'The Recalitrant P.I.' is published!

 My favorite day of the year has been and gone.  Once again, a solo celebration served to mark a much hallowed (in these parts!) occasion.

Such is life, or so it would seem, for the world’s least popular novelist.

My latest novel ‘The Recalcitrant P.I.’ is published!

The fourth example of my best literary effort, it’s also the first in what is intended as a series featuring the western Canadian stoner private investigator Mac Armstrong.  Now available from Amazon in your choice of Paperback or Kindle, I’ve included the book blurb below here and recommend you order yours today.

 

Mac Armstrong is a half-baked dick in a hard-boiled world.

When life as a Private Investigator in western Canada serves a daily bowl of drab routine, his bad habits keep things interesting.  With an immature wife, an underage lover, plus a litany of addictions to anchor his broken dreams, a day of reckoning proves unavoidable.

 

In the inevitable unwinding of Mac’s life, more than love will be lost.

Searching for imagined glamor, only justice awaits The Recalcitrant P.I.

 

As is the norm for my work, the new novel relies on constrained writing technique to reinforce either narrative voice or the many subtleties of its plot.  Like each of those I’ve written before it, the world of this novel closely follows that of recorded history, where little accepted as fact occurred as those in power claim it did.

Due to an undying belief in the intelligence of my fellow homo sapiens, I will offer no further explanation regarding the plot of this or any other of my novels.  By now, it should be clear enough to those few who read these works that subtlety is an admired quality here.  The books are written as they are on purpose, because I believe you’re smart enough to figure them out without me ~ or anyone else ~ telling you about it.

As a writer after all, my job is to show, not tell.  As an artist however, what you, the consumer of it, take from my work is entirely up to you.

Near as I can tell, that has ever been its point.

For this writer, it’s been enough reward to keep me working at it.

I hope you like the new novel.  If you do, thanks for the support and for sharing your opinion on Goodreads, Amazon and wherever else it’s appropriate to do so.  If you don’t, thanks for the support and for also sharing yours as widely as possible.  For while not my intent, some have been outraged while others nonplussed by early drafts, leaving the writer looking forward to reviews with anticipation.

Thanks for being here and thanks for sharing the blog.

 

• TFP
  November 19, 2018
   
   
   

Of instagram & other gambles.

In the latest bow to the unrelenting online facts of modern life, I’ve recently signed up for an Instagram account.  Officially, I pursue increased exposure for my writing via another platform of increasingly ubiquitous social media.

To see the results, give me a follow @tfpruden there.

Meantime, due primarily to the various demands of bootstrapping a cannabusiness start-up in Canada, pursuit of a manageable writing routine continues here.  To date, success is limited.

For like a lot of writers, I’m a creature of habit.  Perhaps more than most, this one relies on a method quite specific.  Handmade over decades, though time-consuming it’s also proven durable.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to adjust for circumstance.  As result, I’m not yet ready to begin work on the next novel.  The post you’re reading as example of typical recent effort, leaves little need for further explanation.

Here’s another fact; the unspoken covenant between writer and reader, artist and audience, or musician and listener has long governed life here.  For better or worse, the bond that remains unbroken in this writer’s life is that committed to words and those who might, somewhere or someday, discover them.

As ever, a man endeavors to persevere.

Focus remains this writer’s primary talent.  Before poker went mainstream, to be known as a sitter was as much respectful compliment as mild pejorative.  The sitters of the world anchor every game, private or public.  Without them, few gambling operations would survive.  For while high rollers deliver the glamor of occasional big stakes, the consistent losses of the inveterate gambler keep the low limit tables open year-round.

In this way, small daily losses add up to large annual profits.

Blame nature if you must, but every man’s loss is another’s gain.

Though few are consciously aware of it, most industries (including literature, either traditional or independent) follow a pattern not dissimilar to achieve certain success.  While social media uses an undeniably new business model enabled by technology, despite much talk of disruption money tends to follow the well-known path.

Unlike writing, which is always, at best, a gamble.

Though admittedly for this writer, it more often resembles the low limit grind of an everyday sitter than glitterati playing table stakes.

Focus is essential to writing completed here.  Just as it is for survival in any five-ten poker game, where a commitment to patience is the only sure thing.  Because every hold ‘em player knows a winning hand waits on the next flop.

The cards meanwhile, will lay as they fall.

A man must choose only to play those he is dealt, or fold.

Work continues for a fall release of ‘The Recalcitrant P.I.’ (my latest novel, #4 to publish).  I’ll post more news when I have it.

Thanks for being here.

 

TFP

September 4, 2018

 

The next one.

Once again, the time is imminent.

After months of interrupted effort, the latest scrawl transmogrifies to the point of publication readiness.  At least, close enough to it by estimation of its author.

A fellow known for being loose with such interpretations, the reader is thus considered forewarned.  While neither requested nor necessary, also provided here is explanation for disavowing earlier claims swearing off publication of future tomes.

Let it not be said a man was unaware of his numerous contradictions.

For like many blessed with an addictive personality, quitting one bad habit often requires collecting a replacement for it.  Whether in the form of continuing education, new employment, treatment programs, recreational activities, or emotional entanglement, the cure most times can prove as dangerous as the illness.

A man hopes most for improvement in selecting these compulsions though neither trial nor error has so far proven foolproof.

History meanwhile, documents the factual basis of the above-stated opinion.  In justification to myself alone however, the facts provide opportunity to continue delivery of unwanted literary effort to an unsuspecting world.

To be succinct, so long as a writer demands no remuneration for his time, the novels break even on their publication expenses.

I will state here for posterity I do not, for either its own sake or as result of acquired habit, like work.  In fact, despite a reputation for doing plenty, that time is better spent avoiding it has been a consistent philosophical position in these parts.

A man however, does need something to do.

That lesson I received as a gift from my father, for whose unvarnished wisdom I remain ever grateful.  As result, the only factually magical experience of which I have been party to, draws remarkably close.

As for this writer, his work alone provides the respite from a host of unrepentant maladies.

I thus remain more grateful for the freedom discovered on the written page than for anything beyond family in this most fortunate of lives.  From the earliest boy’s poems to the many young man’s short stories, through the countless songs of Harwill to these few novels I’ve been fortunate to complete, only writing has ever satisfied an unyielding desire.

Now as ever, I remain as relieved as I am convinced it has been my purpose.

Though perhaps, more grateful now to have received it than in my youth.  For there were long days when such an intensely experienced psychological burden was beyond my capacity to bear.  In those times, my father’s wisdom would help me see what mattered personally, in fact, not philosophy.

For eventually, a man with something to do will find his way.

A man does his best to thank his dad for such gifts, daily if possible, but always when recalling the countless experiences of wonder, grace or brutality this life has so far provided.  As in the writer’s never-ending work is found not only purpose, but freedom ever-lasting.

The big news here is a planned series of novels, with the first of them set for publication on or around the usual date later in the calendar year.  Featuring an unmistakeably western Canadian private investigator named Mac Armstrong, watch the blog this summer for more news about ‘The Recalcitrant P.I.’.

To all who visit here or might read these occasional words, to those who review a novel or offer a word of support, know you, too, are the source of endless gratitude.

Thanks for sharing the blog.

• TFP
  July 14, 2018

One Fate Befalls is published!

After much delay, a great day for this writer once again arrives!

I’m pleased to announce independent publication and retail availability of my third novel One Fate Befalls, a tragic romance set in western Canada.  Now available exclusively from Amazon CreateSpace in paperback, author inscribed copies may be ordered by contacting me here at the blog.

See the ‘Mail Order’ page for details.

To purchase a copy direct from Amazon dot com, click the ‘Paperbacks’ link above.

Also available in eBook exclusively for the Kindle reader, click the ‘Kindle eBooks’ page to order.

To read the latest reviews, see the novel’s Goodreads page by clicking on the cover to the right or follow the link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36564847-one-fate-befalls

I also send my sincerest thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to offer either a review or a rating of the novel.

For those with a taste for them, I’ve included the book’s cover blurb below.

 

'One Fate Befalls’ is a love story about choices.

Kate, a married suburbanite whose doting husband works out of town, owns a lonely home, an infant son and a heart full of secrets. A surprise meeting with Nick, her long lost first love, forces them both to evaluate choice, responsibility, failure and supressed hope.

An exploration of youthful indiscretion and middle-aged impulse, the web of secrets, lies, substance and sexual abuse boldly grips the reader's attention.

Can there be answers to questions best left unasked?

 

As times here lately have been busy, I’ve had little of it left to invest into my burgeoning career as the world’s most unpopular novelist.  Primarily due to a continuing desire to eat despite the ongoing literary failure, most of my efforts these days are devoted to yet another half-baked entrepreneurial pursuit.

While results so far have been everything in and nothing out, a man unwilling to take direction other than his own must endeavor to persevere.

A writer takes what comfort there is knowing much like anything else, it’s most often the stubborn who achieve their goals.

It took a long while to finish writing One Fate Befalls.  After too many years spent on an abundance of iterations, dozens of revisions later the heart of the story is what remains.  At last complete, the writer believes it one worth telling.

I hope you like it.

Thanks for sharing the blog.

 

• TFP
  November 16, 2017