NEW New Orleans novel released

NEW ORLEANS RAPACIOUS

by O'Neil De Noux

Rapacious defined – aggressively greedy, ravenous, plundering, taking by force, subsisting on live prey.

It starts as a wandering daughter case when a pretty widow hires New Orleans Private Eye Lucien Caye to find her twenty-two year old daughter. The date is April 10, 1947, and Helen Croix walks into Caye’s office with a picture of her missing daughter, Madelyn. She warns Lucien he’ll be tempted when he finds the alluring, strawberry-blond, temptress. Madelyn Croix will most likely seduce him. Helen describes her daughter as rapacious. Lucien has to look up the word to discover it means avaricious, greedy, ravenous – subsisting on live prey.

On Madelyn’s trail, Lucien comes across a love-sick lawyer, a seedy photographer, a suspicious psychiatrist, a jealous husband, the worst private eye in New Orleans, a mischievous black kitten and a bevy of pretty women willing to bed him. Shortly after the love-sick lawyer is murdered, Madelyn Croix comes to Lucien one night with that curvaceous body and Prussian-blue eyes that blink ever so slowly, precisely, like a falcon and he realizes – rapacious, like a raptor, a bird of prey. Madelyn hires Lucien to protect her. Someone is trying to kill her.

Link:

http://www.oneildenoux.net/oneildenoux.net/Welcome.html

Police Writer Article

Check it out:
http://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2014/01/15/the-writer-cop-by-oneil-de-noux/

A Walloping Read

Y'all know I'm a New Orleans writer, so when I praise a book set here, I pretty much know what I'm talking about.

I have high praise for SWAMP WALLOPER (A Fight Card Book) by Jack Tunney, edited by Paul Bishop. Available at amazon.com for only $2.99

Here is the 5 Star Review I wrote for it:

Take a trip back to the 1950s, to Los Angeles and then to creepy Bayou Sauvage the only swamp within the city limits of a major American city - New Orleans. This is a wild ride full of great boxing scenes and some of the most interesting characters I've come across in a while. Patrick Felony Flynn and his wily cop partner Tombstone Jones are city slick hombres pitted against some truly evil villains. Don't want to tip off too much about the plot but there isn't a wasted word here.

Ya'll check it out at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBHR9D2/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

SHAMUS Award Finalists

SHAMUS Award Nominations are out. It's very nice to be recognized by one's peers. There is a new category BEST INDIE P.I. NOVEL (published independently) and I am proud to have ENAMORED included.
http://writingpis.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/private-eye-writers-of-america-shamus-award-finalists-2013/

CITY of SECRETS

Two months AK - After Katrina - the water is gone, along with most of the people. The mud is dried and much of the city is coated in a gray, brown film of silt and dirt. Pockets of the city have electricity and natural gas. The city lies prostrate, almost helpless, as people return to reclaim their lives. Others come to the deserted town, ruthless criminals moving in to stake their turf. Murder returns to New Orleans and the killers collide with a man who hunts murderers with methodical, calculating precision, innate in one who has the blood of the great plains warriors in his veins.

The NEW John Raven Beau novel.

Trade paperback or eBook. GO TO: www.oneildenoux.net or amazon.com or smashwords.com

No Reviews?

I'll admit it. I don't know how to promote my books.
I used to review books I like on Amazon, but with the new rule that writers cannot reviews other writer's books, well,  I don't bother anymore. No criticism of Amazon. I would never trash another writer's book to make mine look good or get a better star rating. I don't pay attention to ratings. Maybe I should. I'm always surprised when a reader tells me one of my books is one of Amazon's top mysteries, etc.

I've been writing hard for over twenty-five years with twenty-one books published. I work on honing my craft, on writing better books. I write just about all the time (when I'm not working as a police officer). It drives my wife to distraction, but she supports me all the way. I wish I had time to promote, but to me - writing is everything. Write. Write. Write. And write.

As for reviews, I've gotten some very nice ones. A few days ago, a friend alerted me that my story "The Body in Crooked Bayou" got a bad review. I tried to ignore it, but decided I'd see what it's about. It's on Amazon and the review is NOT ABOUT MY STORY. Apparently, a reviewer did not like a story written by someone named 'Raleigh' and put the review under my story instead of Raleigh's story, giving my story a low rating. I sent an email to Amazon. I mean, come on, if my story earns a bad review, OK. But if you're going to trash a story, list it under the correct story.

I'm sitting here laughing because my friend and mentor Harlan Ellison once told me to ignore reviews, don't comment on them. He was right. Again.

Still No Reviews!

Very few writers know how to promote their own work. That would mean coming out of that semi-dark room—you know the room I'm talking about…it's the one where the bug guy doesn't even bother to spray on his yearly visits—and joining the frightening world of real people.

So, this is how I've handled the daunting world of self-promotion: I have done absolutely nothing. I don't have a Facebook page, I don't have a personal blog, and the thought of contacting family and friends to sell my books makes me crawl even deeper into that bug-filled room. That's the reason I don't use my real name. I don't want any pity purchases.

The one exception to the above strategy has been "free days" on KDP Select (Amazon). Over the course of the free promotion days for the three titles that I had with KDP Direct, I have given away almost 3,000 copies. And I have sold a respectable number of copies of my three books over the last six months or so.

Still, I have ZERO reviews. Not even bad ones. I don't understand. My writing has won several national contests, and I have been represented in the past by two pretty well-known agents (Jeff Herman and Paige Wheeler), so I don't think the lack of reviews is because I'm a bad writer. I'm no Steinbeck, but I'm not bad.

I know that some of this is a result of my refusal to accept reciprocal reviews from authors whose books I have reviewed. I review books simply because they are entertaining and well-written. A reciprocal review is, at best, questionable. They may be true and heartfelt reviews, but how would we ever know. Often, I review books under my real name so that no one knows that "Sean Dexter" has reviewed their work. I would rather have no reviews than one that is payback (positive or negative revenge reviews) for a review I have given.

Not too long ago, I joined Goodreads. Goodreads is a social media platform for readers and writers. I soon learned that most (but certainly not all) of the writers associated with Goodreads have one goal and one goal only: to shamelessly solicit reciprocal reviews. They even have reciprocal review clubs where they take turns reviewing each other's books. I would like to disassociate myself from Goodreads, but I am afraid that I won't be allowed to leave alive. I have taken to sleeping with a Ruger .357 just in case the "Recip Squad" should choose to pay me a late night visit for criticizing them...

Wait, did you hear that? Oh God, I think they're here…

SD