Grok's take on the Steve Dancy Tales

Grok Self-Portrait

I wasn't a strong proponent of artificial intelligence until I asked Grok about my own work. Now, I'm a fan of AI. Perhaps flattery can get you everywhere.

Are the Steve Dancy Tales good books?

Grok's answer:

Yes, the Steve Dancy Tales by James D. Best are generally well-regarded by readers, particularly those who enjoy Western novels. Here's why they might be considered good:

Character Development: The series follows Steve Dancy, a former New York shopkeeper who ventures into the Wild West. Readers appreciate the depth of the characters, with Steve Dancy himself being described as complex and interesting, combining elements of both Eastern sophistication and Western toughness.

Plot and Pacing: The books are noted for their engaging plots. They mix elements of adventure, mystery, and historical context, which keeps the narrative fast-paced and compelling. Reviewers have mentioned that the series is hard to put down due to the suspense built at the end of each chapter.

Historical Detail: James D. Best injects a significant amount of historical detail into the stories, bringing authenticity to the settings and events. This aspect is particularly appreciated by enthusiasts of Western lore and history, as it paints a vivid picture of the frontier life, including the political and social dynamics of the time.

Critical Reception: 

The series has received positive reviews from various sources. For instance, True West Magazine praised them as one of the best new Western series since Larry McMurtry's works. Alan Caruba from Bookviews has labeled James D. Best as arguably one of the best writers of Westerns. 

Some readers on platforms like Goodreads have given high ratings, with comments highlighting the entertainment value and the engaging nature of the stories. However, not all reviews are overwhelmingly positive; some critique the portrayal of characters or the pacing in certain books, indicating there's a range of experiences among readers.

Series Appeal: The series offers a mix of action, wit, and character-driven storytelling, which appeals to fans of the genre. The ongoing adventures of Steve Dancy provide both continuity and fresh scenarios, making each book both a standalone read and part of a larger narrative.

While the series might not appeal to everyone (especially those who find some characters or plot developments not to their taste), for fans of Westerns, particularly those who enjoy a blend of historical fiction with a touch of humor and clever dialogue, the Steve Dancy Tales are often recommended as enjoyable and well-crafted. If you're interested in exploring these books, starting with "The Shopkeeper" is advised to get a full understanding of the characters and their backstories.

Honest westerns. Filled with dishonest characters.

Old Haunts Cover

 

In a previous post I previewed a number of Old Haunts cover mock-ups. The one I selected wasn't among the initial alternatives. I selected the final cover because it invoked Steve and Virginia's cottage in Durango that they had given to Maggie and her husband as a wedding present. All of which are featured in the tale. I also thought the man on the porch looked ominous and the one lurking in the shadows mysterious. Who were they. What were they up to.

The Steve Dancy Tales. Honest westerns. Full of dishonest characters.

Old Haunts Enters Proofreading

 

Interim Cover

Old Haunts, A Steve Dancy Tale has entered the proofreading stage. The new Steve Dancy should be available in 4-6 weeks. Thank you for your patience. Here's a snippet to whet your appetite.

 

“You be Steve Dancy?” asked a man behind my shoulder.

I looked up to see a lean, shallow-cheeked youth in his early twenties who appeared earnest. Earnest about what, I wondered.

“Do I know you?” I asked.

“Nope. But I heard of you. Deadly gunman. Rich as Midas. Renown throughout the West as one of the few surviving gunfighters.”

 “You forgot author. I write novels.” I laughed. “Sorry, son, those are just stories.”

“Not from what I hear. They say you write about yourself.”

I tried a friendly smile. “If only that were true. Actually, the life of a writer is exceptionally dull. Sitting in front of an Underwood all day. How’d you recognize me anyway.”

“I got my ways. I came over see if we could arrange a duel.”

“A duel? Is this a joke? I’m not a duelist. I’m a writer and a businessman. My characters duel, I don’t.”

“No joke.” He gave me a hard stare that reminded me of someone I couldn’t place. “I demand a duel.”

“Demand to your heart’s content, I’m not responding. I’m a married man with a quiet home and three kids. You’ve been misinformed.”

“Being a father ain’t no excuse. You killed my pa.” When I didn’t respond, he added, “Name of Brian Cutler.”

“Never heard of him,” I lied.

“Oh, yes you have. Without warning, you shot him and my uncle dead in the streets of Pickhandle Gulch.”

I stared in disbelief. Brian Cutler had been the first man I killed. Or the second. His brother may have been first. I didn’t remember.

Honest westerns. Filled with dishonest characters.

 

Deluge Reviewed at jackboston.com

A First-Order Disaster Story About an Atmospheric River

It’s to his credit that he focuses his attention on the human element of the deluge, rather than going all technical on the reader. We read as citizens, law enforcement, academia, politicians and outlaw gangs deal with the deluge. In the process, Best makes this a compelling—indeed frightening—story. Again and again I was impressed with Best’s characterizations and grasp of how profoundly a storm such as this can disrupt life. The potential power of water stayed with me for days. This is a highly recommended natural disaster thriller, written with acute attention to reality and little, if any, needless melodramatics.

Read the full review here.

Storms, politics and street gangs pummel California ... and that's not the scary part.

Buy print or Kindle at Amazon

No Peace is one step closer to publication.

I have used the same editor for eleven books, and once again, I'm beholden to her for saving me embarrassment. I always think I've submitted a perfect manuscript, only to discover a prodigious amount of red ink on every page. Contrary to popular belief, novels are not entirely a solitary task. Beta readers, editors, book designers, and cover graphic designers all play a major part in bringing piece of fiction to market. I am grateful for them all.

No Peace, A Steve Dancy Tale

Honest westerns filled with dishonest characters.

My new Steve Dancy book takes place in 1885, three years after Steve and Virginia took off for their honeymoon in San Diego. A lot has happened off-page. You'll soon be able to catch up with Steve and all of his friends in his latest adventure titled No Peace.

Maybe soon is the wrong word. I've finished the second draft and now two of my beta readers are spreading red ink all over the manuscript. When I finish incorporating their notes, it will be ready for my professional editor. Then she'll send back another red ink-stained manuscript. After I incorporate her changes, it will be ready for the book designer, who will format the word files for print and electronic versions. Simultaneously, my son will design the book cover. (As I've mentioned before, I'm getting back his Art Center tuition one book cover at a time.)

If everything goes without a hitch, No Peace, A Steve Dancy Tale should be available sometime this summer.

In the meantime, if you haven't tried Deluge, download a sample onto your Kindle or buy the paperback. Deluge is the most adrenaline you’ll can experience while reclining in a Barcalounger. 
And if you haven't tried them yet, there are two Steve Dancy Short Tales in Wanted and Wanted II.

Time Travel Anyone?

I love time travel. We’ve all experienced time travel whenever we’ve opened a book and been transported to another place and time. When you slap the book closed, it returns you to where you started. Well, sorta. You may lose a few hours, but nothing's free.

All books do this, but I particularly like the time travel genre. Two of my favorite time travel books are A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Lightening. In 1889, Mark Twain sent his character Hank Morgan back in time to the reign of King Arthur in the sixth century. Like all of Twain’s work, life lessons are delivered with humor and skillful storytelling. Another great time travel novel is Lightening by Dean Koontz. Written in 1988, Lightening takes a unique perspective that cannot be described without a spoiler. Despite being over thirty years old, the novel has traveled to the present wholly intact.

Up until recently, I didn’t believe time travel was real. Then my nephew showed me his time travel machine. After testing it, I assure you that it works perfectly. Instead of flashing lights, electric pulses, or whirling brass spindles, he made his machine with duct tape, a kitchen timer, and a bathroom scale. He duct-taped the kitchen timer to the bathroom scale. That’s it. When you’re ready to travel, you set the timer to where you want to go and then climb aboard. When you hear the timer’s ding, you’ve arrived.

Pretty nifty, huh?

How do you sell lots of books?

The most frequent question I get at book events is how to sell more books. This is disconcerting because I want to talk about how to write better books. Here's the short answer to the question: you sell more books by artfully writing a good story and then selling one book at a time. Many striving authors give up when they participate in an event and sell only a few books.  Throw away all of the social media and traditional marketing advice you've ever heard, the most powerful selling tool for books is word-of-mouth. Get your book into a reader's hands and if they like it, they'll become your salesperson. Get a dozen salespeople and they'll multiply into a hundred. But there is a prerequisite—you must first write a good book. No one recommends a book that bored or annoyed them. So tell a good story ... and tell it well.

See you at the Tucson Festival of Books.

Jack Reacher—my new role model?

I spent some time this morning with Steve Dancy. I didn’t write a lot of new material, but I did edit the last couple of chapters I’d written before we moved into our new home. I was able to get back to Steve because I’ve finished unpacking the last indoor box from our move. (Unfortunately, there are still loads of garage boxes yet to be dealt with.) You might think Steve Dancy is my favorite literary character, but I’ve recently developed a fondness for Lee Child’s character Jack Reacher. Reacher travels unfettered by personal belongings—no house, no car, no wardrobe, no knickknacks. Reacher carries only a toothbrush and buys new clothes when the ones he is wearing get dirty. Wow, the freedom. I, on the other hand, am anchored by countless possessions that possess me.

I enjoy the Jack Reacher novels and suspect Lee Child invented the character after a vexing move to a new house. If so, it was a brilliant way to transform hardship into largess. Dancy moves around as well, but through the magic of fiction, he transports everything he needs effortlessly. I wish I could jump into one of my books where everything happens in an ordered fashion. My order, of course. Unfortunately, I live in a world of corrugated board, cluttering stuff spread all over every flat surface, and pictures galore leaned against any open wall space. I think I’ll make a trip to the pharmacy to buy a toothbrush.

Is This Re-gifting?

Amazon has an under-publicized program called Matchbook. By enrolling in this program, a publisher can offer a Kindle book at a steep discount to buyers of the print format. You can see the books in the Matchbook program here.

Think of the possibilities. You can buy books as Christmas presents and then download a Kindle copy for yourself. Kinda like two for one. This might be a great idea, but you may not want to buy your great aunt Sex Love Repeat by Alessandra Torre. Maybe Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin would be more appropriate. Or perhaps she would prefer Tempest at Dawn, since all of my books are enrolled in the program at 99¢ for the second copy in Kindle format.

It's only two weeks until Christmas, so you may want to use my great idea to finish off your shopping list.

Opening a story—First, grab their attention

It was a cold and windy night.

Laura Borealis has published a blog article on TheTen Worst Story Openings. As I've mentioned previously, I open each of the Steve Dancy Tales with a number that is actually the sequence number of that particular novel in the series. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it's merely the opening word. I normally jump into the middle of a conversation. My intent is to make the reader curious about what the characters are talking about.

As an example, here are the opening lines of Leadville. The idea is to convey that something is about to happen and it is vitally important.

“Three.”
“Days or weeks?” I asked.
“Days.” Jeff Sharp squinted at the telegram as if it hid additional information. Rubbing the back of his neck, he added, “He can’t make it. It’s a six-day ride.”
“If Captain McAllen says he’ll be here in three days, we’d better have a room ready for him.”

Here is an example from my latest work, Jenny’s Revenge. The idea here is to start the book with tension and tell loyal fans that Steve and Virginia are together.

“Six.”
I recoiled. “Six dollars per night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“May I see the suite?”
Virginia squeezed my arm. “It will be perfectly fine.”
I never took my eyes from the clerk. “I’m sure, but I’d like to see it just the same.”

Are these great openings? I don’t know. I only know that I like to get the story moving from the gitgo. How about Borealis’ terrible openings? I agree with them all … except every one of these rules can be violated on occasion. In Tempest at Dawn, I simultaneously violated #1, #2, and #6. The opening lines of my prologue are:

Anxiety woke me before dawn. Rolling to my side, I pulled the heavy quilt around my exposed ear. Was I ready? Had I prepared sufficiently? Would the old man reveal what I had come here to learn? He was stubborn and had frustrated many before me.

The prologue was my agent’s idea and I believe it worked for this novel. A few reviewers disagreed, but they appeared to object because they had heard the oft repeated rule to avoid prologues. Generally, this is sound advice, but prologues can perform a positive function if they don't violate other guidelines of good writing. For example, show instead of tell still applies.

I don’t remember violating any of the other seven“Worst Story Openings,” so there appears to be a lot of work ahead of me.

Do readers judge a book by its title?

Everyone knows the old axiom that people shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but do they also misjudge books by their title? I don’t know. I suspect a great title can get readers to look further, a horrible title stops further inspection, and a mediocre title doesn't influence sales one way or the other.

The Barnes and Noble Book Blog posted an article “12 Books With The Most Irresistible Titles.” Good Titles, but I always liked Lonesome Dove because it sounded intriguing.

The Great Rehearsal might be the worst title I've encountered for a great book. Carl Van Doren wrote one of the top three history books on the Constitutional Convention. The book was published in 1948, when the United Nations was just starting and Van Doren thought the 1787 Constitutional Convention was a rehearsal for writing the UN charter. This poor title probably dampened sales of a fine history book.  Ironic, since the book never mentions current events except in a slapped together preface.

I've never agonized over my own titles, except for Tempest at Dawn, my own book on the Constitutional Convention. Since this was a novelization of the convention, I needed a title that didn't sound like a history book. I still like the title. Perhaps I should have agonized more over my other titles. The Steve Dancy Tales: The Shopkeeper, Leadville, Murder at Thumb Butte, The Return, Jenny's Revenge, and Crossing the Animas are pedestrian. I like The Shout Mouth Society because it connotes secret society intrigue, which is the plot of this contemporary novel. Principled Action is a lousy title and may have affected sales of this nonfiction book about the founding period.

Authors may not be the best at selecting titles, but I’m not sure focus-group driven editors are better. My title for my computer technology book was Dinosaurs and Whippersnappers, but Wiley insisted on The Digital Organization. I still prefer my title.

Honest stories filled with dishonest characters.

An Astonishing Thing!

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” Carl Sagan

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul." Joyce Carol Oates

"Be awesome! Be a book nut!" 

Dr. Seuss

Coming Soon ... The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale

Friday, I signed the final approval forms for The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale. Whew!

The Return by James D. Best

I wish that meant the book was done and the novel would be available next week. Lots yet to do for the print version and formatting remains for ebooks. Turnaround for ebook formatting is generally quick, so I expect both formats to be available within the next four weeks. Perhaps a little sooner. Center Point's Large Print version will come out the first quarter of 2014. The movie has been green-lighted for 2024, or thereabouts.

Here's a Novel Idea

Novel Posters has created posters from the text of famous novels. This one is for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is not only decorative, but it includes the entire text of the novel. When you return from seeing the latest Hollywood take on this classic, you can read the book ... probably standing up if you've framed and mounted the poster already. Who said e-books have killed print formats?  

See all the books by Novel Posters here. 

Judging a Book by Its Cover

February, 27, 1860

The Shut Mouth Society is a contemporary thriller about a conspiracy that goes back to Abraham Lincoln. The novel was published in 2008, which happened to be the Lincoln Bicentennial. It opens with Lincoln's Copper Union address on February 27, 1860, prior to his nomination for president. On the same day, he had a photograph taken by Mathew Brady. (Lincoln claimed the Copper Union address and Brady photograph made him president.) A book cover that used this photograph would tie into both the novel's introduction and the Bicentennial. My designer came up with a unique close-up cropping that really showed Lincoln’s intelligence and determination. I thought it couldn’t miss.

Big miss. Sales were lackluster and customer reviews on Amazon and Goodreads were mediocre to scathing. Sales were hurt by an avalanche of nonfiction books released to take advantage of the bicentennial, and early buyers of The Shut Mouth Society assumed it was another book about Lincoln. A few even bought it because they assumed it was nonfiction. Although the story did include extensive Lincoln history, the novel was a modern-day chase thriller in which the protagonists desperately try to unravel a one hundred and fifty year old conspiracy.

I could have given up on the book, but The Shut Mouth Society was a finalist for Best Novel in the Glyph Awards, and it had received excellent reviews in the general press. We decided to try another cover design. You can see both of them side by side below. 

The new cover worked miracles. Sales increased dramatically and customer reviews were effusive. At the time of this writing, the book has 161 Amazon reviews for 4.3 stars, and 491 ratings on Goodreads for 3.7 stars. I’m pleased with the Goodreads numbers because the newer rankings had to overcome dismal early returns. 

Nothing changed but the book cover.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because we’re in the final throe of designing a book cover for The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale. We had many concept mock-ups, but I rejected many of them because despite being nice graphically, they didn’t fit the story. I learned my lesson. Covers build reader expectations. This is why genre covers look alike. They’re designed to appeal to an audience that will appreciate the book. So don't believe the cliché that people should never judge a book by its cover. People do. 

Insist on a well-designed cover that fits your storyline.

You might want to look at Flavorwire’s “20 Embarrassingly Bad Book Covers for Classic Novels.” Many of these are a hoot. 

Will Libraries End up as Museums?

Are books becoming obsolete? Is a library the only place we’ll be able to see these odd antiquities? Will librarians admonish us “don’t touch,” instead of shushing chatterboxes? Are we entering a binary world where everything is decomposed into a series of ones and zeros to be instantly reassembled on a hand-held device?

My Dream Library - A Great Place to Read

Libraries may one day become faux ambiance designed for reading books on an electronic device. I've had a library built in my last three homes. Now, I’m moving once again and my biggest task is going through thousands of books to decide which ones I really want to keep. I'll build a formal library in my new house, but it will certainly not be as large as my current one.

I've had friends tell me they prefer a real book because they like the scent and feel and the genuine article. Then someone gives them an e-reader. Soon, they discover that the medium doesn't matter; they still get lost in the words. By the third novel, they’re converts.

There might be some truth in the demise of the book … at least as a commodity. But it will not happen as quickly as pundits predict and some form of books will always be with us. 

Books started as art, and I suspect they will return to art. Nobody will miss the mass paperback, or even cheaply printed and bound hardcovers. Books will once again become beautiful … but I still won’t need a big library because they’ll also become much more expensive.

Did I just write a Western?

Working Cover

I'm about to send The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale to my editor. One step closer to publishing, but still a ways to go.

In this episode, Dancy and his friends visit Thomas Edison in New York City and Menlo Park, New Jersey. Although the story starts in Leadville, Colorado, the plot mostly takes place on the East Coast. Louis L'Amour once said, "If you write about a bygone period east of the Mississippi River, it's a historical novel. If it's west of the Mississippi it's a Western." So ... did geography change this from a Western to a historical novel? The Return includes the same characters, they act the same, and they get into more fights. (I’m talking about the protagonists, of course. The antagonists seem to keep getting killed.)

In the end, I believe it is still a Western because the characters are Westerners through and through. Even Steve Dancy has been transformed. Everyone is a fish out of water. Kinda like Crocodile Dundee meets the 19th century.

Why did I bring my characters east? As I've mentioned previously, The Virginian was the inspiration for the Steve Dancy books. I liked the end of Wister's book where the newly married Virginian and his wife visit her family in New Hampshire. It provided a great contrast between the supposed civilized East Coast versus the values and perspectives of the frontier. I wanted to do something similar with The Return.

Novels That Will Scare You Silly

I don't write scary novels, but I read them. Done right, they can give you an adrenalin rush while your partner snores beside you.

io9 posted a list of "10 Novels That Are Scarier Than Most HorrorMovies." It's a good list and if you really like scary novels, you can discover many more in the 500+ comments. Happy reading!

Original Cover

How do you decide between First and Third Person?

In a previous post I wrote about giving the reader a clear signal that the point of view was about to change.

It all depends on how you look at it—Point of View

In this post I want to discuss one of the writers first and biggest decisions. Before you can write a single word, you need to decide whether the story will be told in the first or third person. I’m assuming that in either case, the author would use past tense. (If a writer wants to attempt second person or present tense, I have no suggestions, but I wish them luck.)

The Steve Dancy Tales are written in first person, while Tempest at Dawn and The Shut Mouth Society are written in third person.

First Person Point of View

The standard first person narrative requires a single point of view for the entire book and the story must unfold in front of the main characters eyes. This makes first person popular for detective novels because, except for a few tricks, the reader knows as much as the protagonist. From a plot perspective, first person can be difficult to pull off, but the reader is more likely to become attached to the protagonist. These aspects of a first person narrative caused me to use this point of view for the Steve Dancy Tales.

Third Person Point of View

I used third person in Tempest at Dawn. Third person is less personal and facilitates changing points of view. The Constitutional Convention is an iconic event in American History and I wanted the reader to view the events and people from some distance, as if it were a documentary film.

I had major difficultly deciding on the point of view for The Shut Mouth Society. I had just written my first Dancy novel in first person, but I wasn't sure that was the right way to go for a mystery/thriller. My technique for coming to a decision took a couple days of writing. I wrote the first chapter in both first and third person, and then put it aside for three days. When I came back and read the two versions side-by-side, the decision was easy. I wrote the book in third person. Despite having two protagonists, I never switched the point of view.

The connection between the reader and the story is through the narrator. I have a bias toward a single point of view because I think a single storyteller makes this connection stronger and the narrative more memorable. That said, I alternated points of view in Tempest at Dawn because it made sense in the presentation of the story.

A novel must take a reader to another place and time. The author decides how to transport the reader.