Johnny Dangerous

Selena and Christmas

2011-12-13T20:57:00.002-06:00

(excerpt from VIPER) When Selena rounded the corner of her street she noticed the Christmas decor strung on neighbors’ shrubs and eaves. It was too early in the day to see lights, but doors sported wreaths and Santa Claus cut-outs, while lawns displayed sleighs, reindeer and plastic snowmen. She hadn’t even started decorating and wouldn’t until the novena before Noche-buena, Christmas Eve. During the nine days of the posadas, she and her brothers had paraded through the neighborhood each night with all the other kids, in bright costumes, holding candles and singing Mexican carols with guitars and, in imitation of Joseph and Mary, asking neighbors if they can stay. The first two always refused, and the third took them inside where there was already a barn scene set up. Everyone prayed the rosary in Spanish, the Santa Marías rolling like soft waves. Afterward, they partied with piñatas, fritters and fresh fruit drinks like horchata, chía, and piña. One time Lorenzo got into the men’s tequila supply somehow and spent the rest of the night kneeling in front of the toilet.
This year I’m going to keep it simple, she thought, parking at the curb. Candles in the windows as usual, garland on the banisters. I’ll set up the pesebre with the carved olive tree figures of the whole nativity scene.
Her family had a large set in the living room and each person had a little crèche in their rooms. Every year someone disappeared from the big set-up; if it wasn’t Saint Joseph it was a shepherd or a magi. One year they couldn’t find the Baby Jesus. Selena cried because she thought there wouldn’t be a Christmas that year because of it. The Baby Jesus turned up in time, albeit with tiny bite marks from Mamí’s Chihuahua. Selena was still missing a magi from her own set, the one carrying the gold. Maybe this year I’ll find him, she mused with a soft chuckle. But then who else will disappear?
The familia always gathered at Comadre María’s. First, Christmas midnight Mass, then chow down at madrina’s. Her mouth watered thinking of the colorful bacalao a la vizcaina and romeritos in mole sauce. This mess had better be over with by then, she muttered as she stepped out and trotted to the front door.
Still plenty of light left in the day. She checked her watch, thinking she didn’t have time to think about presents. Anyway, family gifts weren’t given until Epiphany, Dia de los Santos Reyes Magos. Reed might expect something at Christmas, though. There was the cognac she bought for a special occasion. Maybe that. But would she see him again at all? Her heart squeezed like a limón.
She jingled her keys, found the one for the front door and plunged it in, rushing through a mental list: bundle up, it’s getting cold. After changing, drive to the office, get the Charger and race down I-88 to Prophetstown. Do I need to get gas? Take the GPS just in case I get lost even if I was there before. Check with Felicia about office calls.
She shouldered against the door but it didn’t budge. The deadbolt was engaged. Don’t remember doing that, she thought. Glancing over her shoulder furtively, she leaned her body on the door frame and fingered the keychain again, opened the door, and stepped inside.
A glass tinkled in the kitchen.
Someone was in the house.
Madre de Dios, they went for Miguel first and now they’re here.
She backed to the wall and drew her pistol from the purse. She set the purse down and double-fisted the SIG Sauer against her thumping chest. She padded toward the kitchen, her mouth suddenly dry. A cup scraped on a countertop.
She lunged into the kitchen, gun high.

(You’ll have to buy VIPER to find out who was in the kitchen and what happens next!)

blog interview today

2011-11-18T07:35:00.001-06:00

I'm interviewed at 'The Muriel Reeves Mysteries' blog today. It's the last stop of 16 stops on my Fall Virtual Book Tour. http://tiny.cc/n54nl

researching mystery #3

2011-11-16T20:56:00.003-06:00

Did more research recently for mystery #3 in the series regarding the real-life assassination of Cardinal Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara in 1993. Selena was involved as well as her former PEMEX-executive Papa during her graduation-from-Loyola visit to Mexico. That's all I should say for now. I've applied for a sabbatical with a proposal to draft this novel during the leave.

working on book 3

2011-11-03T17:09:00.003-05:00

I've begun research for book 3 in the mystery series - it's turning into a political thriller, involving the 1993 assassination of Cardinal Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, when Selena was a 22-year-old graduate of Loyola. Here's her Senior photo. The family went to Mexico to celebrate her graduation and - well, it got more exciting than anyone could have guessed.

Criminal Minds at Work VIPER review

2011-10-16T09:52:00.003-05:00

Here's a review of VIPER from Carl Brookins, writing for the blog "Criminal Minds at Work":

Set in rural Illinois, the novel follows disgraced DEA agent Selena De La Cruz as she tries to re-order her life into some semblance of normality after a drug raid gone bad results in a tragic aftermath. Leaving that life turns out to be more than just difficult. It is impossible. And so Selena leaves her insurance company and re-enters the dangerous world of undercover drug enforcement among a Latino population that is turbulent, ever-changing and marked with friends who become enemies and family members short on understanding.

The author cleverly establishes Selena as an independent capable woman beset on all sides by the chauvinism of her bosses and the cultural disapproval of her family. Good Latinas do not carry guns and arrest drug dealers. There is an invasive Latin Catholic presence throughout the book. The basic theme of the story is a list of names entered into a church’s Book of the Dead, requesting prayers for their souls. The problem is that the people represented are still alive as the book opens. But one by one they are murdered. Since Selena’s name is last on the list, she has more than usual reason to be concerned. Her interaction with law enforcement and Church officials becomes more and more intense as the list is shortened, one by one.

The novel is smoothly written, logical and mostly gripping. There are several sections of Aztec and other religious history and legends used by the author to explain some of the ritual Selena encounters which, while interesting in themselves, have a tendency to slow the narrative. Nevertheless, Viper is a worthwhile read, blending religious mystery with brutal modern crime.

FabianSpace review of VIPER

2011-08-08T11:05:00.003-05:00

VIPER is another excellent mystery by John Desjarlais. Too often, you read a thriller/mystery and have to wonder if the main character is even human for all the abuse and emotional trauma they live through in the course of a book. The thing I enjoy most about John's books is that he doesn't rely on over-the-top action or heart-clutching angst to get you through a story. Rather, he begins with a strong mystery with believable characters you could expect to find living next door, and he lets the excitement and the emotion flow naturally from the story. The result is a novel that will keep you reading through the end, but not leave you feeling like the characters--and you--need a long vacation on a deserted island just to recover! The Catholic and Hispanic culture, so well researched and deeply infused in the book, add flavor and uniqueness. Definitely worth reading!

(photo at right: Selena De La Cruz, VIPER's protagonist)

new amazon review of VIPER

2011-07-27T13:17:00.002-05:00

"VIPER is John Desjarlais's sequel to BLEEDER. Having enjoyed the first novel so much, I snatched up the second as soon as I saw it in the bookstore. I was not disappointed. John Desjarlais has the uncanny ability to at once take you on a seat-belt-tightening suspenseful ride of your life, immerse you in another culture, and have you live in his character's skins--whether they're Aristotelian professors or Latina maidens--and all at the same time. His story-line is fast moving and never predictable...like the twists and turns of a country road at high speeds. Be warned, though, if you pick up VIPER, you need to carve out a nice niche of time to finish it because--once you fall into the Viper's lair--you won't be able to crawl out."

Gerard Webster, author of In-Sight

Murphy has arrived

2011-07-17T22:28:00.003-05:00

Our new retired racing Greyhound, Murphy, has arrived at our home! He's a beauty, white with brindle patches! 3 years old, 33 races, his Mom was a million-dollar-winner. His track name: Sovereign Knight. He is housebroken, has already learned to climb stairs, and (for the most part) live in a human home.

VIPER released today

2011-07-15T08:04:00.006-05:00

Today is the official paperback release date for VIPER!

to order VIPER:

http://www.sophiainstitute.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=499

http://www.amazon.com/Viper-John-J-Desjarlais/dp/1933184809/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307314406&sr=1-6

2011-07-10T11:13:00.002-05:00

http://www.sophiainstitute.com/productdetails.cfm?sku=Mystry is where to order BLEEDER and VIPER together for $25 - limited time offer. VIPER is officially released July 15. It was printed and shipped to Sophia this week.

Northern Star feature

2011-06-28T08:29:00.002-05:00

Local journalism professor publishes sequel to thriller
Heather Skripp Posted: Monday, June 27, 2011 3:25 pm

DeKALB Kishwaukee College's own John Desjarlais will release the second book in his mystery series Friday.

Desjarlais, professor of English and Journalism at Kishwaukee College, studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University and Illinois State University, worked at Wisconsin Public Radio and wrote three books before his upcoming release, Viper. Desjarlais said that the act of writing is itself a constant source of inspiration.

"Inspiration comes when the pen moves across the page or the fingers begin to type," Desjarlais said. "It is in the act of writing that ideas come."

Viper is the sequel to 2009's Bleeder and follows protagonist Selena De La Cruz as she struggles to find out why her name is in her church's Book of the Deceased. Viper, like Bleeder, combines elements of mystery novels with religion and mysticism. Aztec myths, Mexican Catholicism and bi-cultural identities are themes of the novel, Desjarlais said

"First, they are indeed classic mystery novels in the sense that they are driven by a crime requiring a sleuth to solve the puzzle rationally, with clues planted for readers to follow and a surprising solution at the end," Desjarlais said. "The crimes involved in both books determined their spiritual flavoring."

Desjarlais said he takes extra care to make sure the portrayal of religious beliefs and practices is accurate. Anything else, he said, is a form of disrespect to readers.

Readers can look forward to a third book in the series, which is currently in the works. Characters from the first two novels will be brought back for a new story dealing with life insurance fraud.

Readers can see book summaries and reviews at Desjarlais' web site, www.johndesjarlais.com. Titles are on sale at Amazon.com.

Seattle Post Intelligencer/Litland on BLEEDER

2011-06-21T07:10:00.001-05:00

Finally, I get to review a book in my favorite genre: cozy mystery! John Desjarlais masters it well in Bleeder. Reed Stubblefield is a professor on sabbatical. While often used to finish research or publish books, a sabbatical is truly meant to be a time of learning, development, self-improvement. Reed endures life "lessons" that he didn't anticipate in this quiet rural town.

Written for adults, older teens will also appreciate the rich context within which Desjarlais situates his mystery as well as his multi-faceted characters. The protagonist, a religious skeptic, ends up knee-deep in a possible miracle - or is it a hoax? Criticism and misunderstanding of Catholicism are treated realistically and given intellectual critique. In contrast to authors like Regina Doman who integrate classic literature with a poetic effect, Bleeder is equally intellectual but for the philosopher rather than the poet. However, rather than a heady treatment, we are entertained with a continuous theme tying Aquinas to Aristotle in the self-talk and dialogue of characters. This gives it practical application to every day life (great for school assignment). A standard ethical process for decision making is provided that leads to the truth.

Each character in the story is dubious, and the reader sees how easy it is to appear to be a "good" person when not. Some are misguided religious fanatics who perpetuate their own beliefs from within a church community, showing how easily one can think they are following a path of Truth while actually straying into twisted religion. For others, their desire to see a good outcome may lead them to force results regardless of the means taken, forgetting to leave all up to God's will. The outer community also has its struggle with outsiders (immigrants) changing its culture, and the common fears and prejudices that accompany such changes.

At the same time, however, our protagonist is wrestling with serious matters straight out of modern living. Whether it be dealing with the death of his wife, being a victim himself of assault and injury, depression, medical insurance debacles, loss of employment, or relationships with family and love interests, Reed Stubblefield contends with it all. As salt is rubbed in his wounds, he doesn't falter but instead perseveres. An unseeming hero, yet a hero he is when it comes to conquering life's challenges. The author's treatment of loyalty, chaste dating, and self discipline is done in a manner that is very realistic, not idealist, and yet Reed makes the right choices each time.

If I were teaching junior/senior year secondary school (college prep) or lower level college ethics, philosophy or literature, I'd assign this book. What a great way for older teens and young adults to test their own ideas of how to live out Aquinas or Aristotelian ethics. Yet it also provides meaningful conversation for book clubs too. The author smoothly takes his reader into small-town life leaving much to be discussed about the foundations of ignorance and prejudice, true loyalty vs. self-protection.

Of course, putting aside its deeper meanings, as a fast-paced mystery it equally serves the purpose of pure enjoyment for any crowd too!

Just like what we watch on TV or movies, and who we hang out with, books also influence our values and attitudes. Our perspective on life is continually altered from what we read and, through that, so are our choices and behaviours. We are never too old to need a good story where realistic characters struggle with life's challenges and temptations, but end up having the self-discipline to make the right choices. Bleeder is such a story and highly recommended! See our criteria review against character education guidelines at http://www.litland.com/

Desjarlais, John. (2008) Bleeder: A Miracle? Or Bloody Murder?Sophia Institute Press. ISBN: 978-1-933184-56-2. Publisher age recommendation: Adult fiction. Litland recommends age 16 through adult. Not recommended for younger advanced readers.

Mystery writer Tina Whittle on VIPER

2011-06-20T18:07:00.004-05:00

I am such a sucker for a strong (if sometimes flawed) female protagonist -- and VIPER delivers.

Selena de la Cruz (pictured here) is strong because she's vulnerable, both contemporary and traditional at the same time, which makes for an uneasy road. A former cop now working as an insurance agent, she's brought back into the world of drug smugglers and homicide when her name turns up in the Book of the Dead. She's still alive, but the people whose names precede her are being violently murdered. Suddenly a marked woman, Selena must face an old nemesis -- El Serpiente -- while solving a series of murders that may or may not be part of a plan of divine retribution, and may or may not be a prelude to her own demise.

Exciting stuff, this. The mystery hits several themes -- faith vs unbelief, insider status vs outsider exclusion (and how those edges cut both ways), justice vs retribution. I especially appreciated Selena's struggle to be an assertive, intelligent female in a culture that has traditionally valued a certain home-and-hearth-based passivity even as it produces strong women who buck that trend.

But this book isn't just smart; it's also fast and edgy and laced with murderous tension. Read VIPER, and then do like I'm doing and go get BLEEDER, the first mystery novel by Desjarlais. Or better yet, do it the other way around. But don't miss these books.

(from Goodreads)

Thanks, Tina!

(VIPER is due out in July; readers may pre-order at amazon.com here:
http://www.amazon.com/Viper-John-J-Desjarlais/dp/1933184809/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307314406&sr=1-6

VIPER preorders

2011-06-05T17:52:00.002-05:00

VIPER is now available for pre-order at Amazon.con or Sophia Institute Press:

http://www.amazon.com/Viper-John-J-Desjarlais/dp/1933184809/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307314406&sr=1-6

http://www.sophiainstitute.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=499

Here's the cover blurb/Amazon description:

Selena De La Cruz has a problem.
Just before All Souls' Day someone entered the names of nine parishioners in her church's Book of the Dead, seeking prayers for their souls.
The problem?
All nine are still alive. Until they start getting murdered . . . one by one . . . in the precise order their names were entered in the Book of the Dead . . . and always right after a local visionary sees a mysterious woman known as The Blue Lady.
Is she the Virgin Mary warning the next victim? Lady Death, the Aztec goddess, come to claim another soul? Or someone less mystical, but deadly nonetheless?
Selena doesn't know but had better find out: only a few souls on that list have not yet been murdered, and the last name on it is . . . Selena De La Cruz.

CatholicMom.com VIPER review

2011-05-25T07:31:00.001-05:00

"Compelling characters, an engaging plot and a 'can't put it down' vibe combine to make Viper another literary jewel from one of my favorite novelists John Desjarlais. Viper picks up where Desjarlais' hit Bleeder left off, and John's writing is better than ever. The cultural underpinnings that color Viper are rich, diverse and well researched, and its action and dialogue will have you instantly connecting with heroine Selena De La Cruz. Another winner for John Desjarlais!"

Lisa M. Hendey, Founder of http://www.catholicmom.com/ and author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms.

Daring Novelist interview

2011-05-25T06:56:00.002-05:00

http://daringnovelist.blogspot.com/2011/05/character-wednesday-john-desjarlais.html is where I'm interviewed today about Selena's role in BLEEDER.

Happy Catholic BLEEDER review

2011-04-20T14:03:00.001-05:00

Nice review of BLEEDER today at http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2011/04/reviewing-bleeder-miracle-or-bloody.html -- Thanks, Julie Davis!

Guest at raeblog

2011-04-18T15:57:00.000-05:00

http://raeblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/interview-with-john-desjarlais-on-viper.html is where I'm a guest interviewee today.

Sophia Press merges with colleges

2011-04-13T20:34:00.002-05:00

My publisher, Sophia Institute Press, has successfully completed a merger with two Catholic colleges. The story is here: http://www.catholic.org/college/story.php?id=41014 This means that the company is preserved, the fiction line will be retained, and VIPER has been scheduled for release in June. Further details as they become available-

North Suburban Library

2011-04-13T11:37:00.001-05:00

I'm speaking and signing books tonight at the North Suburban Library District, Loves Park, IL, 6-8 pm. C'mon by if you're a local.

Guest at WS Gager's blog

2011-04-11T13:36:00.001-05:00

http://wsgager.blogspot.com/2011/04/mitch-malone-mondays-john-desjarlais.html is where I'm a guest this week.

Authorfest today at Shaumburg

2011-04-09T05:33:00.002-05:00

I'll be speaking and signing books at Authorfest in Shaumburg, IL, today, 10-4. My talk is at 10 am. http://shaumburglibrary.org

Creatures n Crooks guest today

2011-04-01T07:56:00.003-05:00

http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2011/04/01/aztec-mythology-and-mexican-catholicism-blend-in-viper/ is where I'm a guest today.

In other news....

My publisher, Sophia Press, was recently acquired by Thomas More College. In the process of negotiating the merger, all book contracts were put on hold - which explains the delay of Viper's release. I haven't heard yet what the new release date is, but I'm hoping it is in time for summer writers' conferences and book fairs.

Bleeder is available in a Kindle edition and I'm hoping Viper will be as well.

I've begun the third book in this series with a working title of Specter. Yeah - ghosts. Or ARE they?

Selena's first day at the DEA

2011-03-24T17:39:00.005-05:00

Hola, it's me again, Selena. Johnny asked me about my early days with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago, since he's working on the third mystery in his series and needed some material. So I shared this:

On my first day working in the DEA office in Chicago, I wore a black blouse with a scoop neckline to show my best pearls, a stylish gray suit with a black belt and coral Christian Dior high heels, with my freshly oiled P226 SIG Sauer holstered on my hip. A girl’s gotta have accessories.

When my supervisor, Del Bragg, called me to his cubicle, I was SO ready to break down doors and snap on cuffs like they’d shown me in the Academy.

“There’s something important I need you to do,” Bragg said in a somber voice.

“I’m ready, sir,” I said, straightening. My silver hoop earrings jangled.

“Good. Follow me.”

He pushed away from the desk, brushed past me and marched past the other cubicles to the entryway, heading for the elevator. I followed him, chin and spirits high. At last I was on my way to be fitted with a jump suit and body armor so I could be assigned to a Task Force. It might even be Team Five-One-Six, suiting up in the corner and snapping 9 millimeter magazines into their service pistols for an op near New Comisky Park, or so I'd overheard. Surely they’d need my Spanish, sin duda.

Bragg stopped short at the secretary’s station and planted his hairy knuckles on her desk.
“Laura, I want the files purged this week,” he said brusquely. He issued orders that the bottle-blonde woman – wearing too much mascara, if you ask me -- jotted down on a memo pad. When Bragg looked at the ceiling once to recall an instruction, Laura glanced at me, rolled her eyes and primped her lipsticked mouth with a here-we-go-again face. I shrugged in simpatía. Bragg finished his list and said “Got it?”

“Got it, sir,” Laura said.

“Good,” Bragg said. “I know you and Selena will work well together. Hop to it, girls.”

He spun around, tapped me on the fanny and bustled out the door.

The air rushed out of my lungs. My Spanish blood boiled.

Just then Team Five-One-Six hurried past me, strapping on holsters, pulling on baseball caps, shouldering Kevlar vests. ‘Scuse me. Heads up. You trust dis informer, Rocko? Sure, I flipped him. They were heading for street work.

Without me.

Laura tore the top sheet from the pad. “We’d better get going, dear.”

I squeezed my fists, regaining control. “Be right with you.” I said something else in Español under my breath that I shouldn’t share here.

I returned to my desk, the Christian Dior heels sounding like sharp reports from my pistol. I locked away the SIG; no need for my piece while sorting through old files. I shrugged off my jacket, rolled up my sleeves, and spent the rest of the day on my hands and knees with cardboard boxes, a shredder, and Hefty trash bags.

Late in the afternoon Bragg checked on our progress.

“Hey, Selena,” he gruffed, pointing to my hip. “Where’s your piece?”

I blew away a strand of hair from my face. “I put it away, sir.”

“Away?”

“In my desk drawer.”

He aimed a finger at me, pistol-style. “The manual says an agent shall have his weapon in his possession at all times. Now go get it. Don’t. You. Ever. Forget. It. Again.”

He said it loudly enough so that others poked their heads above cubicle walls to see what was going on. Cheeks burning, I stood, brushed off my sore knees, and strode to my cubicle ignoring every eye that followed me.

For the rest of the week, I rifled through files with a useless gun knocking at my hip.

Then they parked me in the Money Laundering Unit. I felt insultado, muy avergonzado, after all the training I had. When I complained to my brother Francisco that night, waving my hands in frustration, he said that’s where women belong, in the laundry, and I almost slugged him.

But as it turned out, esté gracias a Dios, it was training I needed for the dangerous case I took on long after I left the DEA and became an insurance agent, when I got involved in a shocking life insurance scam that – well, that’s the subject of SPECTER, Johnny’s next book, and I’d better not talk about it.

Adios.

Snoring Scholar review of VIPER

2011-03-23T20:02:00.003-05:00

"(VIPER) is the sequel to Desjarlais’s action-packed Bleeder, though it stands on its own. It should come, however, with a warning label across the cover. I wouldn’t have put it down if my family hadn’t demanded my attention (don’t they know I have reading to do?!?). This book had me laughing out loud and thinking I had things all figured out. I was delighted that it had me fooled and that it as written as well as the first. When it comes out, consider it a must-read. Highly recommended."

Thanks, Sarah Reinhard!

Saint Patric in Training

2011-03-17T15:22:00.004-05:00

(Here's a short story published in The Rockford Review a while back - seems fitting for St. Patrick's Day. It's a chapter from a novel-in-progress set in the late Roman Empire and featuring Patrick).

Saint Patric in Training
by John Desjarlais

Fiacc the Poet lived by the bank of the River Boyne in a hut of riverbed stones, for the poets know it is always on the edge of water that poetry is revealed to them. For seven years he watched the waters, searching for the Salmon of Knowledge which, when eaten, would give him all that could be known.
It was at the time of the salmon-leap, then, that Finn, leader of the Fighting Fianna warriors, came for hospitality, and by the Brehon codes, Fiacc could not refuse them. The men dipped their nets and in one of them twitched the Salmon of Knowledge. Fiacc said nothing of it, but let Finn roast it and bade him to not eat of it.
When Finn brought it to him, the poet asked: "Did you eat any of it, boy?"
Finn answered, "No, master, but I burned my thumb lifting it from the fire and put my thumb in my mouth. At once I knew why you told me not to eat it."
Then Fiacc gave him the whole fish, and from that time Finn had all the knowledge that comes from the nine hazels that grow by the Wisdom Well.
Fiacc told me himself, but he is no longer here to tell you, Patric. After my fosterage with him, he took service with his teacher Dubhtach, who wears the seven colors of a poet and who sings the twenty-score tales of Erin at the gatherings of the kings at Tara.
Have you not heard of Tara, Patric? It is the hill of the kings where the five avenues of Erin meet in Meathland, where the Stone of Destiny screams whenever a true king steps on it, for under it live the fairy folk, driven into exile there by the first men who invaded Erin. Did the shepherds not tell you this?
Listen: when Finn was yet a lad, he went up to Tara at the Feast of Beltane, the feast that welcomes back the sun from its winter journey. There, the kings of Ireland meet with their druids, and the cattle are driven to their spring pasture between the bonfires for luck. The Brehon law says no one is to raise a quarrel or grudge during the feast. So the kings met in peace, elected the High King for the festival, and sat at table with Goll, head of the Fianna - Finn's Men of the Woods - and Caoilte son of Ronan of the Speckled Shield, and Conall son of Morna of the Sharp Words. And Finn took a place among them.
The High King passed the horn of meetings to him and asked his name.
"I am Finn son of Cuhal,” said he, “who was once head of the Fianna and Fighting Men of Erin, and I come for your friendship."
The king that year was a friend of Finn's father, and so put him at his side as his own foster-son.
Thus the king spoke to Finn and his fighting men: "For three-times-three years now, there has come a man from the north, Ailen of Missh, stolen at birth by the glamoring sprites who live under that mountain, who taught Ailen their music that charms all to sleep who hear it. Each year he comes to Tara, plays the Sleep-Song, and lets out a fire from his mouth to burn all Tara while we sleep. If there is any man of Erin who can keep Tara from being burned by that Ailen, he will receive a rich reward."
But no man answered, for they knew well the power of that sweet and pitiful music which overcame even women in birthpain and men wounded in war.
But Finn said, "I am from that country, and know what to do."
And given leave, he called upon Lugh, the god who casts his brass shield across the sky each day. Lugh gave him his own Shining Spear, made by the three gods of metalwork, saying: "Gobhniu made the head, which will boast to you of all its battles if held to your brow, blocking all other sound. Luchta made the shaft which can never miss, and Creidhne made the rivets which hold it together and so will it hold fast to the wound such that no one can survive its strike."
So that night Finn lay in wait, and when he heard the first strums of that sorrowful music, he held the speartip to his head. Ailen played the harp till all were charmed asleep, but Finn only heard the spearhead's loud boasting. He came out into the open, and when Ailen saw him, he breathed fire. But Finn cast the spear into Ailen's throat, where the fire melted the metal. The molten iron filled Ailen's head, and the head fell off because of the weight. There is yet a round stone on Tara's hill that men say is the fallen head of Ailen.
Why do you laugh, Patric? Some say all these stones you see are fallen warriors, who walk to the stream at night for a drink and kill anyone in their way. That is why you must stay close to your watchfire at night. If you wander, the changelings may meet you, and you will wake up in the morning as a deer and not a man. Even Finn's wife was changed into a doe, when she refused the advances of a druid.
Ah! I see you have heard of this one. I know why. Is it because my sister Brona makes eyes at you? Lucatmael the druid desires her. Surely you knew that? I’ll tell her not to come out here to see you, because some day she will find you changed to a dog or a pig. Lucatmael could do it, for my father has taught it to him. Aye, he has told me from my youth that the wild pigs on Mount Missh are warriors he defeated in battle in order to become the chieftain of the mountain. So do not cross him or his fosterling. Remember, only a druid can change you back, or the kiss of a hag.
Do not make such a face! It is said my father's overking, Niall himself, met three hags in the woods one night while hunting with his two brothers. The crones asked each man for a kiss, but the first brother ran away and the second brother kissed only his hag's warty cheek with his eyes shut. But Niall pulled the third hairy face to his, and the warmth of his kiss flowed over the woman's bent body and she became a beauty with swan-white skin and golden hair. And in the voice of a spring songbird, she told him,

"I am Eriu, the Spirit of this land,
Erin Herself, espoused to you by the union of our breaths.
The sovereignty will be given to you."

Thus did Niall become king of the clan, to rule Ulster.
Oh, now I have offended you. It was in Niall’s Hosting of Ships that you were taken from your homeland. As always, I have spoken too much. Please, do not leave. I have told enough stories for one day. Patric, please stay. Tell me again of your druid and king, Christos, who the Romans hung on a tree. In Erin, there is a curse put on anyone hung from an oak. My father says: Gosact, it is just like the Romans to kill the Wise Ones among conquered people, to keep them under their heel and crush their hope. What do you say?

new Amazon RELICS review

2011-03-16T15:51:00.002-05:00

"A clever historical novel. This book reminds me so much of Voltaire's "Candide" with the innocent hero on a quest; the beguiling, yet more clever, heroine; and various other priests, servants, and noblemen who appear to guide or mislead the young man. Like Voltaire, whose tale was designed more to satirize his contemporaries, Desjarlais too has much to say about the world today in the guise of an epic. His observations on religious disputes are particularly apt."

Patricia Rockwell, author of "Sounds of Murder"

Guest Blogger at Noir Blog

2011-03-14T15:05:00.001-05:00

I'm guest blogging today at http://gkparkerhistorynoir.blogspot.com/2011/03/aztec-mythology-and-mexican-catholicism.html

Kaye George interview

2011-03-12T13:18:00.003-06:00

In case you missed the Kaye George interview (at travelswithkaye.blogspot.com) March 2:

A former producer with Wisconsin Public Radio, Desjarlais teaches journalism and English at Kishwaukee College in Malta, Ill. In the Small World Department, Malta is not that far from my hometown of Moline. Welcome to my Travels, currently located in Taylor, Texas, John.

His two mysteries, VIPER and BLEEDER, are both published by Sophia Institute Press, a publishing house devoted to Catholic fiction. BLEEDER came out in 2009 and VIPER is scheduled for late spring 2011.

KAYE: There's a lot that fascinates me about this series. First, there's the sleuth, a female Mexican-American insurance agent, formerly with the DEA. Can you tell us a bit about Selena De La Cruz (pictured here)?

JOHN: Selena is a thirty-something second-generation Mexican-American woman with midnight hair and a café-con-leche complexion from a family with three brothers, one of whom was her fraternal twin. Her Papa was an executive with the Mexican oil company PEMEX before taking a position at the Mexican Consulate in Chicago where Selena was born and raised in the Pilsen neighborhood. She can be feisty and tomboyish, a tough competitor (given her brothers) and, like many Latinas, is struggling to come to terms with living in two cultural worlds (Old World expectations versus New World aspirations) and also living in a man’s world. She speaks Mexican Spanish well, graduated from Loyola with a finance degree (Papa insisted) and went to work with the DEA over her Mami’s objections shortly after her twin brother was killed in a car accident in Germany where he was stationed with the Army (drugs were involved). She inherited his chili-pepper red 1969 Dodge Charger and she knows how to maintain it and race it. She is fond of expensive shoes (seized drug money paid for the high-end brands); she is handy with a P226 SIG Sauer pistol and was excellent in undercover work until she was compelled to leave under a cloud. She took a new name, De La Cruz, and an insurance franchise in rural Illinois in order to start afresh. But her DEA past comes back to haunt her in VIPER.

KAYE: I can't help but notice her unusual last name. And how did you get the idea to write not only a female, but a Mexican-American?

JOHN: “De La Cruz” is really from St. John of the Cross, a medieval Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet whose writings Selena admires. Her real last name was Perez (and, of course, she had many names working undercover). Selena was a minor character in my first mystery, BLEEDER. Taking place in rural Illinois, that story considered the issue of Latino immigration (as a backdrop) and I needed a positive, educated Latin character who would be seen as a counter-balance of sorts to the many day-laborers, legal and otherwise, who were a poor and distrusted underclass. My protagonist, Reed Stubblefield, had been disabled in a school shooting and so I decided to have the local insurance agent be with his company and handle his claims. Once Selena walked on stage in those cherry heels, with that attitude, and driving that kick-butt car, I knew she had a story of her own. She played a larger role in BLEEDER than I’d anticipated.

When developing an idea for the sequel, I went with a premise about the Catholic custom on All Souls’ Day where a ledger called “The Book of the Dead” is placed in church where families record the names of relatives who died that year so they can be remembered and respected. I learned that Mexicans celebrate a holiday concurrently called “The Day of the Dead” where families respect their departed relatives with home altars and cemetery picnics, among other things. And then I realized that, in blending these ideas, Selena’s name would be found in her church’s “Book of the Dead” – and the problem, of course, is that she isn’t dead. But someone wants her to be. It was clear then that Selena would take the lead in the sequel, with Reed as a minor character this time.

KAYE: The second intriguing factor is your publisher. How did you convince a Catholic publishing house to take on a book involving drug dealing, serial killing, and just generally sordid topics? I suspect this isn't the usual fare at Sophia.

JOHN: Sophia Press had been known a long time for re-issuing older classics of Catholic literature and philosophy (like Thomas Aquinas). However, partly in answer to Pope John Paul II’s call to engage the culture and get real with art (he was, you may recall, a fine playwright and a good poet), Sophia hired an editor whose job it was to find stylish genre fiction that told the full truth about our humanity, in both its nobility and fallenness. She had a particular interest in mysteries, a genre that explores the best and the worst of our human nature and is concerned with justice. We met at a writers’ conference and BLEEDER, which had been looking for a secular home for a few years through an agent, intrigued her. My agent had recently retired, and so I was shopping the book on my own. BLEEDER had a distinctive Catholic coloring (it HAD to, given the stigmatic issue) but was never preachy, and the hero was a lapsed Presbyterian with Aristotle as his ‘mentor’, to boot. She asked for the manuscript and offered a contract within a few days. BLEEDER’s underlying theme about the higher mystery of undeserved suffering made it attractive to Sophia, and VIPER’s rich backdrop of Mexican Catholicism and Aztec mythology suited them, too. It helped that the murder elements were not sensational or gory or gratuitously violent.

KAYE: Do you have more books planned in this series? Do you think you will stay with your present publisher?

JOHN: I’m working on the third book in this series now. I expect to stay with this publisher for the series.

KAYE: I see mentions, in your summaries and reviews, of Aztec mysticism. Is this novel straight mystery, or is there some paranormal business included?

JOHN: Not ‘paranormal’ in any way, as understood in the publishing biz today – y’know, ghosts, vampires, werewolves and such. But Catholics are all about ‘higher mysteries’ and they affirm ‘the seen and the unseen,’ and all of it is ‘natural,’ that is, part of the created order. The ‘supernatural’ is actually ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ because it is part of the universe God made. But perhaps I quibble too much with the definition. Scratch a professor, get a lecture.

VIPER is part mystery and part thriller because there are crimes to be solved (a quality of ‘mystery’) but also a “ticking clock” to be beaten (a characteristic of ‘thriller’). The “clock” is that “Book of the Dead” in the church, where there’s a list of eight Latino names with Selena’s name written last. All the names are of drug dealers who are being killed one at a time in order. Police and DEA officials believe it is a hit list of “The Snake,” a dangerous dealer Selena helped put in prison years ago who is now out and systematically killing anyone who ever crossed him. Just before each killing, a mysterious “Blue Lady” appears to a local girl visionary to announce the death. Many in the Mexican community believe it is Our Lady of Guadalupe (the patroness of Mexico), but others believe it is the Aztec goddess of death (see, Catholics wouldn’t call a Marian apparition ‘paranormal,’ but again I quibble with the term). And we see our killer from time to time in the story, in first person, tending poisonous snakes and offering devotion to Aztec deities (snakes were very important in Aztec myth and religion). Modern Mexicans are becoming more aware of their Aztec (and Toltec and Mixtec etc) heritage; it is a growing part of their self-identity as they seek to acculturate into American society without becoming assimilated.

KAYE: Are your characters mostly devout Catholics? How much religion is included, if any?

JOHN: No, not many main characters are practicing, devout Catholics. In BLEEDER, my protagonist is a lapsed Presbyterian, a secularized Aristotle scholar who wants little to do with religion of any sort. Still, he enters a cautious friendship with the local parish priest, an amiable Aquinas scholar – who dies on Good Friday in front of horrified parishioners. My hero becomes a prime ‘person of interest’ in the case as a result. He interacts with a diocesan investigator and other clerics. Selena is a ‘cradle Catholic’ like so many in the Mexican community. It’s more of a cultural thing. Catholicism is a bit more forward in VIPER, since my heroine Selena is Mexican and for most Mexicans that means being Catholic, if only in a cultural manner. Selena has prayer cards, framed images of saints and small statues (what Mexicans call virgencitas y santos) around the house, and she goes to Mass with her family out of duty. She's not very devout, but like with other Mexicans it is a very rich part of their identity, and their distinct customs add a great deal of color to the story. The secondary ‘mystery’ of the story is whether or not the “Blue Lady” is Our Lady of Guadalupe or the Aztec goddess of Death or someone else. I don’t think anyone will be put off by all this, but instead will rather enjoy the rich tapestry of Mexican custom and Catholicism blended with Aztec mythology that forms a backdrop to the story, and informs my main character, Selena – who isn’t quite sure what to make of it all.

I don’t think readers mind ‘religion’ in their mysteries – Dan Brown proved that. My issue is this: Let’s get the ‘religion’ right and be honest with the material. Brown had everything wrong. I think you can have a mystery that has a distinct Catholic coloring that respects that tradition, genuinely informs the story, and has an appeal for everybody. Consider Andrew Greeley’s work, or Ellis Peters, or Ralph MacInerny. The same thing could be said about mysteries with a Jewish flavor, like Harry Kemmelman’s Rabbi Small series.

KAYE: Can you give links to your webpage and places to buy your books?

JOHN: Gladly. Readers can find me at http://www.johndesjarlais.com and my blog http://jjdesjarlais.blogspot.com and email me at jjdesjarlais@johndesjarlais.com

VIPER isn’t out yet, but it will be available through Amazon.com and can be ordered through bookstores sometime later this Spring. BLEEDER and RELICS and THE THRONE OF TARA are at Amazon, too:

http://www.amazon.com/Bleeder-Mystery-John-J-Desjarlais/dp/1933184566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297207709&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Bleeder-A-Mystery-ebook/dp/B004L62D4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1297207753&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bleeder-Mystery-John-J-Desjarlais/dp/1933184566/ref=sr_tc_2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297207898&sr=1-2-ent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bleeder-A-Mystery/dp/B004L62D4K/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1297207898&sr=1-2-ent

http://www.amazon.com/Relics-John-Desjarlais/dp/0840767358/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298297119&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.com/Throne-Tara-John-Desjarlais/dp/0595155979/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298297119&sr=1-4

Interview at Marilyn's Musings

2011-02-28T07:56:00.001-06:00

I'm interviewed today at http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com - c'mon by and leave a comment.

New Web Site Design

2011-02-14T17:32:00.003-06:00

It seems that the license for the images used by my Web Site host has expired, and we were all notified we'd have to change our templates. The new choices were very limited, but I chose one that seems to work ok. What do you think? See http://www.johndesjarlais.com/ for the new look. It's mysterious, has a female image that suits my work fine, and while I still need to work with the colors of the type, it isn't all that bad (Hmm - that's as big as I can get the image here).

Writing the "When" hook

2011-02-03T10:20:00.002-06:00

This is a handout from the "Love Is Murder" workshop on queries and fiction proposals. As I explain in the session, writers need a 'hook' that describes the basic story in a way that intrigues - even teases - a potential agent or editor. There are three basic kinds of 'hooks'. The "When" hook is the most common with mysteries; the "What if" hook is most often appropriate with thrillers where a premise is paramount; the 'quote' hook is uses a direct quote from a protagonist that poses a question or problem the reader can identify with. The focus in the LIM session was on the 'when' hook.

The “When” hook: This popular formula grabs attention and interest by summarizing the story the way jacket copy does – to intrigue. Don’t reveal everything. Try keeping it to 5 sentences or so to describe “When this event happens, this character with these qualities must do this to gain this or avoid that.”

(For BLEEDER)
When classics professor Reed Stubblefield is disabled in a school shooting, he retreats to a rural Illinois cabin to write a book on Aristotle in peace. Oddly, in the chill of March, the campgrounds and motels of River Falls are filled with the ill and infirm -- all seeking the healing touch of the town’s new parish priest, reputed to be a stigmatic. Skeptical about religion since his wife’s death from leukemia, Reed is nevertheless drawn into a friendship with the cleric, Rev. Ray Boudreau, an amiable Aquinas scholar with a fine library -- who collapses and bleeds to death on Good Friday in front of horrified parishioners. A miracle? Or bloody murder? Once Reed becomes the prime 'person of interest' in the mysterious death, he applies Aristotle’s logic to find the truth before he is arrested or killed -- because not everyone in town wants this mystery solved.

(for VIPER)[This began as 'When Selena De La Cruz's name is found in her parish church's Book of the Dead.." but I re-arranged it later]
Haunted by the loss of her brother to drugs and a botched raid that ended her career with the DEA, insurance agent Selena De La Cruz hoped to start afresh in rural Illinois. But her gung-ho former boss needs her back to hunt “The Snake,” a dealer she helped arrest who is out of prison and killing anyone who ever crossed him. His ‘hit list’, appended to a Catholic Church’s All Souls Day ‘Book of the Deceased,’ shows Selena’s name last. Working against time, prejudice and the suspicions of her own Latino community, Selena races to find The Snake before he reaches her name while a girl visionary claims a “Blue Lady” announces each killing in turn. Is it Our Lady of Guadalupe or, as others believe, the Aztec goddess of Death?

TRY IT! Write a 5-sentence hook to describe “When this event happens, this character with these qualities must do this to gain this or avoid that.”

LIM Query Sample

2011-02-03T09:59:00.002-06:00

Here is the fiction query sample I used at "Love Is Murder," with comments, which I handed out. In case there were not enough handouts, here it is:

Your Name
123 Your Street
Yourtown, IL 61000
815/123-4567
youremail@emailhere.net

Date

Addressee
Address line
Address line

Dear AGENT/EDITOR NAME HERE:[be specific – not ‘to whom it may concern’; get gender right]

After I saw your listing in X and noted your interest in mysteries with a supernatural slant, I thought you might take interest in my 75,000 word contemporary mystery, BLEEDER.[open with some point of contact – a listing you saw, a conference "Thank you for speaking with me briefly at 'Love Is Murder' last week' – to show you are a pro. ID your book by genre and give a word count]

When classics professor Reed Stubblefield is disabled in a school shooting, he retreats to a rural Illinois cabin to write a book on Aristotle in peace. Oddly, in the chill of March, the campgrounds and motels of River Falls are filled with the ill and infirm -- all seeking the healing touch of the town’s new parish priest, reputed to be a stigmatic. Skeptical about religion since his wife’s death from leukemia, Reed is nevertheless drawn into a friendship with the cleric, Rev. Ray Boudreau, an amiable Aquinas scholar who collapses and dies on Good Friday in front of horrified parishioners. A miracle? Or bloody murder? Once Reed becomes the prime 'person of interest' in the mysterious death, he applies Aristotle’s logic to find the truth before he is arrested or killed -- because not everyone in town wants this mystery solved.[your hook – like jacket copy, 75-100 words or so, 5 sentences or so. Keep it enticing; no need to tell the whole story]

Readers of Andrew Greeley, Ralph MacInerny or Graham Greene mysteries will appreciate BLEEDER.[try to position your book – what else out there is like it?]

My first novel, The Throne of Tara (Crossway 1990), retold the story of Columba of Iona, the hot-headed 6th Century Irish monk who went to war over a book. My medieval thriller Relics (Thomas Nelson 1993) was a Doubleday Book Club selection. My short stories have appeared in periodicals such as The Critic, The Karitos Review, The Rockford Review, Dappled Things and Apocalypse. [offer pub credits if you have them; if not, don’t say so. Don’t apologize]

A former producer with Wisconsin Public Radio, I teach journalism and English at Kishwaukee College in northern Illinois.[something personal can help, especially related to platform, publicity or any expertise you have about the book's subject. For example, if your book is a legal thriller and you're a lawyer, say so; if it is a police procedural and you're in law enforcement, say so.]

Thank you for your time and kind consideration. May I send you the first fifty pages as per your guidelines or the completed manuscript for an exclusive review? [show you are courteous and you did your homework about their guidelines. Ask the yes/no question]

This is a multiple query. Looking forward to your reply,[you must let them know that it is a multiple query]

Sincerely, [keep the whole thing business-like, all the way through. No boasting 'I'm the next John Grisham' or whining 'You're my last hope since I've been rejected 500 times']

John J. Desjarlais

enc: SASE [e-queries obviously don’t need this, but all mailed ones do]

[As you can see, the query is a one-page business pitch. No colored paper, no perfume, no chocolates (yes, I hear it has happened). Agents and editors are business people, so be sure to present yourself as a professional]

LIM Fiction Proposal Guidelines

2011-02-03T09:51:00.002-06:00

In case I run out of handouts at the "Love Is Murder" workshop on 'fiction proposal guidelines,' here is the handout. These are guidelines taken from The Steve Laube Agency web site and from the web site of Regina Doman, the acquisitions editor for Sophia Institute Press. These are rather typical of fiction proposal guidelines. I've edited them for brevity; you can visit their respective web sites for all the technical details and other good advice they offer along with the guidelines.

From The Steve Laube Agency:
There are a number of ways to do a good book proposal. I’ve met many writers that get bogged down in the details. The bottom line is whether your idea has traction and if your writing delivers. Your book proposal is like a job application, you want to present yourself in the most professional manner possible. Your proposal will be a simple vehicle to convey your idea to us, and ultimately to a publisher.
COVER LETTER: The cover letter should include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. It should sum up the plot or idea in a single paragraph, as well as giving the book’s title and estimated word count of the entire manuscript (not page count). The cover letter should not be more than one page.
SAMPLE CHAPTERS: The sample should be the first three chapters or fifty double-spaced pages, printed single-sided and unbound. Please make sure the pages are numbered. (Please use Times Roman 12pt font or a similar very readable font.) Do not print out the pages so they look like actual book pages. Print double-spaced on one side of the page in black ink on 8″ x 11″ white paper, use 1″ margins all around and don’t justify the right margin.
SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE: We will not reply to you unless you include an appropriately sized SASE with sufficient postage. A letter-size SASE for a written response is preferred.
Your non-fiction book proposal should include the following; fiction proposals include most of these:
A one-sentence summary of your book.
Create a 75 word summary of the book. Imagine that this is what will go on the back cover of the book.
A half page to one page overview of your book including (a) an identification of its uniqueness (the distinguishing “hook”that will draw your reader in: What will motivate a person to pick up your book?) and (b) what you hope to accomplish in the way of transformation in the life of the reader:
A brief profile of your reader with a clear explanation of the problem he or she faces and how your book provides a solution. Also, list any additional audiences you expect your book will attract:
A listing of other books available that are similar to yours and a brief explanation of how yours is both different and/or better:
A description of potential marketing channels to which you have access (e.g., contacts you have in key organizations, groups you speak to regularly, key people you know who might endorse your book, etc.):
Your qualifications to write on this topic and a list of your writing experience and educational/career background. If you have published previously, what are the titles and approximate sales to date of your books?
A chapter-by-chapter annotated outline that clearly summarizes the overall content and key ideas of each chapter:
Projected word length of the manuscript:
Expected completion date of the manuscript:
Three sample chapters of your book (for fiction, the first three chapters)

· FICTION Proposals:
· Follow the basic information above in the non-fiction proposal section, but realize that the biggest difference between the fiction and non-fiction proposal is the synopsis. While the non-fiction proposal requires a chapter by chapter analysis, the fiction proposal should be a maximum of three single spaced pages that present the entire story. Don’t worry, your synopsis will be the worst writing you’ve ever done. That is okay. Just tell the story in quick form so we can know what happens after your sample chapters.
· Create a Promo Sentence and a Sales Handle (these are the bits you see on the front cover of a novel or as a headline across the back cover. In addition create back cover copy that tells the story without giving it away (back cover is usually around 75 words) Examples (from the cover of the novel Oxygen):
· Promo sentence:A mission gone desperately wrong – and no way out short of blind faith…
· Sales handles:A tragic accident or a suicide mission?
· Back cover copy:
· In the year 2017 Valerie Jansen, a young microbial ecologist, is presented with an amazing opportunity to continue her research as a member of the NASA corps of astronauts. When a sudden resignation opens the door for her to be a part of a mission to Mars, her life dream becomes a reality. Dreams turn suddenly to nightmares for NASA and the crew as an explosion cripples the spacecraft on the outward voyage. The crew’s survival depends on complete trust in one another – but is one of the four a saboteur?
· Since fiction can be entertaining and taps the emotional center of a reader here are some other helpful things to include in your proposal :
· In a single sentence, state your purpose for writing this novel. Why did you write (are you writing) this story? What are you trying to prove about life with this story?
· Describe your protagonist’s quest. What does he/she want or need? What is his/her goal? For what does he/she yearn?
· What is at stake in this story? If your protagonist doesn’t attain his goal, so what? Why does it matter and why should the reader care? What are the consequences?
· What is the “takeaway value” of the story. How will the reader be changed for having read it?
From Sophia Institute Press:
Criteria for submission: (this section is preceded by 2 sections: what they are looking for and what they are NOT looking for; technical guidelines – email submissions only,.doc or .rtf files only, no zip files, no PDFs, rules about attachments)
1. Completed questionnaire (in the body of your cover letter email)
2. First three chapters of your book (in the email body or as an attachment)
3. Synopsis of the rest of the book (in the email body or as an attachment: see our updated notes on the synopsis by clicking here)
Generally speaking, we prefer exclusive submissions. If you are making a simultaneous submission, please inform us of the fact. Completed manuscripts only; no partials. Allow 3 months for a reply.
Questionnaire:
A: Contact information
Please provide us with your:
Name (legal)
Name (pen name, if applicable)
Address:
Phone Number where you can be reached most easily:
Email address: (required)
Previous publications: books, articles, print or web-based.
B. About your manuscript
1.What is the title? What is your backup title?
2. Can you summarize in three sentences what your book is about?
3. How much work are you willing to do on this manuscript?Would you be willing to rewrite the manuscript according to our specifications? Would you be willing to rewrite your manuscript two or three times, and then possibly still have it turned down if we think that it is still not fit for publication?How fast can you work? How much time do you have to master the craft of writing? How long does it take you to do a rewrite? To accept or reject editorial suggestions?
4. Who is the main audience for this book? Who would read it and why?Can you tell me what other books they typically enjoy? How is your book like these books? How would it satisfy readers?
5. What are your plans for marketing the book? How would you reach those people who would like to read your book?How much time are you willing to invest to reach those people? Will you travel or speak at conferences? Do you have contacts in the media that you could use to promote your book? How many contacts?Do you have access to an email or mailing list of potential readers you could use? How many names are on it?Do you have a marketing plan? Can you create one or is it beyond you? How much time do you have to learn?Do you have a slogan or tagline you could use to sell this book?
6. Can you write a sequel or a companion book sufficiently similar to intrigue readers of your first book? How invested are you in this particular genre? Do you want to master it or try something different?

2011-01-30T13:12:00.002-06:00

BLEEDER is now available at the Amazon Kindle Store for $9.95. (here's the full URL in case the link doesn't work: http://www.amazon.com/Bleeder-A-Mystery-ebook/dp/B004L62D4K)

2011-01-24T16:53:00.002-06:00

I'm conducting a "Virtual Book Tour" by visiting a number of blogs this Spring (the schedule is in an earlier post). Here's the Allison Cleary interview for mycatholicblog.com from 2 weeks ago:

Let's start at the beginning. Your first book, The Throne of Tara, first published in 1990, is based on the true story of Columba of Iona. What compelled you to write this story, and what kind of message are you hoping readers will take away from it?

I began “Tara” soon after producing and scripting a documentary on the history of Western Christianity. During the research, I became fascinated by Irish monasticism and discovered Columba in particular. This was the best man the 6th Century could produce: a warrior, scholar and poet, gifted with Second Sight and a thunderous voice, a natural leader with a serious flaw – his Irish temper. He went to war over a book (a copy of the Latin Vulgate, most believe, that he copied by hand but lost in a court dispute to the owner of the original) and in the “Battle of the Book” in A.D. 560 nearly 3,000 men were slain. In remorse and in order to avoid excommunication, Columba exiled himself among the savage Picts of Scotland, vowing to win as many souls to the Church as were lost in the battle. The records say he encountered the Loch Ness monster on the way. Once in the royal court (which he entered miraculously), he dueled the Druids, miracles versus magic, in a contest of power. Well, all that said ‘great novel’ to me and I was off.

As for the ‘take-away value,’ it’s hard to say. Writers with a message in mind often mess up a great story. There are some clear themes, though, such as the conflict between nascent Christianity and the Old Religion of the druids. Both respected nature and recognized power in the natural order but had a different understanding of where the power came from.

And what made you transition from a producer with Wisconsin Public Radio to college professor?

I was let go during the recession of 1993, and since I’d just published my second novel, “Relics,” and I was placing short fiction in magazines, I decided that earning a second Master’s degree in English or Creative Writing that enabled me to teach writing at the college level would be a wise career path. Funny thing is, given my media background, I also teach the mass communication courses at my community college, including Radio Production.

Looking at more current literary achievements, your novel Bleeder tells of protagonist Reed Stubblefield, a professor who must face the challenges of physical disability, the loss of his wife and (as the story progresses) becoming a murder suspect. Why did you feel it necessary to portray a character that has faced so much suffering? How does it facilitate the character's spirituality and religious perspective?

One reviewer called BLEEDER ‘a novel-length contemplation of the mystery of undeserved suffering,’ and that captures it pretty well. Surely a traditional ‘mystery’ is about an unsolved crime and the restoration of justice, but I wanted to explore “higher mysteries” that we all think about: why is there evil and injustice in the world at all? Why do we endure undeserved suffering? Is it, in any way, ‘redemptive?’ What meaning can we draw from the suffering of Christ – exemplified in the stigmata of Father Ray - to comprehend our own? All mystery novels consider to some degree the problem of human grief, loss, and woundedness – but awfully few go beyond the solving-of-the-puzzle. The Catholic understanding of human frailty and fallenness, of human promise and potential, is very deep and profound, and something that moved me as I wrote the story as a devout Presbyterian. Soon after finishing the book I entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. My character Reed doesn’t. One of the things that makes so much “Christian fiction” sentimental and spiritually smarmy is the inevitable conversion at the end. Reed, an Aristotle expert and logician, comes to recognize new possibilities beyond his secularized understanding of the world. He grows to respect people of faith as intelligent and winsome, and not as superficial or saccharine. One might say he is newly opened to the mysteries of faith, hope, and love, although much remains unresolved at the end.

Along these same lines, with so many deep questions to ponder, why did you decide to write Bleeder as a mystery novel?

Mysteries - classic murder mysteries, I mean - connect with something deep inside us. They are the modern form of the medieval morality play, where the sleuth is Everyman who works against time, big money, a determined antagonist, daunting odds and his own flaws to expose evil and to restore the balance of justice. At the end, readers who identify with the successful hero or heroine feel a little better about the world and about themselves. A critic might say that mystery novels are escapist, since they offer a fantasy world in which justice prevails, right always wins over wrong, and love finds a way. But what's wrong with that? That's healing. I really think the ‘entertainment’ aspect comes first. This is why people read mysteries.However, mysteries are close to the barest human desires and fears, and because they deal so openly with death, they have a built-in opportunity to explore life's higher mysteries, as I mentioned earlier. All literature tries to make meaning out of the frightfully short dash between our birth date and departure date on our tombstones, and the hardships during that short dash. So the ‘mystery novel’ is a perfect vehicle to consider the mystery of undeserved suffering and the problem of evil in a world created by a good God.

What can you tell us about the inspiration for your newest novel, Viper? How did you create the character of Selena De La Cruz, and how do you write so convincingly as her? Was much research into the Mexican American community necessary?

As a new Catholic, I was excited by observing all the new customs and practices I hadn’t known as a devout Protestant. One of them was the “Book of the Dead” on All Souls’ Day, where a ledger is placed in the church for relatives to record the names of loved ones who have passed away during the year so they can be remembered and prayed for. The mystery writer in me asked, “What if there were names in the book of people who weren’t dead yet? And what if they were killed one by one in the order in which they were listed? Who are they, and who would kill them and why? At about the same time I learned about the Mexican “Day of the Dead,” a festival celebrated at about the same time and blended with All Souls’ Day in Mexican-American culture. That’s when I knew my Mexican-American insurance agent minor character from BLEEDER, Selena De La Cruz, would be the protagonist in the sequel. And her name would be last on that list. Once she walked on the stage in BLEEDER in those cherry high heels, with that attitude and driving that vintage Dodge Charger, I knew she had a story of her own. It took me a little while to realize she had a former career with the DEA and she’d left it under a cloud and was trying to start her life over as an insurance agent in rural Illinois. It took off from there.

And I was scared to death. How could I - an Anglo guy – presume to write the story of a Mexican-American woman? I feared the audacity of it and anticipated objections from the Latino community: “How can you, an Anglo man, tell our stories? And how can you, an Anglo man, represent a proud Latina?

So for nearly two years I became a second-generation Mexican-American woman.

Not literally, of course. Lacking any personal experience as a Latina, I immersed myself in the experiences of Latin women vicariously in many ways. With the recent meteoric rise in this population’s numbers in the USA, there are many new books in circulation by Latinas about coming to terms with one’s culture and traditions (especially family traditions and the Old-World expectations placed upon women) while trying to fit into New-World American society. I read most of them and took careful notes, as with any other research I had to do for VIPER (DEA undercover operations, police interrogations, crime scene processing, shooting a SIG Sauer which I really did, snake handling which I really didn’t, Aztec religion and so on). I studied Mexican holiday customs (especially The Day of the Dead and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), Mexican Catholic practices and Mexican cooking and proverbs and on and on, all online. I subscribed to Latina magazine for fashion, beauty, relationship and lifestyle issues. I paid attention to any news related to this community, especially immigration issues. I browsed Latinas’ blogs and web sites to see what everyone talked about, especially with regard to family life, work and social life, negotiating two cultures at once and living with a bi-cultural identity. Just like the Dad says in the movie Selena, “We've gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans both at the same time. It's exhausting!"

I interviewed Latinas and visited social spaces online where Latin American women (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan and so on, not just Mexican) talked about their life experiences. By dipping into so many other Latinas’ life experiences, I noticed things that were common to them all that I could easily adapt, and other things I could tweak and make my own – well, Selena’s own. I built a very thorough backstory – life story – for her based on all this research. I had pages of notes and stacks of cards that I browsed through repeatedly to remind myself of small details that were of possible use as ‘bits’ in the story or for possible flashback scenes. In these ways I was able to construct an authentic Mexican-American woman with a real family and real-life inner conflicts most Latinas could identify with – not a ‘composite’ but a unique and genuine person. My wife tells me I spoke Spanish in my sleep but I don’t speak Spanish. A Latina translator helped me with the Spanish phrasing and reviewed the work-in-progress, and at one point she told me, “I am SO into Selena!” That’s when I knew I was getting it right – down to the 3-inch heel Giuseppe Zanottis.

Finally, what else can we expect from John Desjarlais in the upcoming year?

I’m gathering material for the third book in this series and it’s all vague at this point. Insofar as VIPER considered Selena’s relationship with her mother in some detail (to correspond to her developing relationship to Our Lady of Guadalupe), I think the third book needs to consider her troubled past with her father, a former PEMEX executive who suddenly moved to Chicago to take a position with the Mexican Consulate there shortly before he died under questionable circumstances. I expect Selena will have to investigate and resolve all this before she can move ahead in her life.

BLEEDER in Polish

2011-01-14T13:59:00.003-06:00

The cover image may be a bit blurry but ya gotta love they way they re-titled it.

Mike Manno review of VIPER

2011-01-08T11:16:00.001-06:00

Viper review mike manno January 7, 2011

I JUST FINISHED reading an advance copy of my friend John Desjarlais’ new thriller VIPER, a don’t miss it page-turner, which will be released this March. VIPER is a blend of ancient Aztec mysticism, Catholic Mariology, and a good old-fashioned whodunit. The story follows a former DEA agent, Selena De La Cruz, haunted by a young girl’s shooting that ended her career, whose name shows up on a list of the dead for All Soul’s Day. Selena, as it turns out, is not the only living person on the list, and as – one by one – the others are killed, the “Book of the Dead” appears more of a hit-list than a religious exercise.

Selena, who is now an insurance agent, is paired with her former DEA pals and a local cop to locate the killer, thought to be a high profile drug dealer she helped put in prison years ago who goes by the name The Snake. Each of the persons named on the list had some dealings with The Snake. Selena races to find La Serpiente while a young visionary, speaking on behalf of an unseen Blue Lady, announces each death in advance. Selena’s name is now next on the list!

VIPER is a great sequel to John’s earlier novel, BLEEDER. However, familiarity with BLEEDER is not a prerequisite to enjoy VIPER. Look for VIPER this spring from Sophia Institute Press.

Mike Manno, author of the Parker Noble mystery series

VIPER Spring 2011 Blog Tour

2011-01-02T13:40:00.006-06:00

VIPER 2011 Spring Mystery Blog Tour

There's about one per week to allow for interaction with those who visit and post a comment. There's still room for your blog if you'd like me - or Selena - to visit.

1/10 http://www.stacyjuba.com/blog/ (Selena as a young teen)

1/10 http://www.mycatholicblog.com/ (interview)

1/26 http://melissasimaginarium.blogspot.com/ (interview)

2/7 http://www.thelittleblogofmurder.com/ (article: developing a Mexican- American female character)

2/14 http://wwwgeraldineevanscom.blogspot.com/ (yes, that's the correct addy, though it looks wrong) (interview)

2/21 http://www.suspenseyourdisbelief.com/ (requested article: how you knew 'you made it')

2/28 http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ (interview)

3/2 http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/ (interview)

3/14 http://themysteryworldofpabrown.blogspot.com/ (article: Aztec myth and Mexican Catholicism)

3/21 http://midlistlife.wordpress.com/ (article: Anglo guy developing a Mexican-American female character, Selena)

3/21 http://www.suspensenovelist.blogspot.com/ (article: Anglo guy developing Mexican-American female character, Selena)

3/28 fabianspace.blogspot.com (interview)

3/30 http://chrisreddingauthor.blogspot.com/ (article: developing Mexican-American character Selena)

4/1 www.cncbooks.com/blog (article: Viper's backdrop of Aztec myth and Mexican Catholicism)

4/4 http://raeblog.blogspot.com/ (interview)

4/11 http://www.wsgager.blogspot.com/ (interview)

Tony Perona Review of VIPER

2010-12-28T09:11:00.003-06:00

As he did in BLEEDER, John Desjarlais takes a contemporary mystery and expertly intertwines a supernatural one. VIPER features Selena De La Cruz—insurance saleswoman, shoe fashionista and former Drug Enforcement agent—who is forced back into police work when a hit list is discovered and her name is on it. The nine people on the list have one thing in common—they all had a run-in with a drug dealer called the Serpent. As Selena and her colleagues try to track down the dwindling number of people on the list to stop the killings and learn who is behind them, they must deal with a young girl whose visions of a Virgin of Guadalupe-type apparition precede each death. Are the little girl’s messages of a veiled vengeance real? Are the apparitions somehow connected to the deaths, or is this event being used by the killer to cover each murder?

Desjarlais keeps you guessing as the action accelerates faster than De La Cruz’s souped-up vehicles. When Selena becomes the last woman standing, she must either figure out who is behind the killings or fall victim to La Serpiente. VIPER strikes fast and sinks its teeth in you. You won’t be able to put it down.

Tony Perona, author of "Second Advent" and "Angels Whisper"

Selena's Christmas

2010-12-14T10:21:00.003-06:00

Hola, it’s me, Selena. Johnny’s busy grading Final Exams so he asked me if I’d guest-post something about Christmas this month. Apart from processing a few fender-benders with this week’s storm, it’s a slow season in the insurance office (people buy homes and cars in Spring), so I thought ‘Why not?’

The whole season was important in my familia: Advent, with the weekly lighting of Advent candles and the reciting of the Christmas story with each candle representing an angle – the angels, shepherds, Mary (the pink candle among the three purple ones), the Wise Men. Then there was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, of course, with an evening Mass and music by Mariachis. Papá wanted very much for us to fit in while retaining our own tradiciones, so we had a Christmas tree with Mexican ornaments: hand-painted tin and blown glass (my favorite was a Sagrado Corazon with red and yellow flames on the top).

In the small-town (Anglo) neighborhood where I now live, the religious aspects are obviously played down. Front doors sport wreaths and Santa Claus cut-outs, while lawns display sleighs and reindeer or plastic snowmen. Someone on my street has a gaudy inflated penguin with a fan that makes it wave at passers-by. Everyone is celebrating “The Holidays” but no one seems to be celebrating “The Holy Days” that these truly are.

I haven’t even started decorating and I won’t until the novena begins before Nochebuena, Christmas Eve. Years ago, during the nine days of the posadas, my three brothers and I paraded through the neighborhood each night with all the other kids, in bright costumes, holding candles and singing Mexican carols accompanied by guitars. The songs are called villancicos in Spanish (pronounced vee-yan-see-kose), a mix of familiar songs in English, such as Noche de Paz (a Spanish version of Silent Night), and some are purely Mexican, like Las Campanas de Belen (The Bells of Bethlehem). In imitation of Joseph and Mary, we asked neighbors if we could stay. The first two always refused (by plan), and the third took us all inside where there was already a barn scene set up. Everyone prayed the rosary in Spanish, the Santa Marías rolling like soft waves. Afterward, we partied with piñatas, fritters and fresh fruit drinks like horchata, chía, and piña. One time my brother Lorenzo got into the men’s tequila supply somehow and spent the rest of the night kneeling in front of the toilet.

These days, I keep my décor simple. I put white candles in the windows and evergreen garland on the banisters. I add a few Nutcrackers among my santos y virgencitas figurines. Instead of a tree, I have a traditional Mexican Nativity Scene called a pesebre, with carved olive tree figures I bought from a Palestinian Christian group that visited our parish to support the very small (and poor) Catholic community there.

My familia had a large Nativity set in the living room and each person had a little crèche in his or her own room. Every year someone disappeared from the big set-up; if it wasn’t Saint Joseph, it was a shepherd or a magi. One year we couldn’t find the Baby Jesus to put in the manger on Christmas Eve. I cried because I thought there wouldn’t be a Christmas that year because of it. The Baby Jesus turned up in time, albeit with tiny bite marks from Mamí’s Chihuahua. This year, I’m still missing a magi from my own set, the one carrying the gold. Maybe I’ll find him, but I’m wondering who else will disappear?

On Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, we all gathered at my godmother’s place in Chicago. First, we attended Christmas midnight Mass, and then returned to my madrina’s place to chow down her famous bacalao a la vizcaina and romeritos in mole sauce. Christmas Day was quiet – board games, TV.

Family gifts weren’t given until Epiphany, Dia de los Santos Reyes Magos. But after dinner on Christmas Eve, the Baby Jesus, El Niño Dios, was placed in the manger and a small gift was given to us kids. We never did the Santa Claus thing. Papá would only go so far with acculturation.

Well, I’ll stop here. Feliz Navidad, everyone. And I bet Johnny lifts some of this for his next story. I’ll consider it my Christmas gift to him.

(photo above: me, in my Loyola days).

Selena's Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:27:00.004-06:00

After Thanksgiving dinner, the men sprawled on the plastic-covered chairs in Comadre María’s living room swigging beers and yelling at fútbol on TV while the women chattered loudly over the stove and sink in the cocina. Handing each other plastic containers, they were putting away the leftovers of traditional American fare – turkey, celery and cornbread stuffing, mashed garlic potato, green bean casserole with onions, corn with red bell peppers, yams with marshmallow, and cranberry relish. Papá had always insisted that his children fit in and be acculturated, but not assimilated. Selena couldn’t help but smile at the fact that all the traditional “American” foods were indigenous to Mexico, except for the cranberry.
Lorenzo’s two kids pulled out a Serpientes y Escaleras board game on the parlor floor and argued about who should go first.
“Hey, none of that!” Lorenzo barked. “Los niños hablan cuando las gallinas mean.”
Selena and her brothers had heard it often: Children speak when hens pee. And everyone knows, pues claro, hens don’t pee.
“The chipotle and chive cornbread was yours, wasn’t it Selena, dear?” asked Auntie Big Hair, who was stuffed into a satin dress two sizes too small for her.
“Sí, that was mine,” Selena said. “New recipe.” She got it from Latina magazine.
“Delish-io-sho,” Auntie said, mouth full. She licked her fingers and glossy nails. “At last you are learning to cook. Why aren’t you cooking for a man yet? ¿Cuando te vas a casar? When are you going to settle down?”
“I’m trying to establish my business,” Selena said.
“What would your mother say?” Auntie Big Hair said. “Do you want to end up like la Cucarachita Martina?”
It was a familiar fairy tale – the little girl cockroach Martina finds a nickel and after much thought uses it to buy powder to look pretty and find a husband. She refuses the proposals of the dog, cat and rooster because they bark, hiss and crow “Aqui mando yo,” I give the orders here, when asked what they will do on their wedding night. Finally Perez the mouse wins her amor by his caring and gentle demeanor, because Latinas at heart desire a gentleman like that. But as Cucarachita Martina is making a stew for the wedding feast like a good wife and una buena mujer should, Perez gets impatient and while trying to taste it he falls in the pot and drowns. Lesson: el destino will take you away from the good man you hoped for and you’ll have to settle for a man driven by machismo.
Auntie Giggles bare-shouldered her way into the conversation, floral taffeta swishing. “What’s this I hear? Hee-hee! Selena is going to settle down? You found a man at last? ¡Que milagro!”
“It’s – it’s not like that,” Selena struggled.
“So there is someone,” Auntie Big Hair gushed. “Who is it? Tell me. Does he have a car as nice as yours?”
“I’m not seeing anyone right now,” Selena said, wishing that Reed, chivalrous, chisel-chinned and smart, were here to take the pressure off her.
Auntie Giggles pouted. ”¿Qué pasa? A curvy chica like you still sola?”
Selena firmed her lips. Every Latina knew that an unmarried and childless woman hasn’t lived up to the expectations of the familia.
“I guess I want Señor Right, not Señor Right Now,” she said. It was a ragged cliché, but it might stop the women’s badgering.
Her brother Lorenzo belched wetly and called out for more black bean dip. His wife Elena scooped some from a plastic bowl into a decorative dish.
“And another beer!” Francisco hollered. Then a player muffed a kick and both brothers stood with Uncle Hairy Nose and Uncle Baldy and three cousins to shake their fists and shout insults at the TV.
Elena grabbed four beer bottles from the fridge and closed the door with her knee.
“They’re big boys, Elena,” Selena said. “They can get their rumps up and get their own beers.”
“I’d answer for it later,” she said quietly. “Excuse me.”
“Hey, that’s not the one I want,” Lorenzo complained. “The Corona Light. And put a little wedge of lime in it, ok?”
Francisco shook the chip basket. “We need more chips, too. Those blue ones.”
Elena set down the dip. “Sure. Right away, mi vida.”
Selena crossed her arms. “My brother is a lazy slob,” she told Elena when she re-entered the kitchen. “You’re encouraging him. Make him get up now and then. Why serve him hand and foot?”
“Your Mamí did,” she said, brushing past her. “All Mexican mothers do. You know that. Or maybe not.”
Comadre María asked Selena to step aside so she could wipe the counter top.
“Oh, let me do it for you,” Selena offered, uneasy about Elena’s snippy remark.
“No, no. I’m fine,” Madrina said. “You relax and enjoy. There’s plenty left over. Take some home.” She squeezed Selena’s arm. “Still so skinny. Take it all home. If only you weren’t so far away. Why be so far away? You have to drive all that way in that old car. And it sounds worse than the last time you were here. Maybe you can have the mecánico de auto look at it before you leave.”
Selena smiled. How could she explain that it was supposed to be loud? “Madrina, it is best for everyone that I live where I am right now.”
“Your mother felt the same way as me. Why so far? Living alone in that big house? How can your brothers protect you when you are so far from the familia? We just want you to be safe.”
Lorenzo belched again and Francisco laughed like a burro. “It is best for all of us that I am far away,” Selena repeated.

(That's because she's on a drug dealer's hit list! VIPER is due for release March 25, 2011. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!)

VIPER has ISBN, price, sort-of release date

2010-11-22T17:07:00.001-06:00

Viper

John J. Desjarlais

ISBN: 978-1-933184-80-7

256 pages

5.5 x 8.5 trim

paperback

$14.95

Available Spring 2011 (I'm hoping by "Love Is Murder" in February)

first VIPER review

2010-11-15T16:49:00.002-06:00

Viper
by John Desjarlais
Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2011

Reviewed by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
spiritualwomanthoughts.blogspot.com

In the book of Genesis, it is written “I will make you enemies of each other: You, serpent, and the woman. She will crush your head and you will strike at her heels.” (Genesis 3:15) That quote serves as the inspiration for John Desjarlais’ latest work of Catholic fiction, “Viper,” a compelling mystery that will keep readers in suspense.

Selena De La Cruz, a woman with a fondness for expensive footwear, is an insurance agent trying to forget her past as a drug enforcement agent. When her name shows up on a short list of people to be murdered, she is forced to face her demons – both literally and figuratively. Meanwhile, Jacinta, a young Latina, has been seeing visions in a cemetery of a “Blue Lady” many believe to be Our Lady of Guadalupe. “The Blue Lady calls for prayer and repentance, and then announces judgment upon those who are victimizing her children and bringing shame upon her people.” The individuals on the hit list have been killed one by one within forty-eight hours of when the visions occur.

A man known only as “The Snake” is the primary suspect. All of the targets, including Selena when she was working undercover, have had dealings with him. His calling card is the snake venom left in his victims.

“Viper” is rooted in Latin culture and religion. Selena is a woman trying to live in two worlds and not finding a home in either one. This is a classic who-done-it, but it is also a story of Selena’s evolution as a woman. Desjarlais has woven a highly-readable tale that mystery lovers or fans of Catholic fiction will greatly enjoy.

(photo: Selena checks a clue)

FREE copy of BLEEDER, VIPER for bloggers

2010-11-15T11:19:00.003-06:00

If you are a blogger who writes book reviews, you can get a free copy of BLEEDER (and in January, VIPER) by filling out the form at this URL, below:
http://www.sophiainstitute.com/client/client_pages/bloggers.cfm

Final cover art for VIPER?

2010-11-09T21:41:00.002-06:00

This might be the final cover art - or close to it. There's a blue aura behind Selena, the gun-hand is female (the other was a man's hand with the nails painted red) and the gun is different, and the serpent-smoke is lighter, more subtle. Now for the back cover, which will probably have a story tease and a blurb.

VIPER view from Jeanne Dams

2010-11-08T17:45:00.003-06:00

"Non-stop action, nail-biting suspense--and enough genuine compassion to warm the coldest heart. A winner, start to finish."

Jeanne M. Dams, Author of the Dorothy Martin and Hilda Johansson mysteries

MWA approves Sophia Press

2010-11-07T08:51:00.003-06:00

I got news Friday that the Mystery Writers of America Board designated Sophia Institute Press as an 'approved' publisher, which means I can change my membership status from 'affiliate' to 'active' (full) and take part in Midwest Chapter promotional events, such as Printers' Row Book Festival in Chicago. I really feel like I belong to 'the club' now. Thanks, Sophia Press, for submitting the paperwork, and thanks, MWA, for the approval.

MWA 'approves' publishers who put out a certain number of titles per year and pay their authors a minimum of $1,000 for an advance. Only books from the approved list of publishers can be eligible for awards (such as The Edgar) and be listed in "The Third Degree" newsletter when they're released.

Speaking of...

Sophia Press tells me that VIPER should be out in early January now instead of before Christmas, as first hoped. Staff in the office, as well as the out-of-house proofreader, had illnesses and family emergencies, delaying the release date. The editor, who also assists in this process, delivered a new baby into the world a couple weeks ago (congrats, Regina and Andrew!) and so she's been preoccupied as well. At least the book will be out in time for the February "Love is Murder" mystery conference in Chicago.

I began outlining the third book in the series last night. I suppose having the extra hour after changing the clocks motivated me.

(photo: Selena De La Cruz returns in - well, I don't have a title yet. I guess it should end with -ER to match BLEEDER and VIPER).

Galley Proofs have arrived

2010-10-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

The galley proofs for VIPER arrived last week and I've gone through them already to make minor adjustments. The typesetter had a few flagged lines and spelling questions - easy to fix. This process is going faster than it did with BLEEDER. There's still no release date, but it can't be far off. As soon as I get a date, an ISBN, a price and a final cover design, I can begin marketing and sending copies to reviewers.

Deconstructing the Cathedral

2010-09-28T07:28:00.003-05:00

Some students in my Composition classes have asked to see the whole essay I use, in part, in class, to illustrate how clustering and outlining can be used to construct a Profile. Here, then, is the essay - which took Honorable Mention in the Writers' Digest Competition a few years ago in the 'essay' category.

The copy/paste function eliminated all paragraphing and such. It's still readable, though.

Deconstructing the Cathedral
(c) John Desjarlais. All Rights Reserved.

At first, it looks like the typical tangle of tourists debarking from busses at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. But the crowd is larger than the usual mix of pilgrims and panhandlers, and there are a number of native New Yorkers gawking skyward – people who never do this at the risk of being called a tourist. I look too, and notice that the familiar iron web-work of scaffolding has been removed from the just-completed twin towers of Peter and Paul. They are festooned with bright balloons. A taut wire is strung between the towers, and a man in a striped bodysuit is walking the wire, juggling hoops.
“What’s this?” I ask someone.
“Hundredth anniversary of the cathedral.”
Yes, I recall seeing something in The Times about it, I say.
Camcorders hum. The aerialist dances on the wire; I imagine absurdly that the architects sent him there to test its tension, to assess the strength of the towers.

When Charles Jencks popularized the term “postmodern” to describe a movement in architecture which despoiled styles from diverse periods, he might have had the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in mind. New York Times architecture critic Herbert Marchamp once called it “New York’s greatest postmodern skyscraper.” The hulking, two-thirds complete behemoth, the second largest church in the world next to St. Peter’s, has been compared to a grand novel – built in fits and starts, not quite up to the original vision of the work, revised continually, and interrupted by a series of contentious editors. It may be more like a sprawling postmodern novel, lacking a linear narrative with many of its disconnected pieces previously published in disparate journals over several years, a comic self-parody.
Cathedrals as texts narrate the centuries that build them. Medieval structures reflect a unified and cohesive worldview marked by symmetry. God is One, a Unity, and is discerned in the unifying, unchanging principles of mathematics. Seeing God manifest in the underlying coherence of sacred geometry, masons felt privy to the secret knowledge of the divine architect of the (uni)verse.
Furthermore, Christian ethics, like architecture, followed orderly, balanced standards, using the spiritual plumb lines of sacred shapes and numbers: seven cardinal virtues and seven corresponding deadly sins. Avarice, lust, and pride – money, sex, and power in today’s terms – shadowed the monastic ideals of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Paul summed up Christian ethics in the trinity of faith, hope, and love; a cathedral education began with the Trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic.
The Cathedral of St. John narrates a different time, a fragmented century, one that gave us doubters like Sartre and deconstructionists like Derrida. No wonder Muschamp calls it “an existential cathedral, both alienate and engaged.” It is historically characterized by structural chaos and social activism. The first bishop, Henry Potter – really, that was his name – invited black clergy from nearby Harlem to dinner and worked with them to clear area slums. Today, there’s a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, and an AIDS clinic.
But it could also be called “postmodern” because of its contradictory construction and shifting concept of self. It is not a static structure exemplifying universal precepts built on sure foundations. It does not adhere to the fiction of textual coherence, but views all text like itself as open-ended and the product of many hands. University of Texas rhetorician Lester Faigley once said that

Printing…tended to magnify the distance between the author and the reader, as the author became a monumental figure, the reader only a visitor in the author’s cathedral (italics mine).

So it is with visitors to St. John the Divine; they arrive expecting to “read” a unified whole but they get constant reminders that this is a work in progress: framed blueprints in the narthex, clinging scaffolding, unfinished sculptures in the fleche, piles of blocks heaped in the stoneyard. The cathedral as text is always in process, constructed of competing discourses, and, in an odd way, never set in stone.

The initial 1886 design of George Heins and C. Grant LaFarge was the winning entry of an international competition, and a collection of contra-dictions from the get-go. “A bold and florid piece of eclecticism, more Byzantine than Romanesque within, more Gothic than Romanesque without,” said one reviewer. The first phase of the project called for a central dome topped by a pyramidal tower and lofty spires at the north and south transepts. But the four granite arches and eight buttresses that were to support the central dome sank in quicksand made by underground springs hitherto undiscovered on Morningside Heights, and the original design sank with them. From the beginning, it seems, the cathedral rejected foundationalism and sought a moral mooring somewhere between the rocks of 19th Century optimism and the quagmires of 20th Century uncertainty.
The prize-winning plan was abandoned; the architects were dismissed. Ralph Adams Cram replaced them in 1911 is responsible for most of the cathedral that stands today. He did not use the word “postmodern” but he loathed modernity. As an “anti-modernist” rather than a “postmodernist,” Cram snubbed the modernist dictum that form follows function, designing buildings as criticisms of modern life. Knowing full well that it was an anachronism to build in a 13th Century French Gothic style, he did so, while retaining the Romanesque chancel. Ponderous, rounded arches co-existed uneasily with graceful, lace-like lattices. Goths and Romans always had an ambivalent relationship.
Although Cram railed against modernism and modern technology, his plans were financed by industrial barons who were busy modernizing America. Furthermore, Cram told the patrons of the seven radiating chapels of the apse that they could choose their own architects. The result: an architectural stew, whereby the coherent and cosmic unity of matter and spirit which once defined a cathedral, portraying the order and balance of the Logos (Reason) which created all things, is replaced by multiple perspectives and personal tastes in open repudiation of the reign of rationality and an overriding meta-narrative. In this sense, the cathedral is “postmodern.” At the least, it was meant to be “multi-cultural,” since the radiating chapels were named for the patron saints of countries considered a century ago to be New York City’s ethnic world: Italy, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, France, and “The East.”
While the diversity may appear on the surface as a celebration of American democracy (an impression reinforced by the stained glass windows in the bay chapels recognizing American artists, armed forces, lawyers, labor unions, schools, and sports), Cram despised democracy. He believed Americans would soon withdraw into walled cities governed by feudal hierarchies. This would explain his choice of 13th Century Gothic, as a prophetic (and sarcastic) statement of what the surrounding neighborhoods, and culture, would become.
Perhaps Cram was right. One needn’t go far from the 13 acres of the cathedral grounds to spot the spray-painted territorial markings of rival New York gangs. Two blocks north, a cultural tribalism is redefining the academic turf at elite Columbia University, itself fortified against Harlem with a huge castle-like wall.

The cathedral presides regally atop Morningside Heights, a colossal ark stranded on Ararat. Its buttresses thrust outward and down like massive oars ready for a mighty stroke to launch itself once the Hudson rises high enough with the tide. There is no movement or sound, no clank of rowlocks, but a continuous exchange of thrust and counterthrust storing enough energy to hurl the huge vessel forward on command, freed from the fetters of earth. The apse is a granite prow, and the transverse ribs of the nave ceiling look like the hull of a ship. Nave, after all, is from the same root as navy, reminding worshippers that the Church itself is the ark of God in the tossing storm of the world.
Perhaps to emphasize this idea of the ark, the canons (clergy of the cathedral, having nothing to do with cannons on a ship – well, maybe) host an annual blessing of animals in the nave. Every October, on the Feast of Francis of Assisi, the ark of Morningside Heights boards the likes of elephants, camels, goats, ostriches, and other exotic birds. Parishioners bring their pets to join the eccentric parade and to be aspersed with holy water. Some frightened animals asperse the owners. Stone squirrels watch bemused from above in the pier capitals, while outside in the gardens the cathedral’s peacocks call furiously for help. The cacophonous creatures enter at the cathedral’s west entrance, through massive bronze doors with cast panels of Biblical scenes; one of them portrays the loading of animals onto Noah’s ark. The doorway art looks much too orderly, with creatures in pairs queued up like Canadians at a bus stop. Surely it must have sounded – and smelled – much more like this.

On a normal day, the cavernous nave echoes with the scuff of shoes and the sibilant voices of tour guides. In French, German, Japanese, and who-knows-what, the groups shuffle like millipedes from site to sight. They are not like cathedral pilgrims of old, doing penance or seeking healing from the virtue of the cathedral’s relics. Instead, they exemplify the postmodern condition, living life episodically, passing through many spaces, knowing one will not stay for long in any one place, just long enough for a few impressions and a souvenir or two. It’s life lived as a series of spiritual package tours with options to meet one’s intellectual and emotional budget.
Tourists pack lightly and avoid the burdensome weight of moral responsibility. They move through the spaces other people live in, and they often view them through a lens. Churches everywhere are filled with spiritual tourists like that.

When aerialist Phillipe Petit thrilled busloads of tourists by walking a wire strung between the Twin Towers of Peter and Paul (as he once had done between the other Twin Towers of New York at the time of their completion ) he was demonstrating the dilemma of postmodernism (even if postmodernists despise binaries).
For some time now, this theoretical movement has balanced precariously on a tightrope of denials: that there is no unified, coherent self but only a public projection of private subjectivities each of which is socially constructed; that there are no grand narratives pretending to contain truth but only historically situated, ideologically-embedded discourses constructed for the purpose of establishing and preserving cultural hegemony; that knowledge is a shifting consensus among members of a rhetorical community who pool their perceptions in a process of linguistic negotiation. The result, says Faigley, is that postmodernism does not – cannot – supply a theory of agency or ethics.
Until the question of “the subject” is resolved, he says, postmodernists will walk a precarious wire, unsatisfied with the artificial projection of multiple “selves” on the one hand, while remaining resistant to any concept – Modernist or Christian – of individual consciousness and conscience on the other hand. The trick to keeping this balance between linguistic determinism and Platonic atomism, reply postmodernists, is maintaining some kind of momentum, placing principles from different sites in dialectic. The ethical decision-maker stands not only in one site, but walks between them, balancing the universals and the particulars.
Like an aerialist on a wire.

Construction on the cathedral came to a halt during World War II because the nation needed iron and steel. With peace, the Episcopal church was reluctant to resume work on such a grand building in such a poor neighborhood, concerned that they would appear insensitive to the needy. The church turned to social activism instead.
In 1979, the church decided to hire unemployed young men of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Newark and teach them the dying craft of stone carving. As conceived by the Very Rev. James Morton, Dean of the Cathedral, architecture and social ethics could be combined. The Cathedral Stoneworks hired master artisans from Europe, and under David Teitelbaum (an historical architecture preservation advocate and former real estate developer), “the little shop that could” employed 65 at-risk teens and all the modern technology that Ralph Adams Cram would have despised: computers, lasers, and digital cameras.
Three computer specialists operate large robotic saws and drills that do most of the cutting and shaping. But it’s young men from Spanish Harlem with names like Angel Escobar and Eddie Pizarro who work the details, chipping away for 10 hours a day on Indiana limestone blocks to shape textured window jambs, gargoyles, tiny squirrels, and saints.
The young carvers, then, learn to carve by carving. They learn to build by building. This is how people are built, too. As Aristotle said, “None of the moral virtues arises in us by nature,” but character (ethos) is the result of ethike (ethics, or more literally, habits):

The virtues we get by first exercising them, as also happens in the case of the arts, as well. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them; for example, men become builders by building.

Ethics, Aristotle tells us, are a practice, not a position. They are not mere dictums determined in advance and applied to situations later. They are constituted by actions within situations. “By doing the acts that we do in our transactions with others, we become just or unjust,” says Aristotle. The apostle James may have had something similar in mind when he wrote, “Be not hearers of the Word only, but doers.” Such actions may lead to “ethike,” or “habits,” but insofar as they are self-conscious and self-critical, mindful of the power they exert for good or ill, they constitute ethike.
Taken this way, postmodern ethics do not necessarily contradict the historical Christian ethic which the cathedral also nominally represents. Resisting all other powers that would pull us down, we make such decisions and act upon them while trying to manage the other details of our lives, like juggling so many colorful rings on a wire. We keep the universals and the particulars in a healthy tension. To take one position, and to stay there, as some “absolutists” insist, is to fall. To walk anywhere you like, however, as the “subjectivists” suggest, is to fall just as hard. The truth is to keep moving, to keep acting justly, knowing that we will be fine as long as we are anchored to the twin towers of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

###

The Big Book of Black Mask Stories

2010-09-26T22:32:00.001-05:00

I recently read an advance review copy of The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories. In it, anthologist and Mysterious Bookshop owner Otto Penzler has gathered a stunning collection of short stories, novelettes, and novels published in that wonderful pulp magazine. You could never hope to find these stories on your own. The original magazines are rare and only two entire collections exist (The Library of Congress is one of them). This huge 1,000-page-plus paperback volume (just $25) is full of dope heads, gamblers, gangsters, cops, femmes fatales and hard-boiled American heroes. These fellas are good with guns and with their fists —reporters, photographers, cops, sailors, and such— working-class men who work hard for a living and have a sense of right and wrong. OK, so they smoke and drink a lot, but they are idealistic and sentimental, tough guys with gold hearts. They are street-wise and wise-crackers.

The original Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is included in its original serial installments with 3,000 differences from the version we have today (the differences are not indicated in the text, however - too bad. I only say it is 3,000 because of the publicist). Raymond Chandler and John D. MacDonald are here, Erle Stanley Gardner and Cornell Woolrich, too, but many lesser knowns who are awesome. The writer intros are informative and there are many illustrations from the original mag. Very cool. Penzler's intro and the prologue by the last Black Mask publisher granting insights into some famous writers are terrific. I wish there was a better way to organize the material, me being an academic - I mean, a chronological or thematic arrangement would have been nice. The organization is a bit haphazard.

OK, there is misogyny and racism here and there, but hey: it was the early 20th Century. We know better now. We can still appreciate each story that presents American heroes who did their job, dirty though the work was, with a sense of chivalry.

It's due for a late September release.

guest at WritersInBusiness

2010-09-26T09:34:00.002-05:00

I'm the guest today at : http://writersinbusiness.blogspot.com/2010/09/mystery-writer-and-readers-choice-award.html talking about making the transition from writing historicals to mysteries. C'mon by and say hi.

Rockford B&N Event

2010-08-26T12:46:00.005-05:00

Many thanks to everyone who showed up for last night's event at the Rockford Barnes & Noble Bookstore. I especially appreciate the high school writers who stopped by to say hello and talk shop.

My next event is an Internet radio interview September 8 at 5 pm Central (it will be posted as a podcast as well); details to follow.

Still no word on the release date for VIPER; it's still in the editing process and there are other projects in front of it at Sophia Press.

Oh, and it's my anniversary today - 32 years with my beautiful wife, Virginia.

Mystery Writer Panel August 25

2010-08-14T10:49:00.002-05:00

I'll participate in a panel of regional crime writers at Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Rockford (Cherryvale Mall, 7200 Harrison St.) on Wednesday, August 25, at 4 pm.

I'll be signing copies of RELICS (Thomas Nelson 1993; 2009) and BLEEDER (Sophia Institute Press 2009) until 8 pm, and introduce its sequel, VIPER (forthcoming Fall 2010).

VIPER cover prototype

2010-07-20T20:22:00.003-05:00

After a few revisions, this is what the publisher has landed on for the cover art - for the time being. We needed something quickly for an August trade show. I doubt it will change much.

VIPER prototype cover: wow!

2010-07-19T15:41:00.000-05:00

VIPER: a mystery EXCERPT

2010-07-18T08:39:00.003-05:00

Chapter 1

Selena De La Cruz finish-welded the high flow exhaust tubes at the manifold flanges, twisted off the white flame and lifted the mask to inspect her work. Perfecto. She blew at the torch as though it were a smoking gun and thought about the next tasks: install a low-temperature thermostat to keep the Charger’s engine cool, check the brake bleeder valves, and - line one on the garage phone trilled.
¿Ay, ahora qué? she sighed with a roll of her eyes. Hadn’t she made it clear to her new receptionist Felicia that her lunch hour in the insurance claims garage was sagrada and she was not to be disturbed while working on her car?

She ducked from under the Matco lift, tugged off her work gloves and crossed to the Formica counter, her Filas sneakers squeaking on the glossy concrete floor. She raked her fingers through her sable hair. It must be an emergencia, she thought, her heart rate accelerating with each quickened step. Un accidente malo with injuries. Lord knows how the early November drizzle had slicked the roads. She seized the chirping phone and punched a button. “¿Sí, Felicia?”
“Selena? Is that really you?” asked a man’s voice.
She wrinkled her brow. It wasn’t her brother Francisco asking for another loan. It wasn’t her brother Lorenzo looking for a place to crash, now that his wife had kicked him out again. It wasn’t Reed Stubblefield, calling about their weekend date; he knew better. And it felt a bit presumptuous for an insurance agency customer to call her by her first name. The nerve. And how did he get this direct line number? She drew a cleansing breath and used her softest business voice. “How may I help you, sir?”
“Selena Perez, ex-DEA?”
“Who is this?”
“Geez, you don’t know how hard it is to find you.”
Her heart hammered against her ribs. “I’m sorry, sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. But being hard to find was the whole idea, wasn’t it?”
She rifled through her memory. “Del?”
“The same,” Del Bragg, her old team leader said with a snort. “Say, I like your new last name. Dee-lah-Crooz?”
“From John of the Cross, a Spanish poet,” she said, her breath suddenly short. “I always liked his work.”
“Yeah, well, I always liked your work, too.”
“That’s not true. You wrote me up twice for insubordination.”
“Three times. The third was because of that little girl you shot. I know you want to forget about that.”
“What do you want, Del?”
“So don’t thank me for getting the media off your butt about it. She lived, didn’t she? Aren’t you over it yet?”
“I said, what do you want?”
“Guess you’re not over it, not even five years later,” Bragg said. “But I need you back anyway.”
“When I left the agency it was for good,” Selena said, biting off the words. “I did everything I needed to do, and I’m done. Goodbye.”
“The Snake is out of prison,” Bragg shot back.
Selena brought the receiver back to her ear. “No way.”
“Way,” Bragg said. “His lawyer finally got the appeal. The judge said there was no evidence to prove the substance he was attempting to buy from you was heroin since the state couldn’t provide any chemical testing on it at the time. You remember why, don’t you?”
The fire.
“He’s free and back in business,” Bragg continued, “We need your help to find him.”
“Yeah, right,” she huffed. “You’ll just blow my cover and make me a target for every dope head I ever busted. Forget it, Del.”
“You blew your own cover, Selena,” Bragg retorted.
“What do you mean?”
“Hang on a sec.” Some paper rustled. “Here it is. I’ve got a Sinnissippi Weekly Observer newspaper clipping in front of me now, the whole story of some murder case involving a priest. You helped the River Falls police last spring, and there’s your picture, big as day. You’re still lookin’ great. Working out, huh? Love the long hair. Hey, are you seeing this guy in the other picture – Red Stubblefeld?”
“Reed Stubblefield,” she said shortly. “And it’s none of your business.”
“It might be. Listen up: If I can get hold of this newspaper article and recognize you and find you, anyone can, including The Snake, and believe me, I think he’s looking for you.”
Selena felt her forearms prickling with goose bumps.
“I can be at your house at 1500 hours to talk this over. I don’t want to come to your office since we might need you undercover again. I told your receptionist we were the police checking on somebody’s ID. It wasn’t a lie. Hey - you live alone?”
“Yes.”
“Not surprised. Can you get the afternoon off?”
“I’m the boss.”
“Still got your piece?”
“No. It was government issued. I returned it.”
“I thought so. I’ve got another one for you. You didn’t like the standard government model, though, is that right? You had a P226 Sig Sauer, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” Her heart recoiled against her ribs pow pow pow.
“You’re gonna need it,” Bragg said. “You remember what he said to you on the day we busted him.”
She closed her eyes. “I do.”
And the images of that day flooded back.

Chapter 2

It was five years ago.
At that time, like every time, Selena saw right away why he called himself La Serpiente, The Snake.
For one thing, he wore rattlesnake-skin boots with the steel toes that Bragg and her Anglo colleagues at Drug Enforcement sneeringly called “Fence Climbers.” When he crossed his sinewy legs and swung his foot, the tip glinted.
For another, his unmoving onyx eyes fixed on her cleavage - not all that uncommon when she met men – but that gaze was not measuring her size. It was calculating a striking distance. She averted her eyes to the side, a demure Mexican custom she hadn’t lost through acculturation. Locking eyes is also how snakes paralyze their prey. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure.
With a casual shake of her head, she quickly assessed possible escape routes. A back door. Two open windows where the greasy odor of tamales fritos drifted in from the outdoor cantina. No telling what was beyond the ratty blankets hung as partitions on laundry lines that stretched along the barracks wall. Behind them, shadows and voices. A woman’s giggle. Along the opposite wall, empty bunk beds, the men away at work. It might be rural Illinois, but it looked just like the barrio back-alleys of Mexico City when she did undercover work there. She puzzled over why The Snake arranged to meet here, in makeshift quarters for immigrant slaughterhouse workers, where the stink of hog offal clung to the men’s overalls and to the army-surplus sheets. Maybe he thought its remoteness more secure against reconnaissance or a raid. He was certainly more in control, and she didn’t like it.
A horse-faced mestizo shouldered through the partition. The man gave her a leer and then winked at her. Selena’s stomach clenched in disgust. Women behind the blankets were servicing laborers, and this man thought she was one of them reporting for work. She narrowed her eyes to angry slits, and the man, intimidated, hurried to the door and ducked out.
“Ahí nos vemos,” The Snake rasped to the departing customer. See ya later. No doubt he would.
“I didn’t know you ran a side business,” Selena said, masking her revulsion. “Are the women documented?”
The Snake laughed through his teeth. It sounded like a hiss. “Does it matter?” he said. “They are fully employed and they put food on their family’s table. Maybe some day they can afford fancy shoes like yours.”
We’ll nail you for aiding and abetting human trafficking, too, slime ball, Selena thought, glancing around, anticipating areas of possible threat.
“I was hoping for a meeting place more private, as before,” Selena said. And more open, like a parking lot. Less chance of being trapped or taken hostage.
“So do they,” he said, waving a hand at the door where another customer arrived. La Serpiente shifted in his chair and smiled at him. No fangs. But the teeth were bleach white and evenly spaced like the military tombstones that paraded on both sides of her brother Antonio’s grave.
“And when did you start using bodyguards?” Selena asked, lifting her chin at the stern woman and the bald goon in the V-shaped beard and black T-shirt standing beside the seated Snake. The man’s hungry eyes scanned her up and down. A phone blinked in his ear. A Beretta gleamed from his belt.
“Since I could afford them,” the Snake answered. “Business has been good, and when business is good, people try to take advantage of you. I’m sure you won’t. Let’s see what you brought for me today. But first-”
He cocked his head, a signal. “Rosita! Búscala.”
The copper-cheeked woman with peroxide hair and gang tattoos stepped forward to search Selena for weapons or a wire.
Selena stuck out her arms, crucifix-style. “I was already searched outside by the door guard.”
The Snake smiled. “I know. I like to be sure.”
Rosita circled behind her. She ran her calloused hands up Selena’s black jeans, ankles to hips, rubbed her back and belly, patted her sides and chest, lingering there. When she stepped away, she whispered “Nice shoes” in Selena’s ear with an envious look at her red open-toed Espadrille wedge sandals. The woman’s teeth were streaked and cracked. Meth head. It was bigger than heroin or weed in the Midwest now, smuggled across the border or made on remote farms where the ingredients were easily available.

“It’s in her bra,” Rosita announced in a gravelly smoker’s voice.
“I also keep my passport there when I travel to see the Barracuda in Oaxaca,” Selena said.
The Snake leaned forward, eyes gleaming. “Did you see him last week as you promised? What does he think of my little business proposal?” he asked.
It wasn’t so little. He wanted to be the Mexican cartel kingpin’s Chicago – and hence MidWest - distributor.
“The fact that I’m here should tell you,” Selena said.
He smiled, satisfied. “Tell me again: does he really look like a barr-”
“Yes,” Selena said, jumping on the question too soon. Did it make her seem nervous? “Little teeth, always showing. Breathes through his mouth. Eyes widely set, so they look like they are on the sides of his head. He says he can see all around him and no one can take him by surprise.”
“Another thing we have in common,” he said, closing his eyes. The snake eyes tattooed on the eyelids made him look awake and prepared to lunge. No one would dare assassinate him in his sleep.
He opened his eyes and curled his lip, a sign that she had passed the test. Why was he testing her? Didn’t he trust her after two walk-away buys, the $50,000 flashroll, the dinner and that dance with his cold hand in the small of her back?
“Here’s what he has for you to sell,” Selena said, slipping two fingers down her scalloped blouse and extracting the one ounce sample. “If you do well with the first shipment, he says he will consider a partnership. You have the down payment?”
The Snake snapped his fingers and Rosita produced a thick roll of greenbacks. She waved it in the air.
Selena flicked the baggie in The Snake’s direction. The burly thug beside him snatched it in mid-flight. The man’s belt creaked when he leaned over. He snapped open the zip-lock bag, licked a fingertip, and dipped it in.
“Chocolate de Fumanchú,” the bodyguard confirmed.
Low-life amateur, Selena thought. No professional tests it like that anymore. Must be watching Miami Vice reruns.
“I never test heroin myself,” The Snake apologized, “not after what happened to Don Caballo last year in Colombia.”
“Forgive me, señor,” Selena said, “but it was Venezuela.”
“Ah!” he exclaimed with palms up in mock dismay at his error. “But of course. How could I forget?”
Test two over. Something wasn’t right. She held out her hand, waiting for the money.
“The poor man,” La Serpiente said. “I’ve heard tell that Fortune, as they call her, is a drunken and capricious woman and, worse still, blind; and so she doesn’t see what she’s doing, and doesn’t know whom she is casting down or raising up.”
Always with the Cervantes quotes. Especially when he was edgy. Does he suspect something? Is he provoking me with that ‘woman’ line? Is he stalling? “You did not forget his terms, I trust?” she said, tapping her foot.
“I remember,” he said.
That was good. There was no need to belabor the details. Get in, get out.
“Good,” Selena said, extending her palm. “I’ll take my payment and be on my way.”
The bodyguard pressed his palm to his earpiece, and then whispered something close to his boss’s ear. The Snake’s pupils widened.
“One last thing, Selena, mi corazón,” he said, dwelling, it seemed, on the ‘s’ sounds.
A new condition? Test three? Play impatient. Balk and threaten to back out. She rested her palm on her hip. “Sí, what is it?”
“That truck pulling in – is it my delivery already?”
Rosita pulled back a window shade. “It’s just the Supermercado produce delivery truck for the cantina.”
“They already came early this morning,” La Serpiente said, scowling. He pointed to Selena’s feet. “Take off your shoes.”
Madre de Dios, he knows. She shook a finger at him, irritated. “¿Qué cochinada es esta? Give me the money now or the deal is off.”
“The shoes, por favor.”
The bodyguard drew his Beretta.
Aimed at her.
She kicked off her shoes.
The door splintered open. The room blazed white and the blast from the Magnum 470 flash grenade hurled Selena to the floor.
“Police! Search warrant!” Del Bragg bellowed. “Down on the floor! Down! Down!” The agents behind him, in helmets and Kevlar armor, rushed in and dropped to their trained positions. Selena sprawled on the planks, covering her head. The Snake’s bodyguard squeezed two shots into the air before Bragg did a Rambo-roll and unloaded fifteen rounds from his M-4 into him. Cartridges flew. Hot grenade shards skittered across the floor. Women shrieked “¡La migra! ¡La migra!” as the fabric of the hanging blankets crackled into flames and smoke filled the room.
Rosita, on hands and knees, grabbed Selena’s sandals and scrambled for the back door. An officer yelled at her to halt. She shook a shoe at him in scorn. He mistook it for a pistol. He pumped five deafening rounds into her.
The snapping fire raced across the blankets and leaped to the walls like a ravenous animal. Wailing women stumbled outside, sheets to their breasts, kerchiefs over their mouths and noses. Agents coughed despite their masks, hauling men outside with their arms twisted behind them, shouting in badly accented Spanish.
Bragg seized Selena by the arm, yanked her to her feet, and hauled her outside. Once in the open, he jerked her arm up behind her to the middle of her back and shoved her toward the supermarket truck, barking, “You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent-”
“Not so hard, Del,” Selena said through gritted teeth. “You’re hurting me.”
“Gotta make it look real, dollface,” he grunted in her ear. He resumed his mock arrest. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney-”
Bragg pushed her past The Snake who was belly-down in the dirt with an officer’s boot in the small of his back and with his head jerked up by the hair. Another agent waved a search warrant in his grimacing face.
“This is your fault, Selena!” The Snake hissed. “I’ll get you for this!”
“It’s your fault!” she screamed at him. “¡Puerco! Pig!”
“¡Puta! Whore! ¡Traidora!” he spat back.
“Shut up,” the officer said, and rammed his M16 stock into his ribs.
The paddy wagons screeched up, though at a farther distance than planned. The barracks were engulfed now. Smoke billowed from the windows and long tongues of flame licked the tarpaper roof, spitting an acrid smell.
“Get these rats out of here!” Bragg ordered, still gripping Selena’s wrist like a vise below her shoulder blade. “Let the others go. We got what we came for. And get those pick-up trucks out of the way before the gas tanks blow.”
“Local fire on their way, sir,” an agent called with a phone to his ear.
“Good.” He pushed Selena behind the delivery truck and released her.
She rubbed her throbbing elbow, took two steps and dropped to one knee, gulping for fresh air. Nausea writhed in her belly.
Bragg stripped off his helmet and face mask. “You all right, Selena?”
“Sure, Del.”
She wasn’t. She fought off dizziness.
“Let me get you some water.”
Selena wiped bitter spit from her mouth. She watched Bragg open the truck cabin’s creaking door and toss his helmet on the seat. She tried to swallow but her throat burned from stomach acid and smoke. She levered up, steadied herself against the truck, and faced the Quonset hut barracks that were now completely consumed in flames. The blurry heat prickled her cheeks.
That was a close call. Too close.
She back fisted the truck in anger. The evidence was burning. Maybe the recording would be enough. They might have gotten him for prostitution or human trafficking if Del had detained the women. Not our jurisdiction, he’d say. That’s for the ICE guys or the FBI. Gringo idiota.
Bragg twisted off the cap of a water bottle and handed it to her. She took an eager mouthful, rinsed, and spat.
“You know what I think?” Bragg chortled. “I think he wasn’t interested in the sample at all. He wanted to hold you hostage. To see what you were worth to the Barracuda. He didn’t know about the mic in the shoes. He just wanted to keep you from running away. He was probably going to ask for your clothes next. Don’t thank me for busting in a little early.”
“Fine, I won’t,” she said, wiping her mouth.
“We got everything. The mic in the shoes worked good.”
She squinted at the roiling flames.
“I liked those shoes,” she said.

(sorry, but the paragraph formatting disappears when I copy/paste. So it goes. Still readable, I think)

VIPER: a mystery

forthcoming Fall 2010 from Sophia Institute Press

visit http://www.johndesjarlais.com/ for details

Still time to register for Writers conference

2010-07-17T08:23:00.003-05:00

There is still time to register for this great writers conference. Details below:

For Immediate Release

Catholic Writers to Hold Conference in Valley Forge, PA

World Wide Web--The second annual Catholic Writers’ Conference LIVE will be held August 4-6, 2010, at the Scanticon Hotel Valley Forge in King of Prussia, PA. Sponsored by the Catholic Writers’ Guild and the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN), and held in conjunction with CMN’s annual retailer trade show, the Catholic Writers Conference LIVE provides Catholic authors with a prime opportunity to meet and share their faith with editors, publishers, fellow writers, and bookstore owners from across the globe.
This year's conference will feature presentations on such topics as market tips and time management for busy writers, poetry, creating evil characters, working with an editor, creating winning proposals, journaling and much more. Speakers include Catholic publishing representatives Mark Brumley - CEO of Ignatius Press, Claudia Volkman - General Manager of Circle Press, Regina Doman - acquisitions editor for Sophia Institute Press, and Tom Wehner - Managing Editor of the National Catholic Register, all of whom will also hear pitches from writers.
Among the other speakers are Michelle Buckman, (Maggie Come Lately and My Beautiful Disaster), Mark Shea (Mother of the Son), Donna Marie Cooper-O’Boyle (Mother Theresa and Me), Susie Lloyd (Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water), and Publicist Lisa Wheeler from the Maximus Group. Tom Wehner (National Catholic Register), and Long Island Catholic diocesan newspaper and editor Rick Hinshaw will share a panel discussing “Journalists as Evangelists.” Mystery writer John Desjarlais (Bleeder, Viper) will offer seminars on character development and finding an agent.
“Attending this conference has been the best thing I have done for myself professionally,” Carol Bannon, author of the children’s book Handshake from Heaven, said of the 2009 conference. Her fellow writer Melanie Cameron agreed, saying she left the last conference re-energized. “I recommend [this] conference as a resource for any author (or wannabe) at any stage. You will walk away empowered!”
The Catholic Writers Guild, a religious non-profit organization, sponsors both this live conference in August and an online conference in February to further its mission of promoting Catholic literature. “Our conferences are totally focused on encouraging faithful Catholics to share genuine Catholic culture and faith in their writing no matter what genre,” says CWG President Ann Margaret Lewis. “These events are integral to our mission of creating a rebirth of Catholic arts and letters.”
Registration costs $85 for CWG members, $95 for non-members and $42 for students. There's also a discounted combined membership. To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/.

# # #

VIPER summary

2010-07-02T09:41:00.002-05:00

Haunted by the loss of her brother to drugs and a botched raid that ended her career with the DEA, insurance agent Selena De La Cruz hoped to start afresh in rural Illinois. But her gung-ho former boss needs her back to hunt “The Snake,” a dealer she helped arrest who is out of prison and systematically killing anyone who ever crossed him. His ‘hit list’, appended to a Catholic Church’s All Souls Day ‘Book of the Deceased,’ shows Selena’s name last. Working against time, small town prejudice and the suspicions of her own Latin community, Selena races to find The Snake before he reaches her name while a girl visionary claims a “Blue Lady” announces each killing in turn. Is it Our Lady of Guadalupe or, as others believe, the Aztec goddess of Death?

VIPER: a mystery

by john desjarlais

coming this Fall from Sophia Institute Press

VIPER accepted by Sophia Press

2010-06-29T13:31:00.003-05:00

VIPER was accepted today by Sophia Press. Here's the email sent by the acquisitions editor to the publisher and cc'd to me today:

Last night I just finished reading John Desjarlais's new manuscript VIPER (the sequel to BLEEDER). I really couldn't put it down. I hope to call John D. today with some suggested revisions, none of which are major.
When you return from vacation, I'd like to recommend that we bring this MS to contract as soon as we can. I found it even more compelling than BLEEDER and I strongly suspect our readers will feel the same way.

So I'm at work on the minor adjustments and we're aiming to promote the book at the August Catholic Marketing Convention and aim for a release in Fall.

VIPER sent to editor

2010-06-09T16:27:00.002-05:00

I finished a full draft of VIPER last week, received feedback and corrections this week (mostly re: Spanish language from my reader), made those adjustments over the last 2 days, and sent the revised ms to the editor at Sophia Press today, both an emailed e-version and a land-mail paper version. I'm certain there is revision work ahead - heck, the editor might not like it at all! - but I cannot describe what a relief it is to have the ms in the mail. I have been so stressed during the final stages that I was speaking Spanish in my sleep, according to my wife, and I don't speak Spanish. How weird is that? It must have been Selena, pictured here.

Barnes & Noble book signings in June

2010-06-03T16:17:00.002-05:00

I'll sign copies of BLEEDER at Barnes & Noble, Green Bay WI, on Saturday June 5, 2-5 pm, and at Barnes & Noble, DeKalb IL, on Saturday June 12, 1-5 pm.

The era of 'the book signing' may be coming to a close, and not because printed books themselves may be passe soon (big piece in the Wall Street Journal today about ebooks). Have they ever been a good marketing strategy for non-celebrity writers? It helps if one is speaking to a book club on the premises, or offering a workshop of some sort, but to just show up and be shown to a table is ineffective. "Book signings," even if fairly well publicized, just don't draw a lot of people. A writer has to work the room, passing out bookmarks and initiating conversations with strangers.

At least it is a good opp to meet book sellers face to face and befriend them, since they will be your sales people long after you leave, making recommendations to customers largely because they got to 'know' you.

Book signings as public events also give you an opp to get your name and book title in local newspapers and radio 'community calendar' shows. Only a few people may show up, but many, many people will have seen the announcement. That's gotta be worth something.

Congrats, Johnny

2010-05-28T10:15:00.008-05:00

Hey, it's me, Selena. Just wanted to say felicitaciones and high-five to Johnny for finishing the book that features me as the protagonist. Well, a fictionalized version of me. I know as well as he does that there's the laborious editing process to come with changes to be made and all that, but it's still a happy occasion to get that first draft completed, printed out, and in your hands. So we're going out tonight for Margaritas and steak fajitas to celebrate (with his lovely wife Virginia, of course). Thought I'd dress up for the occasion and wear the Stuart Weitzman peepsling heels in Adobe Serpent he got for me to say thank you for helping with VIPER.

He's been bugging me about my father's career with PEMEX and my undercover work in Mexico years ago because he's already thinking of the next book. He has to - the ending of VIPER is such a shock that it begs to go on. Looks like he's stuck with me for another year or two.

The poor fish.

Finished draft of VIPER

2010-05-27T14:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I wrote those wonderful and frightening words, THE END. The first full draft of VIPER is done. This sequel to BLEEDER features a minor character from BLEEDER as the protagonist, Latina insurance agent Selena De La Cruz.

I pushed very hard these past two weeks, since Commencement at my college, hoping to deliver a draft to my editor by the end of May as I'd promised. So it is ready, a few days early. I've sent a copy to my Latina reader who checks the ms for cultural accuracy and sensitivity, correctness in the Spanish (she's a professional translator), and to provide general feedback. So far she likes it and says I'm getting the Latina stuff right.

The editor suggested that we might be able to do all the editing, rewriting and designing over summer and aim for a Christmas release. So here's hoping.

The draft came in at 60,000 words, 311 pages, a bit shy of what I'd hoped for (65-70K, 320-350 pages). But this happened with BLEEDER, too, and I'm not too concerned about it.

So now I'm thinking ahead about promotion - well, only a little - but I don't want to count too many chickens before they hatch, as it were. I have plenty of promotional chores for BLEEDER at the moment to keep me busy, too.

For now, I'll mix a Margarita (Selena likes them) and relax a little.

Catholic Writers of Long Island conference

2010-05-20T16:48:00.002-05:00

Catholic Writers of Long Island: Growing Together Spiritually, Artistically and Professionally
M E D I A R E L E A S E
CONTACT: Lisa Mladinich 631-421-6119 lisamladinich@optonline.net
For Immediate Release

Charitable Event Launches New York Writers' Group

Huntington, NY-Catholic Writers of Long Island, which is poised to become the first local chapter of the Catholic Writers' Guild, will hold a full-day conference at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, 440 West Neck Road, Huntington, New York, on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 from 9:30-4:30pm, entitled, "The Word Made Flesh: A Day of Encouragement and Enrichment for Catholic Writers." Signed copies of good Catholic books, theater tickets, and other valuable prizes will be raffled off and proceeds will benefit Catholic Relief Services, which is a 501[c]3 organization. All are welcome, including nursing mothers with their babies.The event's keynote speaker, Rick Hinshaw, editor of the Long Island Catholic, will receive the Catholic Writers' Guild's "Lily" award for Meritorious Achievement in Catholic Arts and Letters. Other speakers include: award-winning author and publisher, Josephine Nobisso; author and composer, Alexander J. Basile; retreat leader and host of "Among Women" podcast, Pat Gohn; and author and seminary rector, Msgr. Peter Vaccari. Msgr. Charles Fink, Director of Spiritual Formation for the seminary, will be the homilist.The event emphasizes connectedness in the Body of Christ and supports professional networking via breaks with refreshments and a special bonus; early-birds will have bios and contact information listed in ¼-page sections in the program, an added value worth $15. Mass, Rosary, and buffet lunch included. Tickets before June 1st: $25 for adult early-birds and $17 for student early-birds. From June 1st-June 15th, tickets: $35 for adults and $25 for students. Meal head-count closes June 15th.

Register at: http://materetmagistramagazine.org/store/ and click on the "Catholic Writers of Long Island" link in the left sidebar under "Important Links." Add your 100-word [max] bio in the "comments" section, or mail check and typed bio to: mater et magistra, P.O. Box 251, Hamlin, PA 18427 and put "LI Writers" in notes section.

To learn more, see Facebook page for "Catholic Writers of Long Island" or contact chapter president, Lisa Mladinich, at lisamladinich@optonline.net
###

Selena's ride

2010-05-14T20:45:00.003-05:00

If anyone wants to hear Selena's car, they should visit http://www.tuningmag.net/?name=dodge-charger-1969, scroll to the bottom, and click the mp3 button. That's her car.

amazon.com review of Throne of Tara

2010-05-10T19:46:00.001-05:00

"Desjarlais has carefully researched the history of this saint and vividly brought him and his world to life. An easy and interesting read. Great chance to learn some little-known Church history in a way that is as entertaining as it is educational. "
amazon.com reviewer, April 2010

RELICS

2010-05-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

Here's the RELICS video trailer to accompany amazon review I just posted.

RELICS review

2010-05-08T10:08:00.001-05:00

from amazon.com:

I love stories of castles and knights, but there is so little good stuff written about this part of our history. Desjarlais is a master of historical fiction--weaving vivid descriptions of the food, clothes, beliefs, politics and habits of the time into a story that grabs hold of your imagination and doesn't let go! For the guys, there's plenty of swordplay, action and intrigue. For the girls, there's romance and uncertainty. I never knew what a key role the collection and preservation of relics played in the history of the Catholic religion. It's also great to get into the mind of someone who might have lived in that time period and see how similar their dreams and struggles were to our own. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the days of the Crusades and doesn't mind learning a thing or two in the process!

June Book Signings

2010-05-06T20:59:00.002-05:00

So these are a month away but maybe it's worth announcing now. I'll be at the following venues in June:

June 5, Saturday, 2-5 PM, Barnes & Noble
2498 S. Oneida St., Green Bay, WI 54304

June 12, Saturday, 1-5 pm, Barnes & Noble, Oakland Place Shopping Center

2439 Sycamore Road, Dekalb, IL 60115(815) 787-3234

June 26, Saturday, all day (probably 9 am to 6 or 7 pm?), Creekside Books

(part of the town Strawberry Festival)

W62N596 Washington Ave., Cedarburg, WI 53012

contact: Glen Switalski, (262) 546-0004

Learn About Cinco de Mayo

2010-05-05T14:37:00.000-05:00

St Anthony Messenger review of BLEEDER

2010-04-21T08:33:00.002-05:00

BLEEDER, by John Desjarlais. Sophia Institute Press. 272 pp. $14.95

Reviewed by JEAN HEIMANN, freelance writer, retired educator, psychologist and oblate with the Community of St. John.

IT'S NOT OFTEN that you come across a book that captures your full attention on an emotional level, and challenges you intellectually and spiritually, too. Bleeder was such a book for me.
In Bleeder, we are introduced to Reed Stubblefield, a classics professor on sabbatical. He is recovering not only from the physical wounds of a gunshot accident in a school shooting, but also from the emotional wounds of his wife's recent death. He retreats to a rural Illinois cabin to write a book on Aristotle.

But the town of River Falls is filled with the ill and infirm—all seeking the healing touch of the town's new parish priest, reputed to be a stigmatic. Skeptical about religion since his wife's death from leukemia, Reed is reluctantly drawn into a friendship with the priest, Father Ray Boudreau, an amiable Aquinas scholar.

Then the priest collapses and bleeds to death on Good Friday in front of horrified parishioners. Is it a miracle or is it a bloody murder? Reed needs to know because the police say he is the prime suspect.

Once Reed is identified as the prime "person of interest" in the mysterious death, he seeks to discover the truth with the help of an attractive local reporter and Aristotle's logic.
In his third novel, author John Desjarlais presents the reader with an exciting and suspense-filled mystery that is difficult to put down. A gifted writer, Desjarlais captures the reader's attention from the very first page with his sharp imagery, gripping plot, vivid characters, amazing climax and satisfying conclusion.

Bleeder uses sharp imagery, which is descriptive yet concise. For example, Desjarlais writes: "Two squad cars blocked the street at both ends, their blue and red lights flashing like votives."

In this mystery written in the first person, Desjarlais introduces us to a variety of well-crafted and colorful characters as he works through clues and dead ends, casting suspicion on a number of people, challenging readers to ponder their motives and to try to guess "whodunit."

What makes Bleeder uniquely Catholic is that, in addition to the practical mystery contained in the plot, there is a mystery that Desjarlais delves into on a higher level—the spiritual level— which he explores through the suffering that Reed Stubblefield, Father Boudreau and other characters encounter. In Bleeder, Desjarlais contemplates the mystery of "undeserved suffering" from a Catholic point of view.

Bleeder is an exciting and thought-provoking Catholic mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed and one that I highly recommend for all adults.

WANB interview

2010-04-19T07:56:00.001-05:00

I'l be interviewed Tuesday April 20 at 11 am Eastern on WANB AM 1580, Waynesburg, Pa.

d-review of BLEEDER

2010-04-12T13:11:00.002-05:00

Nice review of BLEEDER at d-review: http://d-review.blogspot.com/2010/04/bleeder.html

John Desjarlais’s “Bleeder” is a delightful page turner with full of twists and appealing characters to make it a complete mystery thriller. This novel is an action packed adventure though not as gory as the title might sound.

The protagonist in this novel is a professor, on sabbatical, Reed Stubblefield. After being wounded physically by a student’s shot and mentally by his wife’s death, Reed moves on to his brother's home at a small town in Illinois where he finds himself surrounded by many believers and sick pilgrims who have come to get cured by a stigmatic priest, Father Ray. Reed’s skepticism and curiosity leads him to an unusual relationship with Fr. Ray. The main event of the story is death of Fr. Ray during the Good Friday service, which makes Reed the prime suspect. The death of the beloved priest and its consequences will make Reed to question his long held beliefs and philosophies. Reed’s search for the real killer, the secret behind Fr. Ray’s death and other mysteries won’t let you put this book down.

This book is an enthralling work of fiction. It also includes lots of quotations from Aristotle as Reed is writing a book on him, which enhances the reading experience. Also the Catholic background helps in developing a great effect as the mystery unfolds.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Sophia Institute Press.)

Rating: 5/5

Radio call-in show tonight

2010-04-07T13:23:00.002-05:00

I'll be on www.adviceradio.com tonight, Wed 4/7, at 7-7:30 pm Central for a call-in show. Fee free to call 800-405-6425 with a question about BLEEDER, writing in general, faith and fiction, whatever.

Oh, and that last review I posted is from www.thegenReview.com - I omitted the 'the'. Sorry.

GenReview.com's take on BLEEDER

2010-04-05T17:59:00.002-05:00

GenReview.com

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

BLEEDER

Devastated by the loss of his wife to leukemia, partially crippled and traumatized by a school shooting, Aristotle scholar and professor Reed Stubblefield seeks the peace of his brother’s hunting cabin in downstate Illinois to recuperate and write a book on Aristotle. Arriving in rustic River Falls, though, he finds all the area camps and lodgings crowded with people - sick and injured people, who have come to see the local Catholic pastor, a priest who is said to bear the Stigmata, and to be a healer. In spite of his own evident antipathy to any involvement in what he considers to be pure superstition, Reed discovers that his brother has arranged matters so that Reed’s meeting with the priest is inevitable. What follows is a bit of subtle intellectual give-and-take between the two, until the shocking demise of Father Ray during Good Friday services, a death that may or may not be murder.

The book is published by an imprint that, in its own words, ” … seeks to restore man’s knowledge of eternal truth …” and Christian thought, specifically Catholic thought, does inform the book. Yet Desjarlais is able to have his characters address deeply human issues in a manner that is in no sense heavy-handed or preachy. The college professor finds a kindred scholarly spirit in Father Ray, and is able to build a relationship on that basis apart from any religious connections, though he is, perhaps, able to address the void that has existed within since his wife’s death from a new angle as a resulting of knowing the priest. In the end, there is no grand conversion … merely deeper thought and consideration, perhaps an openness that he hasn’t had before.

The mystery around which all the events revolve is twofold - is Father Ray a stigmatic and healer, and was his death murder? These two questions are kept before the reader as the plot develops, through a young reporter seeking her big break in the stories surrounding Father Ray. The plot resolves both questions in what I felt was a satisfactory manner, and in keeping with the atmosphere of the story.

While the book does have as background a Catholic motif, it tells a story that transcends any particular set of beliefs, and is a good mystery besides.

Selena says bye for now

2010-03-31T15:24:00.004-05:00

Johnny's been a good sport to let me blog here this month. Since this is the last day of March, I thought I'd depart with one more memory.

I wanted to join the boys' soccer team in Middle School. Not that they had a problema recruiting boys for the team, as happens in some school districts. And it wasn't because there wasn't a girls' team - there was, and they were pretty good. But growing up with three brothers, I needed more competition. A challenge.

So my brother Antonio took me to the boys' field to introduce me to the coach. I politely asked to join the team, bouncing a ball knee to knee to show him what I could do. But the man spat out his whistle and laughed at me. "The cheerleaders are over there," he said, pointing behind me and widening his stance.

It sure looked like a goal to me.

So I drop-kicked the ball hard right between his goalposts, so to speak.

I was suspended for three days.

Ay, my Mami had the fire of an amazona in her eyes when I got home.

"Y que te ha entrado a ti? El que diran?" she scolded while stirring habichuelas on the stove. "What has gotten into you? What will they say?"

"They'll say I should have been allowed to try out," I said, displaying the unbecoming gringita

habit of speaking my mind.

So I was sent to bed without supper as well.

This is one of the 'rules' of growing up Latina: do not forget a woman's place. I keep forgetting this rule.

That's it. I'll "see" you again when you read Johnny's book VIPER coming around Christmas. For now, adios.

At the Sinnissippi Dragway

2010-03-29T14:06:00.005-05:00

Ola, it's Selena again.

Some gringo idiota in a 2009 Dodge Charger passed me on Route 2 today on the way to work. He honked and cut it pretty close, showing off. I was in the company Jeep Cherokee with the decal on the rear right-door window that says “You just got passed by a girl,” but I didn’t punch the gas just so he could see it when I returned the favor. After all, the road is two-lane and curvy, and badly pitted in spots from an Illinois winter.

So I just smirked to myself. I knew my Charger would leave him in the dust. I regularly burn carbon from the valves at 100 miles per hour in the first one-eighth of a mile on a country road I won’t name here. I’d go for 120 if the car still had the chutes, the ones Antonio installed to use at the Sinnissippi Dragway.

I’ll always remember the day Antonio took me there to watch him race the Charger at the annual Power Wheelstanding Competition. I got to wandering around and the track manager mistook me for the new flag girl and shoved a zebra-striped umpire’s shirt with black Lycra short-shorts into my gut, said I was late and told me where to change and report.

What else could I do?

I snapped the short shorts over the man’s head, pulled them down over his astonished face with a jerk, and stormed off shouting “¡Insolente! ¡Descarado!”

“Did you have to do that?” Antonio steamed while driving out the gate a few minutes later, the manager glowering at us in the rear-view mirror. “They said I can’t race here anymore.”

“Go back,” I said, thumping my chest with my thumb. “I’ll drive. I’ll show them what a Latina can do.”

“You already did that,” he said, gunning the gas to spin his back wheels. Gravel peppered the manager, and we both laughed.

Ay, I don’t pass a day when I don’t think about my fraternal twin brother. He’s the reason I joined the DEA in the first place. When you read Johnny’s new book VIPER, you’ll find out how that happened.

And amigas, when you do, remember he’s making all that up, and there are some things in there about me that just aren’t true.

How Mexican Am I

2010-03-26T08:22:00.004-05:00

So I take the Facebook quiz “How Mexican Are You” and score as “coconut,” brown on the outside but white on the inside. Yo me ruborizo! How is that possible? I know my Papi was determined to have us kids fit in and be acculturated (not assimilated) and that’s a reason why we always had a very traditional American-style Thanksgiving with turkey, yams with marshmallows, corn, beans, and cranberry relish (all indigenous Mexican foods, ironically, except for the cranberry). But my Mami, well, she raised us in las viejas costumbres, the old ways.

I think I sensed this deeply for the first time in high school when I brought home an Anglo boy, Jerry, to meet the family. I feared Papi would interrogate him like a cop drilling a suspect and my Madrina Maria would corner him with stories of Oaxaca even though she didn’t speak English and Mami would serve tripe soup with chiles colorados to test his mettle – but I brought home the Anglo boy anyway. A crowd of Mami, Papi, my three brothers, all my cousins, uncles and tias, with all the curious, chattering neighbors greeted him. Jerry shook hands with Papi and my three brothers and smiled at everyone else – not knowing he was expected to meet everyone personally with a handshake and a warm verbal greeting. I should have told him.

Later, Mami called him muy frio, very cold, mal educado, ill mannered. Is this how we raised you – to find a gringo for a boyfriend who is so bent on dishonoring us, who has no respeto for our familia?

He doesn’t know our ways, I cried. He is Americano.

And what are you? Mami asked.

And I realized fully for the first time I was in two worlds at once.

Maybe that’s why my Thanksgiving dinners have a Mexican twist to them these days, like the corn with salsa, jalapeños, green onion and red bell pepper, or my chipotle and chive cornbread, or the black bean dip for the blue tortilla chips. Just don’t ask me to serve mole with the turkey.

It's me, Selena

2010-03-16T19:58:00.004-05:00

Johnny didn’t ask me for a third blog entry but I’ve had such fun with the first two and I was thinking about the first time I went undercover and, since I got his Blogger username and password (didn’t work undercover all those years for nothin’) I figured I’d share this little historia.

Every Holiday season sometime near La Fiesta del Neustra Señora de Guadalupe the staff at the downtown Chicago FBI and DEA offices get together for a dinner out. It’s a dress-up affair supposed to remind us that we don’t just occupy the same building a few floors apart but we’re on the same side. We’re supposed to mingle a bit, even if the G-men think of us as gun-happy Cocaine Cowboys and we think of them as suits.

So in my first year fresh from the Academy I’m sitting at a round table with other chicas from the Money Laundering Unit checking my watch way too often. Andy Pratt from Accounting sits next to me, trying to pick me up as usual. He’s a little overweight and his deodorant gave up hours ago. There are damp circles under his arms.

“Hey, Selena, have you tried this dip? It’s spicy, like you.” Andy bites into a tortilla chip and grins, chipotle mashed between his caps.

I sip from my glass of ice water and think about splashing him in the face with it. “Sorry, I haven’t,” I say. I’m feeling warmer than before so I shrug out of my black Ann Taylor jacket and hang it on the chair.

“Heckuva holiday party, huh?” Pratt says, chewing, looking around the hotel ballroom. “Musta

cost a pretty penny to rent this joint.”

I tug absently on my silver hoop ear ring, admiring the crystal chandeliers and the garland decor twinkling with lights. Across the table, beyond the poinsettia centerpiece, two male Special Agents flirt with female clerks from the Financial Investigation Unit. The men haven’t shaved in order to keep their street look and they’re in ill-fitting suits they haven’t worn for ages.

“They prob’ly used the cash those guys took in the Aurora bust last week,” Pratt says. “How much was it?”

“Half mil, I heard,” I say with a pout, turning to the kitchen doors where Latina servers in sharp black-and-white uniforms emerge with salad bowls clicking on platters. Some of them probably commuted from those Aurora neighborhoods. Huge Mexican presence there, bigger than the Pilsen neighborhood where I grew up.

I guess I was still peeved they never asked me along on the Aurora op. I speak perfect Mexican Spanish and the Charger carries street cred among the hot rodders and low riders. I scored as high as any man on the exams, ran the firearms range in two-and-a-half minutes with 85 percent of my fifty rounds in the target’s kill zone, and scared the bejesus out of my male classmates on the high-speed chase track.

But they parked me at a desk from Day One to answer phones and file the Money Trail Initiative Reports submitted by the Special Ops Division. They said it was to make the best use of my business degree from Loyola that my father insisted I earn. But I’d heard the snickers: Chicks are too soft to pull the trigger.

You know the real reason you’re here at all, don’t you? Agnes Bloomberg, the office gossip, confided to me behind her knuckles. Di-ver-si-ty, honey. They needed to report more female and Hispanic recruitment. They got to check off two boxes with you.

“Mami, I think I might quit,” I told my mother that night in tears. “I didn’t join up to sit at a desk all day.”

“What did I tell you, mija,” my mother said, shaking a dish towel at me. “That is no place for a woman. Here, scrape these for me so I can wash them.”

I slid a spatula across the plates with the leftover cherry pie and flan. “I trained hard to be in the street. Where the action is.”

“That is no way to find a husband,” my mother scolded. “Y el que diran?”

“Who cares what they’ll say?”

“They’ll say que pasa? A good-looking mujer like you, out of college and still no husband?”

“I have a career to build.”

“I tell them it’s because you are too skinny. A man wants a woman who is llenita, with a fine caderas.”

“My butt is big enough as it is, Mami.”

“Maybe it is good you are at a desk, inside, out of the sun. You’re dark enough. Outside, your nose will cast a shadow like a sundial. Then what man will have you? That is good enough, pequeña hija. Give me the plates.”

A server drops a plate of chopped iceburg lettuce and tomatoes in front of me.

“Salads?” Pratt spits. “That’s girly food. Where’s the meat?”

“Excuse me,” I say, bunching my napkin and throwing it on the table.

“Hey, aren’tcha hungry?”

I don’t answer. I grasp my clutch purse and weave around tables toward the cash bar. On the way, a seated silver-haired woman in ruffles grabs my arm.

“Pardon me, miss,” she says, wiggling a mug, “but when you get the time, could you bring me more coffee?”

I pull away without a word.

“Maybe she doesn’t speak English…” a voice behind me trails.

I stand in a short line at the bar, arms crossed, tapping my Sergio Rossis. I can feel my face squeezing. Could you bring me more coffee? I mouth. The nerve.

“What was that, miss?” asks the Latino barkeep.

“A screwdriver, por favor, y va fácil en el hielo porque duele los dientes.”

“Ho-kay, not much ice,” he says. The pinched lips and the glint in his eye say you’re not really one of us. He reaches down for a glass and mutters pocha.

“What was that?” I fire back.

“Six dollar, please.”

“Míreme, look at me in the eye. That’s not what you said.” It was an insult, as bad as agringada, so Americanized no longer truly Mexicana, a sell-out.

“Six dollar,” he repeats.

“This one’s on me,” comes a man’s voice from behind me. A ten-spot flaps at my ear ring.

I brush it away. “I’m in no mood, mister—“

“Boss, to you.”

The blood rushes to my face. It’s the Special Ops Unit supervisor, Colin Bragg.

“Mr. Bragg,” I blurt out, startled. “What a surprise.”

“Call me Colin,” he says. “We’re not at the Academy anymore. Listen up: I need a date.”

I stick out my lower lip. “A date? You’re asking me out? Are you kidding?”

“Not like that,” he says. “C’mere.” He stuffs the greenback in the barkeep’s jar, takes my elbow and guides me out of the man’s ear shot. “My team has been working up a food chain and the last guy we flipped to become a CI (reader: that means confidential informer) introduced me to his distributor who’s having a house party tonight. We hear it’s gonna be big. Might be a cartel connection. He told me to show up with a date.”

“Since when do dopers ask their guests to come with a squeeze?”

“This is upscale, Selena. The party is in a penthouse. I rented this monkey-suit for that party, not this one.”

I give his tux the once-over. The crisp bow tie looks like a double exclamation point under his Adam’s apple. Then it hits me. “You mean this is for right now?”

“What do you say?” Bragg says. “I’ve cleared it from above. You won’t even have to change. Only one thing I ask.”

My heart is hammering. I finally get to see some action. “Sure. What’s that?”

“Let me do all the talking, all right? Act dumb.”

“You mean, like I can’t speak?”

“Not a peep.”

“You said there was a cartel connection. Won’t you need my Spanish?”

He draws his finger across his lips like a zipper. “Silencioso.”

It's almost funny. He means callado. I make a face. “You want me to smack bubble gum, too?”

“C’mon, Selena. The less you know and the less talking you do, the more likely we won’t blow the cover. I’ll brief you on the way over. For starters, your new name is Selena Peña. I’m Colin Bernard. My middle name. Then I don’t forget it. Anyway, just be sure to call me by that name if you have to call me at all.”

“Got it. Is the rest of your team our surveillance back up?”

“It’s just us.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I don’t kid about stuff like this. You know in a case like this any back up team is just an ambulance with the engine running. We’ll be long gone if something goes wrong. Still up for it?”

I step back to the barkeep, seize the screwdriver glass from the countertop, and drain it. Plunk the glass down hard. The ice rattles. “I’m ready.”

To find out what happened at this party, you’ll have to read VIPER. Johnny’s got about 100 pages to go.

OK, OK, I’ll just say I called Bragg by his real name and almost got us killed. Ay, such an ingénua then.

As usual, I’ve talked too much, pèrdon.

Guest Blogger: Selena De La Cruz, again

2010-03-14T15:14:00.004-05:00

Johnny asked me for another memory, maybe about the car. So there was this time, OK, when I was in Bloomington for a conference and noticed a shudder in the steering wheel. Ay, que ahora, I say to myself. It was a back tire, from smokin’ them the night before trying to burn carbon from my valves.

So I find this place, “Tires For Less - and More,” and go in. A chime sounds and a blue-blazered salesman at the register squares his shoulders, straightens his polyester tie, and swaggers around the counter. I smell trouble.

“Helloooo, little lady,” he croons.

I nearly spin on my high heels. Should have waited and gone to Performance Plus as usual back home, I think. But maybe I could get a good deal here. I stay.

The man stops short and shades his eyes with his hand. “Oh, wait, I see better now,” he says, angling his head. I’m guessing the sharp light from the display windows behind me put me in silhouette. “Es-pahn-yohl, huh? Uno moh-men-toh, ok? We got a guy in the bays who-”

“I speak English just fine,” I tell him.

He shrugs in mock contrition. “All right, great. So what can I do for you?”

“I need two tires, for a-”

“Minivan?” he says.

“Car.”

“We can do that,” he says with a smile two octaves wide. “Right this way.”

He saunters behind the counter, leaving a cloud of Brut in his wake. I wave it away from my face. The man touches the screen of his computer. “I have some questions for you first, OK? Do you have an account with us?”

“No. I’m from out of town.”

“We can set one up now.” His fingers work the keyboard.

“Hold on,” I say. “Let me see what you’ve got, first.”

The tap-tapping halts. “Fair enough. Next question: How fast do you drive?”

I grin. “Pretty fast.”

“I’ll bet you do,” he replies with a wink. “Come over this way.”

He takes me over the wall where various tires are displayed. He raps his hairy knuckles on the first one and launches into a honeyed spiel: “Now this, little lady, is a passenger touring series tire rated at ninety miles an hour with innovative roundness and a molecular engineered carbon black-and-silica formula for safe handling in wet conditions like we get here in Illinois.” He pulls a shiny penny from his shirt pocket and sticks it in the threads. “And do you see these circumferential grooves? They channel water away for added safety.”

I’ve had enough. “I need performance radials optimized for rolling resistance and high speed handling.”

His eyebrows arch. “Heavy foot, huh?”

“Like 120 miles per hour.”

He points at my lime Mui Mui heels. “In those?”

“Barefoot, actually.” I lean forward to check his name tag. “Vinny, is it? Look, Vinny, I need two 75 series 225-75-15’s to fit American Racing Torq Thrust rims, type M.”

His mouth drops open. “Geezuz, lady, you drive a dragster or something?”

I plant my hand on my hip. I like talking about my car. “69 Dodge Charger R/T with a 528 Hemi, a 3000 r.p.m. Hughes Torque Converter, a Gear Vendors Overdrive Unit and a Dana 60 Rear End.”

He squints, and then laughs. Laughs harder. Slaps his knee. Wipes his eyes. “Hoo-boy! This is a joke, right? Did Joey hire you to do this? Who the devil are you?”

“My name is Selena, gringo tonto,” I inform him, foot tapping. “Do you have the tires or not?”

I drove 60 miles an hour all the way home to avoid the shuddering. When I got home, my face still hot, I told my brother Lorenzo about the store. He pinched his eyes, dropped the videogame control and doubled over with laughter. “So did you get the tires or what?” he asked.

“Are you kidding?” I said with a flick of my hand. “From that mono estúpido?”

“Ay, why did you say that, mi’ja?” my mother called from the kitchen. “Do you want to give Mexican women a reputation?”

“Yes, for being strong.”

“Mexican men do not like their women strong.”

“He wasn’t Mexican, Mami.”

My Mami stood in the doorway, strangling a dish towel. “Listen to me, Selena: you must be like the Virgin of Guadalupe – quiet. Eyes lowered in respeto. How else will you ever find a husband?”

“What’s worse,” Lorenzo chuckled, “is that this guy Vinny is gonna talk all day about a foxy Mexican chica named Selena Gringo Tonto.”

Guest Blogger: Selena De La Cruz

2010-03-13T13:41:00.005-06:00

Johnny asked me to say a little about my background or offer a memory or two. No problemo, I said, contento ayudar, amigo. I was reminiscing just last week when I visited my favorite tia and godmother Maria in Chicago. I drive up there to see her every week, you know.

So I wheel my '69 Charger onto 18th Street in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood near her place, and the throaty rumble of the big engine turns heads. Good street cred. I hear Norteño bands playing plaintive corridos on button accordions along with the thump-thump of quebradita, a blend of North Mexican banda and Aztec punk rockers singing in Spanglish. Ay, lemme tell you, I felt my Spanish blood beating.

Every time I pass Saint Adalbert’s Elementary in the shadow of the church’s skyline-dominating steeple I remember how in the sixth grade Sister Mary Beatrice (aka Sister Mary BattleAxe) caught me speaking Spanish in the back row asking Gloria Garcia for an eraser. Sister pulled me by the ear into the corner.

“You’re in America now,” the Polish nun reprimanded me, her milky finger in my mocha face. “We speak English here. If you want to be an American, speak American. If you want to speak Spanish, then go back to Mexico.”

I asked if there was a difference between speaking English and speaking American. Even then, Dios me ayuda, such a mouth.

Sister Beatrice kept me after school on KP (kitchen patrol) for "talking back."

“Ay, you don’t talk back,” my mother chided me when I got home. Mami’s high Zapotec cheekbones colored and the jet-black bun on top of her head, I could have sworn, was spinning.

“Muchachitas bien criadas, girls brought up well, don’t mouth off,” Mami said, wringing the dishtowel. “Do you want to be called ser habladora? A big mouth that talks too much? Is that what you want?”

“Mami, all I did was ask a question.”

“En boca cerrada no entran moscas,” my mother said, tapping her lips with a finger. Flies cannot enter a closed mouth. She had a dicho for everything.

I didn't tell her what the kids did in recess the next day. Joey Kowalski asked me if I knew the Frito Bandito and got the others to dance around a hat singing “La Cucaracha” while snapping their fingers like castanets over their heads. How could they know the famous Pancho Villa song was about Mexican heroes who bravely fought back against white oppressors? So when Joey asked me in my face if I knew Speedy Gonzalez too and trilled “Reba, reba! Andale!” I bloodied his nose with a single punch. He was too astonished and ashamed to tell Sister Mary BattleAxe what really happened and said he had taken a direct hit in the face during dodge ball in recess.

I told my twin brother Antonio about it that night.

“The boxing lessons I gave you, they helped, que no?” he said, laughing. “Did you put your shoulder into it, the way I showed you, like this?”

“Stop it,” I whispered, deflecting the playful punch. “Mami says I already act too much like you boys. Promise you won’t tell her. Or Lorenzo or Francisco. Promise me.”

“OK, Oscar de la Hoya.”

“It’s not funny. And don’t tell Papi, either.”

“Oh, he might be glad,” Antonio chuckled. “He wanted all boys anyway to start his own futbol team. Then you came along and put a stop to that idea.”

I socked him in the shoulder; he swung the pillow into my face, I threw mine at him, and soon the room was full of goose feathers and giggles.

Madre de Dios, how I miss him. I'd better stop here.

OK, Johnny, get back to writing my story or I'll give you a swift kick en la nalgas with my Guiseppi Zanottis!

New BLEEDER Web Site

2010-03-12T16:54:00.004-06:00

Sophia Institute Press just launched a web site for BLEEDER, at http://bleeder.veraprise.com/

It is still under construction and will be moved at some point but have a look and let me know what you think.

guest blogger at AuthorsDay

2010-02-19T16:41:00.001-06:00

http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com/2010/02/authorsday-john-desjarlais.html is where I'm guest blogging this month on how BLEEDER began as an historical novel and became a contemporary mystery.

The REAL Selena De La Cruz

2010-02-05T07:58:00.003-06:00

This is the funniest thing: I received a Facebook message this week from the REAL Selena De La Cruz, who introduced herself and asked some questions about my novel-in-progress, VIPER, a story that features "her" as the protagonist.

Turns out she'd seen the video trailers for VIPER at YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY1wljwPe5w and here http://www.youtube.com/user/johndesjarlais1#p/a/u/0/RTxDU98rhJg

There is always the possibility that a character's name will turn out to match a real person's name, though it is always a coincidence. It is just a little startling to have a 'character' contact you. This 30-something married-woman-with-kids is a good sport about this, asking when the book will be out "so I can read about myself," and mentioning that she drives a sporty Mustang (the character Selena drives a vintage Dodge Charger). The photo she posts in her Facebook profile even matches, to some degree, the image I have of Selena - that's her photo here. Isn't this really J-Lo? Maybe she used a 'celebrity-look-alike' app in Facebook for this. Could be wrong.

She told me that most people spell her name wrong (she spells it Salina) but it's ok with her if I spell it Selena. I replied that the name is reminiscient of the pop singer Selena and related to the Greek goddess of the moon, Selene (the theme of the moon is important in VIPER).

Anyway, it's been fun to correspond with my 'character' this week and it's made the fictional Selena even more real to me.

Borders book signing Feb 13

2010-02-01T13:44:00.001-06:00

I'll be speaking and signing copies of BLEEDER and RELICS at Borders of DeKalb, IL, on Saturday, February 13, 5-7 pm. Musicians, Valentine give-aways - c'mon by.

Catholic Writers Guild Conference Online Feb 26-Mar 5

2010-01-26T20:46:00.001-06:00

CONTACT:
Karina Fabian or Ann Margaret Lewis
E-mail: karina@fabianspace.com e-mail: annlewis@joesystems.com

For Immediate Release

Registration for Free Catholic Writers Conference Online Ends Feb 15

World Wide Web—Are you a Catholic writer? Looking for an opportunity to learn more about writing and marketing, a chance to meet like-minded authors, and get an opportunity to pitch your work? Want it all for free—and without leaving your home? The Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, which will be held February 26-March 5, 2010, is for you. Hurry, though—registration ends Feb 15.

The conference is held via chats and forums at http://www.catholicwritersconference.com. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild, the online conference is free of charge and open to writers of all levels who register before February 15, 2010.

"Each year, we have about 300 writers and around 50 presenters participate," said organizer Karina Fabian. “This year, we’re thrilled to have added small-group critique sessions with well-established authors and editors, plus more pitch sessions than ever before!”

Publishers hearing pitches include well known Catholic publishers like Pauline Books and Media, large Christian publishers like Thomas Nelson, and small secular presses like White Rose. Thus far, eleven pitch sessions are scheduled, running the gamut from Christian romance to Catholic theology.

In a new program, dozens of attendees will have the opportunity to have pieces of their work critiqued by successful editors and writers. In addition, there will be forum-based workshops and chat room presentations covering topics from dialogue to freelancing to how Catholic fiction differs from Christian fiction.

"Even in good economic times, it's hard for writers to attend live conferences," said Fabian, "but this year, we think it's even more important to help careers by utilizing an online format. We're so grateful that our presenters are willing to share their time and talent."

Although the conference is offered free of charge, donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences. For a $10 donation, one receives a copy of the conference e-book containing chat transcripts, forum workshop posts, handouts or informational materials from the conference. Non-Catholics may attend, as long as they respect Catholic beliefs and the conference's Catholic focus.

To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com.

# # #

I'll be one of the presenters.

Mystery Scene review of BLEEDER

2010-01-22T14:09:00.003-06:00

Religion is neither foolish nor hypocritical in John Desjarlais’s excellent Bleeder (Sophia Institute Press, $14.95). When classics professor Reed Stubblefield is disabled in a campus shooting soon after the death of his wife from leukemia, he retreats to a rural cabin to emotionally regroup. He soon hears that Father Boudreau, a local priest, is revered as a “healer,” a man whose touch can cure the sick and the dying. A skeptic himself—Stubblefield’s “god” is Aristotle, about whom he is writing a book—he is still curious enough to meet with Boudreau.

A friendship develops between skeptic and believer, but soon the priest dies in the middle of the Good Friday service. Shortly thereafter, Stubblefield is accused of the murder, and the only way he can keep himself out of jail is to track down his new friend’s killer. Bleeder’s genius lies in its brilliant Aristotelian arguments both for and against faith. Smart, frequently witty, and beautifully researched (the author’s paraphrasing of Aristotle’s logic is an intellectual delight), it is refreshing to read a book where faith is neither demanded, nor held up to ridicule.

-- Mystery Scene Magazine

(image: Selena de la Cruz's vintage Dodge Charger comes to Reed Stubblefield's aid)

Dappled Things review of BLEEDER

2010-01-04T13:55:00.004-06:00

Book Review: Bleeder
By Eleanor Bourg Donlon
Assistant Editor, Dappled Things
Bleeder
By John Desjarlais
Sophia Institute Press, 2009
272 pp., $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-933184-56-2
“A miracle? Or bloody murder?”
The provocative phrase jumped out at us from the book cover starkly displayed on the Catholic Writers Guild table. My cousin drew in her breath, and I muttered (rather inadequately, but with great expression): “Golly.”
We first encountered John Desjarlais’ Bleeder this summer at the annual Catholic Marketing Network trade show. The gripping tagline left me both intrigued and skeptical. I rarely read willingly, much less enjoy, any book written after 1950. I am particularly prejudiced against contemporary murder mysteries, which I have found almost always to showcase too much gore and too much sex in sub-par writing.
It was an incredible surprise and a delight therefore to find myself attentive through the first chapter (mostly owing to Desjarlais’ excellent prose and effective use of dialogue), entertained by the second, and engrossed from the third onward.
There are many problems facing the writer of murder mysteries. The story has to be well constructed (both in terms of plot and of prose); the characters have to be believable and reasonably sympathetic; and the “clues” have to attain an appropriate degree of subtlety (without being too obscure) or have to be clever enough that the reader will forgive the more superficial elements of literarily designed cryptography.
To begin with the first category: the plot of Bleeder is inventive and excellently crafted. Reed Stubblefield, a classics professor who is recovering from the death of his wife and a disability acquired in a school shooting, convalesces in his brother’s cabin in River Falls, a country Illinois town. His hopes to write a book on Aristotle are dashed when he becomes embroiled in the drama that already overwhelms the small, rural community. The Reverend Ray Boudreau, a young priest newly sent to the parish, is rumored to be a stigmatic and a miraculous healer, and River Falls is full of sufferers eager for a miracle and skeptics hoping for exposure. Stubblefield is drawn into an unwilling friendship with Boudreau, primarily based on their shared interest in Aristotle (for Boudreau, in the light of Aquinas), but also inspired by the charming, pleasant personality of the priest himself. When Boudreau bleeds to death on Good Friday in front of a packed church, Reed becomes the primary suspect. Was it a miracle? Or bloody murder? Reed has to find some answers before he is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit—or killed by fanatical members of Boudreau’s following.
Desjarlais does a remarkable job of the development of characters as well. A story by a Catholic author and about Catholic characters could all too easily become sycophantic or, in an effort to avoid triteness or accusations of proselytism, crudely offensive. Desjarlais avoided the first pitfall by choosing Reed Stubblefield for his narrator; he avoided the second by allowing Reed’s initial prejudices to be tested subtlely and effectively through deeply human and believable interaction. In this sense, the representation of Catholic priests was particularly well done. A lesser novel would either have been blind to the humanity of priests or would have harped too censoriously upon it.
Finally, with regard to the clues of Bleeder, it will be immediately apparent to the reader that this is not the sort of tale that characterizes the Golden Age of the British mystery novel—no ruthless businessman is found slain in a closed room with a dagger of oriental design thrust into his heart; there are no complicated genealogical charts by which one may trace the line of inheritance and thereby determine the most likely perpetrators of an epic embezzlement; and no elaborate system of clues is left by a murderer to make sure that the detectives are intellectually stimulated throughout the investigation.
Rather, this is a book where the “mystery” which absorbs the interest of the police is less important than the overarching questions prompted by a consideration of impenetrably deep supernatural mysteries. On a purely structural level, the death of Boudreau is the primary spur for the plot; but the true catalyst of the novel’s action is to be found, not in the bloody death of the priest, but in the death of Christ Himself. The question posed by the novel is not merely: Will Reed be cleared of the charge of murder? Even more importantly the novel asks: Will the soul of this Aristotelian scholar experience conversion?
With so much Aristotle floating around, and so much supernatural consequence, it would be all too easy for the author to lapse into preachy self-righteousness. But at every moment when I began to fear either that philosophical pertinence would become too ostentatious or that the spiritual significance would become cloying, Desjarlais deftly avoided all dangers and pressed on to a satisfying and absorbing conclusion.
My final impression of the novel is a case in point. I predicted the concluding sentence to myself in a general sort of way during one of the early chapters; but when it came, it was as if it had taken me entirely by surprise, and (very much to my astonishment) it brought tears to my eyes. The aftermath of my reading of Bleeder is likewise telling: I was forced temporarily to delay completing my review because my copy of the book mysteriously disappeared. My brother returned it a short time later, with the brief observation: “Hey, that was a really good book.”
My subsequent hypothesis is that a book that inspires theft must be effective in its treatment of murder.
Whether this conclusion is logical or not is a question for Aristotelians.

Thriller writer Tom Grace on BLEEDER

2009-12-16T11:53:00.000-06:00

"Bleeder is an intelligent, deftly written mystery that offers a skillful blend of reason and faith. John Desjarlais skillfully combines a wounded scholar, a stigmatic priest, and Aristotle himself in a fascinating tale of a death that's either a miracle or a murder."

Tom Grace, author of "The Secret Cardinal"

The Curt Jester review of BLEEDER

2009-12-13T07:56:00.003-06:00

What do you get when you combine a story about an alleged stigmatic priest, a town seeking healings from this priest, a skeptic who is not a cynic, and then the death of this priest on Good Friday? You get Bleeder: A Mystery , a well crafted and engaging story.

I was pretty well hooked from the first pages on and the novel never disappointed. The story is written as a mystery as to whether the priest was murdered and the various motives of people none too happy to have him there in their midst. It certainly kept me guessing. Plus the novel is more than a mystery novel in that it also uses mystery in the Catholic sense. There is a sense of the mystery of God throughout. And the author does not try to dot every i when it comes to answering these mysteries, but gives them the proper place. The theology presented in this novel is pitch perfect, though it is not a preachy novel that hits you over the head with Catholicism. Rather, it’s an excellent mystery novel with some theological elements. Highly recommended.

The Curt Jester (blogger Jeff Miller)

Our Lady of Guadalupe

2009-12-12T13:21:00.002-06:00

...plays a part in my forthcoming mystery, VIPER. Her feast day is today.

I had truly hoped to be done (or nearly done) with a draft of the book by today, but schoolwork, a terrible chest cold, household injuries and 2 very sick dogs (one had a stroke, the other was diagnosed with cancer) have really slowed me down. New deadline: May 1, the first day of "Mary's Month." That will give me the summer to work closely with my editor in revision and have a fast turnaround time.

Family and Faith review of BLEEDER

2009-12-12T13:19:00.001-06:00

From the Family and Faith review of BLEEDER: "I was absolutely floored! Go out and buy this book!" I guess she liked it.

Midwest Book Review

2009-12-11T09:41:00.002-06:00

"BLEEDER is a truly entertaining mystery, highly recommended."

Midwest Book Review

Catholic Writers Guild conference online 2/26-3/5

2009-12-10T15:23:00.003-06:00

This year's Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, which will be held February 26-March 5, 2010, will focus on the practical things the writer needs to succeed.

The conference is held via chats and forums at http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild, the online conference is free of charge and open to writers of all levels who register between October 1, 2009 and February 15, 2010.

"We've always concentrated on workshops and chats that teach the writer skills or provide information in the areas of crafting, publishing and marketing their works, but this year, we're adding critique workshops and some incredible opportunities to pitch to leading publishers," said organizer Karina Fabian.

This year, publishers hearing pitches include well known Catholic publishers like Pauline, large Christian publishers like Thomas Nelson, and smaller presses like White Rose. Thus far, eleven pitch sessions are scheduled, running the gamut from Christian romance to Catholic theology.

In a new program, at least fifty attendees will have the opportunity to have pieces of their work critiqued by successful editors and writers. In addition, there will be forum-based workshops and chat room presentations covering topics from dialogue to freelancing to how Catholic fiction differs from Christian fiction.

"Even in good economic times, it's hard for writers to attend live conferences," said Fabian, "but this year, we think it's even more important to help careers by utilizing an online format. We're so grateful that our presenters are willing to share their time and talent."

Early registration is recommended. Although the conference is offered free of charge, donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences. Non-Catholics may attend, as long as they respect Catholic beliefs and the conference's Catholic focus.

To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/.

CWG Seal of Approval

2009-11-29T14:05:00.003-06:00

BLEEDER was awarded the Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval last week. The Seal assures Catholic bookstores that there is nothing in the book that might embarrass the bookseller or the faithful reader - gratuitous sex, gore, Catholic-bashing and the like. It isn't the same as an imprimatur and isn't meant to be. Nor is it meant to suggest that the book is 'safe' (even though I'd rate it a PG). I prefer to think that the seal says that the book speaks the truth in all ways - theologically and emotionally - without being superficial, suger-coated or sentimental, without sacrificing literary quality. So is there violence? Heck, it's a MURDER mystery. Is there sex? Enough to make the people real. Is there theological controversy? Of course - Catholics are relentlessly logical and analyze everything (as my protagonist, a lapsed Presbyterian, discovers). So, thank you, CWG, for your 'faith' in me and in BLEEDER.

CatholicTV interview

2009-11-25T11:21:00.001-06:00

Catholic Mystery Fiction Involving a ‘Murdered’ Priest? Author To Be Interviewed on CatholicTV Talk

11/24/2009 - 11:34 AM PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Catholic PRWire

WATERTOWN, MA (November 24, 2009) - Catholic Mystery Fiction Involving a ‘Murdered’ Priest? Author To Be Interviewed on CatholicTV Talk Show

On November 27th, author John Desjarlais, author of the mystery novel “Bleeder” will be interviewed on the CatholicTV talk show “This is the Day”. The novel involves the apparent murder or miraculous death of a priest who bleeds to death in front of his congregation on Good Friday.

CatholicTV is a nationally-broadcasted television network headquartered near Boston. CatholicTV streams its broadcast simultaneously, 24 hours a day at www.CatholicTV.com

Desjarlais will discuss his novel during his interview on “This is the Day”. “Murder mysteries in general get close to our deepest motives and fears, showing humans in extremis. Such stories have a built-in opportunity to explore life's higher mysteries – not just the mystery of death, but the mystery of undeserved suffering.” says Desjarlais.

A former producer with Wisconsin Public Radio, Desjarlais teaches journalism and English at Kishwaukee College in Malta, Ill. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines. A member of Mystery Writers of America, he is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Desjarlais is also a member of the Catholic Writers Guild.

John Desjarlais’ interview can be seen on Friday, November 27th live at 10:30AM (EST) on CatholicTV where available (rebroadcast at 8PM). The show will also be streamed simultaneously at www.CatholicTV.com and will be available on the site’s archives starting Friday night. All videos at the website are viewable in full-screen. Paste this URL into your browser in order to access the “This is the Day” video archives. http://www.CatholicTV.org/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=72

Readers may visit http://www.johndesjarlais.com/ for reviews, photos, links related to the novel, and interaction with the author.

guest blogger at Getting Medieval

2009-11-13T13:08:00.002-06:00

I'm a guest blogger this week at http://www.getting-medieval.com/ discussing my medieval thriller, RELICS.

Dappled Things and new reviews

2009-11-11T20:46:00.002-06:00

Dappled Things, a Catholic literary journal, will publish my short story "Assisted Living" in the Advent/Christmas 2009 issue, along with a review of BLEEDER.

Another review appeared today at the web site for the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, here:
http://janicecampbell.naiwe.com/2009/11/11/bleeder-a-miracle-or-bloody-murder-by-john-desjarlais-a-review/

Happy All Saints Day

2009-11-01T22:23:00.001-06:00

All I want to say is that this holiday (and the Latino counterpart, The Day of the Dead) is an important part of VIPER, the sequel to BLEEDER, which was ranked 74,000 at amazon today - whatever that means.