O'Neil De Noux interview: Enamored

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Can you sum up your book in no more than 25 words?

A case of obsession and murder that will baffle New Orleans Private Eye Lucien Caye, intrigue him, make him fall in love – three times.

What’s unique about it?

Beyond the setting – I don’t know anyone who is writing crime fiction set in 1950 New Orleans – ENAMORED is the most character-driven book I’ve written. The book was taken over by its characters early in the process and I let them run with it. I stuck to the plot, knew where it was going and manage to get there. It is certainly a lot more about the people than the case. I let them surprise me and they did.

What are your expectations for Enamored?

What I would like to happen is for the people who made my Lucien Caye short story collection NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL my best selling book to give ENAMORED a shot, then spread the word. Maybe someone will realize Lucien was made for TV. What I expect will happen is what happens with all of my books. My loyal fans will buy it, some others will try it and I’ll pick up more fans thanks to amazon.com, but the sales will remain low. I’ve been a low list writer since I started in 1988 and I don’t see anything changing. I’m not complaining one bit. This is the path I chose. Success isn’t in sales, it’s in the quality of the writing.

What’s the worst piece of craft advice you’ve heard?

I’ve been given almost the same line by agents and editors again and again – “Write for a specific audience, or write for a certain editor, or write for a particular market.” I believe that’s wrong and Robert Frost was correct when he said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” I write what moves me. I write what I want to write. I began with New Orleans police crime fiction novels because I was a homicide detective and knew the effects of violence on victims and police officers. I moved on to private eye fiction and historical fiction because it was what I wanted to write about at the time. I still write police crime fiction but each novel I write, each short story I write is for me. I’m happy others like to read some of them.

Put these in order: language, character, plot, money.

I used to think plot was first, but a critic described my crime fiction as character-driven and he was right. Character is first for me. Language is next because dialogue and exposition are the coolest part of a book. Plot is next because without a plot, without a storyline, all you have are talking heads. Money is not a consideration. I hope to get as much as I can but it’s not up to me. Like most writers, I write the best I can and hope to make a buck. Until I took control of my career and morphed into a Indie writer, I went around with a tin cup for years, begging editors to give my work consideration. Now it’s up to the readers. At least my stuff is available.

Who designed your cover?

I designed the cover of ENAMORED. It is a sexy book that needs a sexy cover. I am fortunate to have an excellent model with great legs. I was trained as a combat photographer in the army and worked in computer graphic design for a number of years, so I put the talents together, taking my mentor Harlan Ellison’s advise about covers. Use one strong image, prominently display the title and writer’s name and say one thing about the book or writer.

How much time do you dedicate to writing? How much time would you like to spend writing?

I work full time as a police officer. I also work full time as a writer. That’s about eighty hours a week. I don’t do much else. I plan to retire from my police job to concentrate on my writing as soon as possible, but that’ll be a few years away. The only way to get it written is to write.

How much time do you dedicate to promotion?

Not enough. I don’t have time. My wife is my business manager and my friends (fellow New Orleans writers, my agent and copy editor) help. I wish I did more promotion. Then I might not be a low list writer.

Where do you write?

We have a home office and I work on two Macintosh computers, a desktop and a laptop that I take to coffee shops and other places on occasion. I usually design covers and layout the books on one computer and type manuscripts on the other. I get help, as you can see, from my cats.

Do you have any other projects on the go?

Always. I’m in the middle of writing a companion novel to my historical epic BATTLE KISS and have laid out the next novel, which will be a right-after-Hurricane Katrina crime fiction novel. I always start a novel as soon as I’m finished with the one I’m writing now. As I write the novels, I also write a few short stories. I started ENAMORED the day after I finished BATTLE KISS and was able to finish it in eight months.

O'Neil De Noux interview: Slick Time

Slick Time by O'Neil De Noux

£2.08/$2.99
Amazon UK, Amazon US

Best known for his character-drive crime fiction, O’Neil De Noux writes in many disciplines – mystery, suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, children’s fiction, mainstream fiction, science-fiction, religious, romance, humor and erotica. He has had eight novels published, six short story collections and over three hundred short story sales in thirteen countries.

Can you sum up your book in no more than 25 words?

SLICK TIME – set in New Orleans and the Caribbean where Laurie Ercolani films a sexy movie while her twin, Joseph, pulls off a slick scam.

Who designed your cover and how much difference does a good cover make?

I designed the cover. I was a photographer in the army and my wife has been modelling for years, so she put on a minidress and we went to the New Orleans marina where several men eagerly urged us to ignore the ‘no trespassing’ signs, volunteering their boats as backdrops (primarily to watch her climb up and down the boat ladders). I believe a cover should have one strong image, in this case - legs. SLICK TIME is a sexy mystery, after all. I made sure the title is easily read as well as the author’s name. I don’t list awards, best-selling information, blurbs from all the wonderful reviews of my previous work, pictures of my cats, testimonials that I’m a good fellow on my covers. That goes on the back cover or inside, if I want to bore everyone.

What was your motivation in writing it?

My friend, best-selling author Greg Iles, suggested I broaden my range. Write a book not entirely set in New Orleans. So I had this idea and let my mind wander to the Caribbean. It took some research as I’d only been to the Caribbean once.

If you had to re-read a crime novel right now, what would you choose?

Dashiell Hammett’s THE MALTESE FALCON. I think it’s the best novel of the 20^th Century. It is so smooth.

Who’s your favourite living writer?

Harlan Ellison. The man’s writing cannot be pigeon-holed and woe betide anyone who tries. He’s won so many writing awards it’s incredible, from the Edgar Award to the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy Award, Writer’s Guild, British Science Fiction Award, Jupiter Award, Saturn Award and more. He writes scintillating stories with piercing insights into the human condition and writes them so well.

From an artistic rather than financial perspective, what book do you wish you had written?

LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry. This epic is touching, funny and memorable. To my knowledge, it’s the only book that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction that ends with the word, “whore.”

What are your views on eBook pricing?

It should be inexpensive. As an Indie writer, I set the prices of my eBook short stories at 99¢ and my eBook collections and novels at $1.99 or $2.99. I don’t make a lot of money on each sale, but we are selling by volume and gathering more fans. I’ve been writing professionally since 1988 and have been prolific. Unfortunately, traditional publishers only published part of my inventory, so now as an independently published writer, I have taken control of my career and release stories and books monthly. The internet provides a great opportunity to gather readers who don’t regularly go to bookstores or read reviews. It’s wide open to anyone with an eReader, a computer or smart phone.

Which author should be much better known?

John Edward Ames, who’s had seventy books published, from mysteries to westerns, many of the novels published under pseudonyms (Judd Cole, Dodge Tyler and Jon Sharpe). He’s even ghost-written several best-selling romance novels. John lives quietly in an apartment in New Orleans and was one of the first people back after Hurricane Katrina because he had a book to write. His articles on writing in pro writers magazines are spot on.

Slick Time by O'Neil De Noux

£2.08/$2.99
Amazon UK, Amazon US

O'Neil De Neux interview: New Orleans Confidential

New Orleans Confidential by O'Neil De Noux

£2.08/$2.99

Amazon UK, Amazon US

Best known for his character-drive crime fiction, O’Neil De Noux writes in many disciplines – suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, children’s fiction, mainstream fiction, science-fiction, religious, romance, humor and erotica. He has had eight novels published, six short story collections and over three hundred short story sales in thirteen countries.

Can you sum up your book in no more than 25 words?

NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL is a collection of eleven short stories set in the 1940s featuring a lone-wolf private eye named Lucien Caye.

How important is a good title?

Fellow New Orleans writer Walker Percy once said, “A good title should intrigue, without being too baffling or too obvious.” I think titles are critically important. How many times have you thought back to a book and couldn’t remember the title? I work hard at my titles. As a former private eye, I realize how much of the work is confidential, so coming up with NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL wasn’t that hard. Putting New Orleans in the title has helped draw readers to some of my other books and I continued with the theme in NEW ORLEANS NOCTURNAL (a collection of NOPD police homicide stories) and NEW ORLEANS IRRESISTIBLE (a collection of erotic mystery stories). My eBook collection that is selling the best is NEW ORLEANS MYSTERIES (stories set from the 1890s to the 21^st Century). I truly believe people search the eBook database and come across NEW ORLEANS MYSTERIES and try it.

I have other recent titles that I worked hard at, including SLICK TIME (a sexy caper novel), MAFIA APHRODITE (an erotic suspense novel).

Do you have any other projects on the go?

After recovering from Hurricane Katrina and some health issues, I reached a plateau a few years back and have been writing non-stop. As soon as I finish one book, I immediately start another and write short stories as I write novels.

During the last two years, I wrote an epic historical novel that will be released in 2012. At 320,000 words, it is the biggest and by far the best thing I’ve ever written. It was a titanic endeavour, beginning with six months intensive research, resulting in 70,000 words of historical notes. The book should be of interest in Britain as well as the US since it involves the last time the American and British armies met as enemies on a battlefield – The Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815. It is the book I was meant to write.

As soon as I finished that book, as I was editing it, I began another and just finished a Lucien Caye private eye novel set in 1950 New Orleans. I am about to start another novel.

How important is a book's central character?

Pretty damn important, especially in our genre. My latest novel, JOHN RAVEN BEAU (a novel about an NOPD detective), is the first book I named for the main character. I write character-driven crime fiction. I try not to burden the reader with all the police procedures (I know them by heart) or weigh the story down with too many plot twists. What the main character does, thinks, feels and his/her reactions to conflict is more important. It is all very personal.

What's your favourite part of the writing process?

My friend and short-story mentor George Alec Effinger once claimed he didn’t like writing. He liked to ‘have written’.

I like writing - the entire creative process from the initial inspiration to selecting which characters will inhabit the story, what will happen, to plotting out the storyline, researching, then outlining the story. Most of all I enjoy the actual composition. Writing. I even enjoy the re-writes, chiselling away at the book until it is perfect, shining it up and then moving on to something new.

What was the last good eBook you read?

BARONNE STREET by another fellow New Orleans writer Kent Westmoreland. He has created a very cool lead character, Burleigh Drummond, who isn’t actually a private eye but a ‘fixer’, a man who drives expensive cars, wears expensive suits and does things for the rich they don’t want to dirty their hands with. In this debut novel, Burleigh learns, “love sometimes means having to solve your ex-girlfriend’s murder.”

Ever tried your hand at screenwriting?

In 2001, I adapted my short story “Waiting for Alaina” into a screenplay, submitted it to a local production company which filmed it for local access TV and it aired throughout south Louisiana for several months. It was a nice, small production.

Encouraged, I adapted my police novel THE BIG KISS into a screenplay and wrote an original screenplay THE LONG COLD (about a private eye). Both were shopped around by my agent with no takers.

I enjoy writing scripts and if I could draw any interest, I would write more, but I admit I prefer writing novels and short stories.

Do you read outside of the crime genre?

Yes. Besides mysteries, I read a lot of historical novels (Bernard Cornwell, Alexander Kent, Ken Follett, Jeff Shaara), speculative fiction (Harlan Ellison, Kate Wilhelm, C. L. Moore, George Alec Effinger), mainstream fiction (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton).

New Orleans Confidential by O'Neil De Noux

£2.08/$2.99

Amazon UK, Amazon US