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September 10, 2024
CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with three bestselling novels. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.
A Wrong Turn Over on Threads That Bind
Some of you may already know I write a periodic post on the Threads That Bind blog. It’s a forum for lovers of the dark in literature, film, and what have you.
The other day my friend Jack Tyler posted a top-drawer short tale about what ifs.
I very much like Jack’s writing. The storytelling is straight forward, the dialogue is realistic, the characters are lifelike, and the description is just right.
In this story, you can see how much we learn about the characters from just the dialogue. The sign of a master craftsman.
“Wrong Turn” is the kind of story that draws you in and gets you thinking about the turns in your own life — both good and bad. A trip down What If Lane.
So treat yourself to a shorty about taking the wrong turn. It’s a bit sad, a touch philosophical, packs a hidden punch, and is very simply a whole lot of very good.
Courtin’ Disaster: A Review
With the publication of Courtin’ Disaster by Cindy Davis, the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles numbers an even 2 dozen novels. As I posted previously, the Chronicles are actually a collection of mini-series. Each author focuses the spotlight on their special protagonists, and brings in the other characters as needed to round out the story. Courtin’ Disaster continues the ongoing adventures of Bliss Jager, who has now settled in Magnolia Bluff. Her top priority, aside from refurbishing and landscaping her new home, is to move her friend, Merrick Doyle, who is a ghost, to her new home, getting him out of the General Store so he can be with “family”. Of course nothing goes according to plan, does it? And when you add murder to the mix and vengeful ex-boyfriends, it all just gets that much more exciting. Well, exciting for the reader, that is. You can read the book’s blurb over on the Amazon page. And while you’re there, pick up a copy. What I especially like about the Bliss Jager mini-series within the world of Magnolia Bluff is the excellent storytelling by Cindy Davis. I think this is her best work. And what makes it so is the cast of characters she’s pulled together who tell us their collective and individual stories. Bliss, Whitney, Hannah, Merrick, Chief Tommy Jager (no relation to Bliss), and let’s not forget Diablo, reveal to us bits of who they were and who they currently are. Which makes them real people. People no different from those I meet in the neighborhood and gradually learn who they are, learn what makes them tick. To let the characters tell their stories is the hallmark of a great writer. As I often say, we’re just the amanuensis recording what these people tell us about themselves. And in the Bliss Jager stories, Cindy Davis is a great writer. Courtin’ Disaster contains humor, a lot of humor; it contains a well-crafted puzzle; entertaining sub-plots; just the right amount of description to make you feel like you are right there in Magnolia Bluff; and food, let’s not forget the food. There’s lots of it. And it is delish.
I thoroughly enjoyed Courtin’ Disaster and I think you will, too. Be sure to get your copy on Amazon. Before the price goes up.
Book Review: Best Served Cold
First there was a high profile up and coming NASCAR driver. Shot and killed at close range. Now the victim is an up and coming high profile pro basketball star. Private detective Tony Razzolito (a.k.a. The Razzman) isn’t concerned about the latest death until his friend, Captain Rita O’Connor of homicide, asks him to help on the case. The only problem for Tony is he has to work with his nemesis Detective John Cahill. Once again, Joe Congel delivers a well wrought whodunit that kept me guessing all the way to the surprise ending. I’ve read all of the Tony Razzolito mysteries. And they just keep getting better and better. A good thing getting better is a very good thing. What I like best about Congel’s stories are his characters. They have personality. They are three dimensional. They pop off the page because they are real people. Characters make fiction sing. We remember memorable characters. Rarely do we remember a plot. As Ray Bradbury advised writers: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story. And Joe Congel lets his characters do their thing. In doing so, a story is created that carries us along from beginning to end. We are right there living the story along with the characters. That’s the work of a master storyteller. And Congel is a master.n While Best Served Cold is laced with loads of humor, the story itself is dark. It is a vengeance tale reminiscent of Jacobean theater. Bloody and unrelenting. It’s a good thing the humor is there – it relieves the darkness of the mystery. Best Served Cold is the fourth book in The Razzman Mystery Crime files. I’m already waiting for number five.
Pick up your copy of Best Served Cold on Amazon.
And if you haven’t read the other Razzman mysteries, you can find them on Amazon, too.
Big Sale and a Book Launch
It’s a triple play today through Thursday.
Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles
And get the rest of the books in the series for only 99¢ each.
Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles: Season 2
And get the rest of the books in the series for only 99¢ each.
MBCC Book Launch
Book 27 of the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles is now live. The Ransom Enigma. Written by the dynamic duo of Breakfield & Burkey.
Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mysteries
I’ve put the Justinia Wright series on sale through Thursday to give you extra crime fiction reading. Now is the time to stock up on the books you’re missing before I start adding more books to the series. Minnesota’s answer to Nero Wolfe is available on
Improving with Age
Any writer worth his salt is going to improve the more he writes and the longer he writes. When I look at my earliest poems and compare them to poems written 20 or more years later, I often cringe. “How on earth did I have the guts to show that to someone?” I ask myself.
Yet I did. Those early poems, as “bad” as I tend to think they are, were the best I could do.
The good thing is I didn’t give up. And 20 intensive years of writing poetry and writing well over 1500 poems enabled me to become a decent poet.
It is the same with my fiction. My earlier fiction, while I think it provides a decent read, isn’t as good as my current fiction.
For me, my novels and short stories have gone from good to much better, and hopefully in the future they will move to the very best I will ever be capable of.
Enter Justinia Wright and the Traditional Mystery
When I was young, I didn’t read mysteries. Except for Sherlock Holmes and the occasional Thinking Machine story. I much preferred science fiction, horror, and sea adventures. It wasn’t until I was around 30 that I truly discovered mysteries and fell in love with them. Thanks to a librarian named Marilyn Gray, who was an avid mystery reader. She is the one who introduced me to Nero Wolfe. And I am forever grateful. For me, it was love at first read. I loved the characters. The stories were intriguing. And the writing style of Rex Stout was superlative. Only Raymond Chandler could give him a run for his money. When I decided to get serious about writing fiction, it was the classic whodunit I set out to write. The result was Festival of Death. Justinia “Tina” Wright and her brother, Harry, were inspired in part by Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Author Richard Schwindt observed: “…why would someone do that most difficult of pastiches, Nero Wolfe, as perfected by Rex Stout? Why not take that format and create it afresh, as CW Hawes has done…” To capture the essence of a fictional world, and recreate it into something fresh is a difficult task. The easy route is the pastiche. I am very pleased that not only Mr. Schwindt, but others have caught on to what I attempted and pronounced it satisfactory. Justinia Wright has become a win for me, the writer, and a win for those readers who like the classic slow burn thriller.
Demons in the Dunes: A Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation
Next week Pierce Mostyn and the OUP gang ride again, in another terrifyingly action-packed tale of cosmic horror. The Rub’ al Khali, or the Empty Quarter, is a fascinating place. I find it almost as intriguing as Antarctica. What makes the Rub’ al Khali so interesting? It is the largest sand desert in the world. It covers some 250,000 square miles of the southern Arabian Peninsula. The desert is larger than France and somewhat smaller than Texas. This vast expanse of sand is home to the lost city of Iram, which is mentioned in the Qur’an, and may have been an important city in the ancient frankincense trade. The Empty Quarter is the setting for Lovecraft’s story “The Nameless City”, and is also the setting for Demons in the Dunes, Pierce Mostyn’s newest adventure. Did Lovecraft’s story play any part in the origin of Demons in the Dunes? It did. HPL’s story gave me the idea to set an adventure in the Empty Quarter, with Iram as the focal point. However, the Nameless City of Lovecraft’s story is clearly not Iram. Consequently, the story line of Demons has no direct influence from Lovecraft. Although it is Lovecraftian to a degree. Little is known about the actual city of Iram. It may have been located on the frankincense caravan route. Legend has it that it was built by giants to challenge God by creating a paradise on earth greater then God’s paradise. God, of course, destroyed the giants and the city. Iram is called Iram of the Pillars, but we don’t know why. One Internet source, attributed mystical connections to the city. According to this view, Iram actually occupies several planes of existence, and, in accordance with the mystical position, an alternate reading of the city’s title is Iram of the Old Ones. No self-respecting Cthulhu Mythos aficionado can walk away from that tidbit of info and not have the cogs whirring in his brain! Out of those seeds, Demons in the Dunes grew. I had great fun writing it. I hope you have great fun reading it.
Read More
Special Agent in Charge Pierce Mostyn, of the Office of Unidentified Phenomena, is in the Arabian Empty Quarter and soon finds it’s not empty at all. Will he and his team escape?
“…mummies, flesh-eating beetles, and fanatics trying to wake the Great Old Ones. Non-stop action and a great read.”
Turning Pages Together
[with] CW Hawes’s Book Newsletters.
Join my main newsletter and get a free copy of Vampire House and other early tales of Justinia Wright, PI. Plus you’ll stay updated with the latest releases, author insights, and receive exclusive offers.
Turning Pages Together
[with] CW Hawes’s Book Newsletters.
Join my Horror newsletter and get a free copy of The Feeder: A Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation. Plus you’ll stay updated with the latest releases, author insights, and receive exclusive offers.