investigates, coming in contact with Mike, and the two form a friendship. When Klinger realizes that Mike will never give up Calabria, he begins to wonder whether it’s even worth investigating the murders of such evil men.
From the top of the empty building the river cannot be seen, but its presence seeps through the air like a sense of winter on the northern wind. Blood swells around the wire binding the muscular man’s wrists, and his long blond hair is matted with more blood, just now coagulating in streaks across the duct tape sealing his mouth and muffling his periodic cries. Able to see little more than a red mist through his swollen eye sockets, he flinches away as something round and hard, a thick dowel perhaps, leaves stinging stripes across his back and thighs. Thick hands clutch at his shredded clothing. Not yet in shock and with his lungs straining to somehow split the tape he senses a void at the edge of his consciousness, pebbles on the brittle tar spraying and clattering as in agony he is forced to shuffle forward, shoeless but not feeling the frozen roof.
A pounding on the thin panels of the dormroom door invaded the young man’s sleep. He dreamt briefly of the caissons being driven for the Hancock Center construction when he and his father and older brother visited the site in Chicago in 1968, but the banging woke him in time to hear the door opening. What he saw first against the weak early-spring light from the windows was a tall, disheveled middle-aged man with short salt-and-pepper hair wearing an inexpensive suit. Cop? was his first thought. The man glanced around the messy room, then stared down at the student as another heavier officer moved through the entranceway, holding aside a burlap screen the young man’s roommate had hung between the room and the closets. Finally a remotely familiar short bald man with a beard entered quickly, looked down at the young man and said, “That’s him.” The bald man pivoted and disappeared. The young man thought he recognized the beard, but not the bald head or the tie.
“What?” the young man breathed as the heavier cop twitched away his blanket and with an air of perfunctory finality clutched his upper arm, pulled him upright, turned him toward the windows and clipped handcuffs around his wrists. Salt-and-pepper rummaged through the top drawer of his desk and pulled out his checkbook. The young man sat naked on the bed with his hands cuffed behind his hips.
The heavier cop stared down at him, then seemed to relent and said, “You’re under arrest.” An inane idea entered the young man’s mind—he thought it was an April Fool’s joke. The door to his room stood open, and he could hear activity down the hall, more pounding on doors.
Salt-and-pepper opened the checkbook and said, “Michael J. Pollitz. That you?”
“You don’t know who I am?” Michael felt a rush of sleepy terror. His narrow face reddened.
“We know,” said the heavy cop. Both men moved around the room, opening drawers in the desks and small dressers. They walked across his clothing. The heavy cop kicked aside some junk-food wrappers on the floor and used his foot to rearrange a pile of papers and books. Salt-and-pepper opened one of the closets, looked down at the pile of clothing, luggage, books and trash, and shut the door again. It occurred to Michael that they weren’t searching for anything, their indifferent examination a matter of going through the motions. Both seemed bored.
“Can I put on some clothes?” Michael asked. He was well muscled in a way that echoed high school athletics, but he was small and felt shriveled and unbearably vulnerable, nude and handcuffed. His nineteen-year-old mind flashed a brief homophobic panic, even though he knew he was dealing with police. The freeze-dried fantasy included a grisly murder. The heavy cop exchanged a look with salt-and-pepper, then nodded. Michael stood and turned, and the detective removed the cuffs. Michael self-consciously shifted his body as he grabbed a pair of threadbare blue and white striped bell bottom pants from the floor and pulled them on. He picked up a wrinkled blue work shirt and buttoned it, and he tied his tennis shoes without sitting. He combed his long hair away from his face with his fingers before he detective replaced the handcuffs, and Michael sat again.
“Feel better?” salt-and-pepper asked with an ironic smile. Then he left the room. The heavy cop positioned himself in the entrance, in front of the flimsy curtain, and stared impassively. Michael looked at the windows, brighter now as dawn filled the sky. Almost to himself, he said, “What is this?”
“You’re under arrest,” the detective repeated.
“Why?”
The detective didn’t answer, and Michael wasn’t able to endure his stare. He looked through the windows again. His room was at the end of a long hall on the top floor in one of the older dormitories on the small campus, a three-story building with just two floors of rooms, the building shaped like a T with a central staircase that led down to the Student Union. The noises from the hall had died down, but he could hear voices. Still bleary, he couldn’t sort out his thoughts. Why was he being arrested? He hadn’t done anything. It was something with the bald guy, but he couldn’t fill in the blanks.
His friend John Calabria’s father came into his mind. He was suddenly overcome with a desire to be sitting in the office at Dominick Calabria’s farm northwest of Chicago, untouchable, waiting for the man’s sharp smile to fade as he offered a serious solution. What would Dominick Calabria do? Nothing. He would say nothing at all and wait for his lawyer. Lawyers. An army of lawyers.
“Can’t you tell me what’s going on?” Michael asked, overcome by confusion and anxiety. The heavy detective’s expression didn’t change even as salt-and-pepper returned.
“Set?” the heavy detective asked.
“Yeah. Let’s go.” Both cops stepped to the bed and raised the young man by his arms.
As they walked down the hall, Michael said, “I need to piss,” nodding toward the common bathroom. Both cops followed him to the urinals, and the heavy detective removed the handcuffs. When Michael finished, they didn’t replace the restraint. The young man felt a childish flush of relief that was almost pride for the miniscule favor: He was trustworthy, they could see that. And this added an absurd hope that the arrest was a mistake that would soon be clarified.
Outside, a friend from the sophomore class, Pat Kinnealy, whose room was down the hall from Michael’s, stood in handcuffs near an unmarked car in the small parking area next to the dorm. It was brightening into a lovely day. Michael glanced up at the sky, then back toward the parking spaces. Behind the unmarked car were one local squad car and three state cruisers. State troopers stood near their cars. Strangers were seated in the backseats of two of the state vehicles. He could see another acquaintance, a man two years older who lived in an apartment in town, with another stranger in the backseat of the local car. Both sat with the awkward tilt of handcuffed prisoners. Two freshmen from the floor below Michael’s stood in the parking area, also with their hands manacled behind their backs, and a small comprehension formed: The two roommates sold reefer, LSD, mescaline and amphetamines in small quantities from their room—he had purchased from them. Michael suddenly felt conspicuous without handcuffs, caught somewhere in the hostile twilight between Us and Them.
He and Pat were ushered into the backseat of the unmarked car. The two freshmen were placed in one of the state cruisers. “Why aren’t you handcuffed?” Pat asked. Beneath a taut strain of somnolent shock, his pallid face was a mixture of relief and accusation.
“They took them off when I peed,” Michael said. “They didn’t put them back on.” The cops were talking outside the cars.
“Did you recognize the bald guy?” Pat asked.
“Not really.”
“I think I sold him some white cross last fall,” Pat said mournfully. “Dan brought him over with another guy,” nodding toward their friend in the local squad car. “I think he was wearing a stocking cap, but I recognize the beard.” Pat seemed on the verge of tears, the skin pale around his eyes.
“I never sold him anything,” the young man mused, feeling relieved and silently reassuring himself that a mistake was being made. His roommate had from time to time sold an ounce or two of excess grass; they must have intended to arrest him instead. A straw to grasp. He didn’t know about the strangers in the state cars, but even though the two freshmen usually had hallucinogens or speed to sell, they weren’t serious dealers, and he, Pat and Dan weren’t dealers at all. Not in the sense of buying quantities and selling again for a profit or even for a supply of free drugs. But he had an uneasy feeling. He thought he recognized the bearded bald man as well, and Pat confirmed it. He thought he had met him once, when Dan brought him to his room in search of drugs. Michael had shown him to the freshmen’s room several months earlier, before Thanksgiving. Could that be it? It seemed too inconsequential to be real.
Genre: Crime Fiction
Published by: Amika Press
Publication Date: July 26, 2013
Number of Pages: 300
ISBN: July 26, 2013
NOTE: Excessive strong language & Graphic violence
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DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
Susan E. Davis is a New Jersey Licensed Physical Therapist with over 36 years of clinical experience, who transitioned from human practice to working with animals. She owns and operates Joycare Onsite, LLC, formed in 2008, providing Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation services exclusively to multiple animal species: in the pet’s home, farm, in clinics, animal shelters, and a zoo. She currently provides pro-bono services once per week to the Monmouth County SPCA and prior to that at Associated Humane Societies/Popcorn Park Animal Clinic. Susan has been a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and its Animal Rehabilitation Special Interest Group and also belongs to the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO). In 2004, she received the Monmouth- Ocean NJAWBO Business Woman of the Year Award, and is currently a nominee for a Northwestern University Alumni Community Service Award. In addition to clinical practice, Susan is a writer and author, public speaker and consultant.
Connect with Susan at these sites:
What was your inspiration for your book?
The animals and how they respond to Physical Therapy, especially when compared to human beings! I have a unique perspective on this, having been a “people” physical therapist for 30 years before transitioning into the veterinary world. Animals, though they may not be sure exactly what you are trying to do the first few minutes, figure it out fast. Once they sense you have inherent good intentions, they accept every bit of care you provide. They don’t harbor hidden agendas. They let down their emotional barriers quickly. Because of these traits, they absorb the benefits of PT rapidly and respond usually within the very first encounter. What may take 4-6 PT sessions for a human, can be accomplished in 2 visits or less with an animal. They also hold the improvement longer and I don’t need to schedule appointments as often. For example a person might attend PT 2-3 times per week, but animal sessions are just once per week or every other week.
What do you hope to accomplish?
Empowerment of pet owners to be able to better help their beloved furry/feathered friends. I wrote the book specifically as a guide for the consumer, instead of gearing it toward the veterinary professional. I strongly believe that knowledge is power and if concerned owners are armed with information, they can make the best choices and achieve optimal outcomes for their pets. As a therapy provider, I love to have clients who are savvy and keep me on my toes. I also feel it is very important to teach pet owners all they can do on their own regarding therapy, and there are many examples and recommendations of this throughout the book.
Did you write the book in a linear fashion, or skip around to various topics?
I started with an extensive outline (which became the Table of Contents), in a logical (linear-style) order and organized by medical condition. But after that, I wrote sections in random order, based on my particular passion at the time. If I had a current caseload with lots of neurological cases, I tended to jump ahead to those sections of the manuscript. I drew the contents from actual clinical cases, educational courses, review of current literature, information from therapeutic symposiums, and interviews. I included anecdotal stories from actual experiences in pet’s homes, animal shelters, zoos, and farms which were woven throughout the book.
What is the most important lesson the animals have taught you?
Trust. Not simple blind trust, but allowing oneself to trust another once you have used your internal intuition or compass to determine that the other’s intentions seem sound. The animals don’t wait for you to prove yourself fully or lay out all of your cards, but quickly process the initial input provided and if it meets their threshold, they surrender to your loving care.
What traits or habits are important for someone interested in writing a book?
Curiosity, concentration, discipline, a love of reading, and the ability to function on reduced sleep!
Who are your favorite authors?
My favorite current day author is Anita Shreve. I also love the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Charles Dickens.
Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation for Animals is an essential guide that helps a pet owner navigate the veterinary physical therapy and rehabilitation field throughout their animal¹s lifespan. Topics include: finding a qualified therapist, getting started, what to expect on the initial visit, goal setting, treatment intervention plans, anatomy, and descriptions of a wide variety of conditions affecting the pet in the areas of Orthopedics, Neurology, Oncology, Metabolic Illness, etc. The book also addresses interesting topics such as Seniors/Geriatrics, Arthritis, Injury Prevention, Sports and Athletic animals, Stem Cell Procedures, Reiki, Braces and Splints, Wheeled Carts and Artificial limbs, etc. Numerous patient case studies and anecdotal stories covering over 5 animal species are interspersed throughout the book.
Number of Pages: 286 pages
Publisher: Joycare Media
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN-10: 0989275000
ISBN-13: 978-0989275002
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
Christopher Zenos is a pseudonym. The author is a well-published university professor who has contended with mental illness all his life. Autumn in Carthage developed, in large part, from his need to narrate this world he inhabits: The man standing at the window, bracing against the wind as he gazes in wonder at the light and comfort on the other side.
Connect with Christopher at his blog on GR:
The nether side of passion is madness.
Nathan Price is a college professor with crippling impairments, seeking escape from his prison of necessity. One day, in a package of seventeenth-century documents from Salem Village, he stumbles across a letter by his best friend, Jamie, who had disappeared six months before. The document is dated 1692–the height of the Witch Trials. The only potential lead: a single mention of Carthage, a tiny town in the Wisconsin northern highland.
The mystery catapults Nathan from Chicago to the Wisconsin wilderness. There, he meets Alanna, heir to an astonishing Mittel-European legacy of power and sacrifice. In her, and in the gentle townsfolk of Carthage, Nathan finds the refuge for which he has long yearned. But Simon, the town elder, is driven by demons of his own, and may well be entangled in Jamie’s disappearance and that of several Carthaginians. As darkness stretches toward Alanna, Nathan may have no choice but to risk it all…
Moving from the grimness of Chicago’s South Side to the Wisconsin hinterlands to seventeenth-century Salem, this is a story of love, of sacrifice, of terrible passions–and of two wounded souls quietly reaching for the deep peace of sanctuary.
Number of Pages: 332 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: March 5, 2014
ISBN-10: 1496043022
ISBN-13: 978-1496043023
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.
Scott Bergstrom is a writer and traveler fascinated by the darker, unloved corners of the world’s great cities. His books and articles on architecture and urbanism have been widely published both in the United States and Europe. The Cruelty is his first novel.
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When her diplomat father is kidnapped and the U.S. Government is unable to help, 17 year-old Gwendolyn Bloom sets off across the sordid underbelly of Europe to rescue him. Following the only lead she has—the name of a Palestinian informer living in France—she plunges into a brutal world of arms smuggling and human trafficking. As she journeys from the slums of Paris, to the nightclubs of Berlin, to the heart of the most feared crime family in Prague, Gwendolyn discovers that to survive in this new world she must become every bit as cruel as the men she’s hunting.
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BOOK DETAILS:
Number of Pages: 322 pages
Publisher: NuCodex Publishing
Publication Date: February 26, 2014
ASIN: B00IODZ8U2PURCHASE LINKS:
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After the snowy and brutally cold winter we have had here in southern New England, today is a day of celebration. Now if only Mother Nature would check her calendar and bring on the warm temperatures!!!!
Anderson Harp served 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising through the ranks to become a Colonel. His stations included: the Pentagon, South Korea, Central America, the Persian Gulf, Europe, Camp Pendleton, the Marine Mountain Training Center, Fort Benning, Fort Sill, and Camp LeJeune. He has served as the Officer in Charge of Crisis Action Team for Marine Forces Central Command. His decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Navy Commendation Medal. As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, he was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom and served with MarCent’s Crisis Action Team. Anderson Harp lives with his family in Columbus, Georgia.
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Anderson Harp served 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising through the ranks to become a Colonel. He has served as the Officer in Charge of the Crisis Action Team for Marin Forces Central Command. His decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and Navy Commendation Medal. As an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve, he was mobilized for Operation Enduring Freedom and served with MarCent’s Crisis Action Team. Using his up-to-date knowledge of cutting edge technology, and the kind of military experience that a make for great thriller writing, Harp has created a fast-moving and totally riveting thriller that will make Anderson Harp a leading name, like Ludlam and Brad Thor, in the military/political thriller. RETRIBUTION (Pinnacle Books, March 2014; $9.99) by Anderson Harp, a book in the Will Parker thriller series will be published in mass market by Pinnacle Books this March, now with full national distribution.
The remote and impenetrable Pakistani mountains have offered refuge to the worst
enemies of civilization since the time of Alexander. Now, the world faces a new challenge. Reared from birth to harbor a seething hatred, a lone man is about to unleash a firestorm that will rage for centuries. And the window of opportunity to stop him is shutting much faster than Washington D.C. can hope to deal with.
A top operator, Will Parker is embedded within the terrorists’ ranks to stop this catastrophic disaster. But with a nuclear core on its way to the U.S., Parker will go to any length to stop a devastating threat to the homeland, more lethal than anything the USA—and the world—has ever faced.
BOOK DETAILS:
Published by:Pinnacle, an imprint of Kensington
Publication Date: March, 2014
Number of Pages: 528 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7860-3421-5PURCHASE LINKS:
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