Why Do I Write ?

It’s a question that I have been asked probably a hundred or more times and it is a question you would think I would know the answer to, but incredibly it is one that I have struggled with, until now.

In the past I would simply say, ‘I have a lot of stories to tell,’ and while that is true, it doesn’t answer the actual question. Everyone has a lot of stories to tell, but not everyone becomes a writer. My first novel, PERFECT PAWN, came about because my wife dared me to write it, but seven years later I have nine novels, two novellas, and three non-fiction books published. I also have a tenth book ready to come out and two more outlines queued up and ready to go.

So why do I write?

The answer didn’t hit me until I read a blog post by Jason Allison, a fellow retired NYPD detective and author. Jason writes some terrific posts and I highly recommend you check them out. But it was one particular post titled: You Can’t Go Home Again, which really resonated with me.

From the ripe old age of five I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up, a New York City Police Officer, and for two decades I had a front-row seat to the Greatest Show on Earth. My time with the NYPD was filled with incredible experiences. To quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”  There are no words to adequately explain a career spent with the largest police department in the United States, but one memory stands out and that was the day I retired from it.

After loading up my car and saying my goodbyes to my co-workers I walked out of my office, pausing for a moment to look back and it is this moment that is ingrained in me. My career was ending, but the job continued. It always does.

This month, the NYPD celebrates its 175th Anniversary. During that time, some of the most gifted and heroic police officers have been a member of the Department, but we all share a common legacy, and that is to say the job continued, long after we were gone.

It is true that my career gave me a lot of stories, both good and bad, that I draw from in my writings, but is that why I write? The answer to that question is no. I realize that the reason I write is to maintain that connection to the job.

As I sit here in my office, writing this post, I am surrounded by a collection of NYPD memorabilia that spans a period of time that is almost as old as the Department itself.  Sometimes I look at these items and think about the officers who wore or used them. What events, both good and bad, did they experience? Could they have ever imagined that the last time they touched it, that it would end up in the hands of another NYPD officer a hundred years later? The truth is that the NYPD is not who I was, but who I am.

My books are my link to the job. In creating the characters of James Maguire, Alex Taylor, and Angelo Antonucci, I have forged an eternal link between myself the Department. Long after I am gone, these characters will survive and so will my connection to the job.

Perhaps this is the reason other cops, such as Joseph Wambaugh, Ed Dee, and John Mackie, became writers, because as long as the characters live in the reader’s mind, so do you.

I could have retired from the job in 2005 and just walked off into the sunset, content in the knowledge that I had been a small part of the greatest police department in the world. But perhaps my greatest legacy will be that one day a reader will pick up one of my novels and say, ‘yeah, that’s what I want to do.’

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So this just happened - MWA

There are professional milestones in our lives that are so incredible that it's difficult to describe them adequately. It is a culmination of dedication and hard work that says, ‘You earned this.’

For me, the milestones in my NYPD career occurred when I put on the shields of Police Officer, Detective, and Sergeant. They were the outward representation of the blood, sweat, and tears I put in to achieve each of those ranks.

When I retired in 2005, I wondered if that would be the end. I’m proud to say they weren’t.

In 2013, when I published my first novel, Perfect Pawn, I wondered where the road to becoming an author would take me. It is no secret that most mystery authors aspire to be the next James Patterson, Ken Follett, Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, John le Carré, or Joseph Wambaugh. Why wouldn’t we? They are the titans in the mystery field.

So what does this have to do with me?

Well, I might not have attained their literary status (yet), but I achieved a significant milestone this morning. As of today, I have joined their ranks and have officially been inducted as a fellow member of the Mystery Writers of America!

To say I am both shocked and deeply honored would be a gross understatement.

When I began writing, the thought of being a member of this prestigious organization was nothing more than a wistful dream and yet, seven years later, here I am. But I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to thank you, my readers, for providing me the opportunity to achieve this great honor. Without your support and continued patronage, this would never have been possible.

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Best wishes & stay safe,

Andrew

Tools for Writers - ProWritingAid

I rarely endorse any products, but I recently came across one called ProWritingAid that has improved the way I write.

I wrote my first NYPD novel, Perfect Pawn, in 2012. Back then, my creative writing training comprised everything I had forgotten in school and the ungodly amounts of reports I had written during my police career. Not exactly a solid foundation to become an author, but I had a story to tell and I enjoyed writing them. Eight years later I have written thirteen books that span three different fictional series’ and several non-fiction works.

Over the years I have improved as a writer, but in the beginning I got blasted frequently by reviewers. While the found the books enjoyable, they took exception to the grammatical errors in my earlier works. What can I say besides mea culpa? As I said, I’m a story-teller, not an English major, but that doesn’t mean I am ignorant when it comes to acknowledging my weaknesses. So I did the best I could, taking the criticisms to heart and trying to learn on my own.

As an aspiring author, you learn several hard truths. The first is that this game is rig against you. Those lucky enough to get a publishing contract get access to a wide variety of tools that help them deliver a polished product, including editing services. Indies can also accomplish that, but it comes out of their pocket.

Here’s a rate schedule put out by the Editorial Freelancers Association in 2008:

Basic copyediting: $25 to $40 per hour Pace: 5 to 10 pages an hour
Heavy copyediting: $35 to $50 per hour Pace: 2 to 5 pages an hour
Substantive editing: $40 to $65 per hour Pace: 1 to 6 pages per hour (also called line editing)
Developmental editing: $50 to $80 per hour Pace: 2 to 5 pages per hour

For argument’s sake, let us assume that an Indie author produces a 350 page book. Even with the most basic editing, it will probably run them around $2k. This means that they will have to sell over 1k books before they realize any profit. If you add in the cost for a cover and formatting, it will be a lot more.

I found myself in the same literary boat. While I had the ability to design my own covers, and taught myself formatting, I floundered in the area of editing. I tried to get the help of others, more knowledgeable in grammar, including an English teacher, but it wasn’t enough.

About a year ago, I came across a link for a program called ProWritingAid. Admittedly, I was skeptical at first, but since it was a onetime fee, I bit the bullet and tried it. I figured the worse it could be was a tax deduction at the end of the year. I ran my first novel, Perfect Pawn, through it and sat back. Now mind you, I had been ‘editing’ this book for nearly seven years. Every time I would get a negative review I would go back and do another review to fix the mistakes.  At the point I ran it through the ProWritingAid summary program. I thought the book was pretty solid, clearly I was wrong.

What the results showed was that my overall score, after all those edits, was only a 77 out of 100. On top of that, my grammar was an 81 and my style was an abysmal 56. It felt like I got kicked in the guts.

I sat down and began reviewing each chapter, doing my best to make corrections, while not impacting the story. In the end, I improved my overall to a 93 and my grammar to a 99. I wish it were perfect, but you will never be 100 percent. After all, in one of George R. R. Martin’s professionally published / edited book there is a sentence that says they “raped the windows”……….. Ouch.

As indie authors, we must always look to improve, not just for ourselves, but for the readers experiences as well. I firmly believe that ProWritingAid can do that, so much so that I have gone back and have begun re-editing all of my books using this program. Not only is it going to help with your grammar and spelling, but it will also show you the words you use too much.

If you are an author, on a limited budget, I suggest that you give it a try. I’m sure you will find it to be a worthwhile investment.

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Best wishes, Stay Safe, & God Bless.

Andrew

Corona Virus Quarantine – Day:……. Who Knows?

Well, I got up today and realized it’s the 67th day of Femarpril, or whatever the hell month we are in right now, and it has been about two months since I posted my last blog entry.  I figured now was as good a time as any to let you know that I am alive and well, having survived the great toilet paper skirmish of 2020.

These last few weeks have proved to be an eye opening experience for me, as I have learned that my lifestyle apparently has a name: Self Quarantining. Who knew? I also realize that with the number of people posting photos of their alcohol supply, and having gone through just about every Netflix show in existence, I have a feeling that the wild nights of quarantine are going to be replaced with the raucous sound of babies crying in December. Introducing the next defined baby group: Coronials!!

One benefit of being an author is that we create our own little worlds, so if the one we are living in isn’t working for us, then we just move on. I’ve spent the last few months re-editing & re-publishing some previous novels: Perfect Pawn, Queen’s Gambit, Small Town Secrets (which also got a new cover re-design), Bishop’s Gate, Cold Case: The Katherine White Murder, and have Little Boy Lost in final review. I’m gradually making my way through my old backlist to polish up my prior books.  My goal is to give the reader the best possible product for them to enjoy.

Along the way, I’ve written a new novel which I hope to get out this summer. I’d hoped to release it in winter 2019, but there was just something missing and I didn’t want to force it. I’ve also penned an outline for a new Angelo Antonucci Cold Case novella and the outline for the next Alex Taylor novel.

So that’s what has been happening on my home front. I truly wish you all the best during this chaotic and uncertain time. Just remember, nothing lasts forever and each day is one day closer to the end of this nightmare. Until then, sit back, grab something to drink, and enjoy a good book. Chances are it will be a better world than the one we are living in right now.

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Best wishes, Stay Safe, & God Bless.

Andrew

Dealing with the Issue of Cliffhangers

Being an author means you risk being rebuked for your writing. It is like the old adage says, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.’

Recently one of my books, Bishop’s Gate, received a 2-star review after the reader took exception to my use of cliffhangers.

“Two stars because after reading two books, Queen Gambit and Bishops Gate, I realize the stories are never finished but continued on in a ploy to sell more books. Too bad, I really like the writing style but I hate and detest carry on stories. Won’t buy anymore by this author.”

I felt bad for two reasons. First, I apparently lost a reader, and second, it was obvious that the reader enjoyed my writing. To be fair, all authors want to sell more books. After all, it is a profession, albeit one that pays rather poorly for the vast majority of us. But it caused me to question my writing style and whether I should change it.

Long before I ever became an author, I was an avid reader and viewer. I enjoyed being transported from reality. One thing I took away was the fact that, just as in life, events are rarely stagnant. One of the pivotal moments in my appreciation of the uncertainty of life occurred when I went to see Star Wars in the summer of 1977. While there was a certain resolution to the storyline, spoiler: the rebels won, there was also a degree of ambiguity, since the antagonist, Darth Vader, is observed in retreat.

In 1980, this point was driven home with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. At the end of TESB, I was left with more questions than answers and a sense of how could something so good, go so wrong, so fast? The rebellion was bloodied, Luke lost a hand and learned a terrible secret, and Han was in the clutches of Boba Fett. Movies weren’t supposed to end this way and I wasn’t alone in my feelings. Judith Martin of The Washington Post criticized the film's middle-of-the-story plot, which she claimed had no particular beginning or end.

But, that’s exactly what George Lucas had envisioned.

To say that TESB had a profound impact on me would be a gross understatement. It caused me to re-think the whole premise behind storytelling. I began looking at the television series’ I habitually watched and came to understand that almost all of them had cliffhangers. I realized that life was not so cut and dry; that good didn’t always triumph over evil. It also made me understand that life, even literary ones, were constant. Not that I don’t appreciate a good standalone book, that literally ends with, The End, it’s just that I know there is more.

When I sat down to write my debut novel, Perfect Pawn, I had the idea of a story, but as the book progressed I realized that, 1) I like the characters, and 2) I wanted to write more. Perfect Pawn went beyond the traditional word count in my genre, but I knew there was much more to the story. So, while there was a certain level of resolution, I was already looking ahead to book two, in order to advance the plot.

Readers must understand that, like George Lucas, I have a vision in my head. This is the story of James Maguire and the cliffhangers serve a purpose. In the beginning, we learn that Maguire is a former Navy SEAL and a retired NYPD detective, but that changes in book two, and there are more changes as the storyline progresses. I know where the series is going and my wish is that you will stay for the ride. This is a series, and there are things touched on in one book, that will seem insignificant, but will make much more sense later on. There are a lot more twists and turns ahead.

To quote Commander Richard Marcinko, U.S. Navy SEAL (Retired), ‘Pay attention, you will see this material again.’

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