I am grateful to writer Caitlin Cole

I am grateful to writer Caitlin Cole for her article last Thursday in Pulse in the Moscow - Pullman Daily News about my recently released novel THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION and the reading and signing at Book People of Moscow yesterday, at which all copies on hand sold out.

Click this link for the Caitlin Cole article on Brian Leekley, author of the crime novel THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION

on Kindle

My recently released crime novel THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION is now available on Amazon Kindle for $6.99.

I'll be reading

I'll be reading from and signing my family drama - gay/lesbian - Catholic - bibliomystery - Illinois - 1970s - womens movement -- father & son - psychological suspense murder mystery noir crime novel at Book People of Moscow from 10AM to noon on Saturday 25, 2010.

Whiskey Creek Press has set the release date

Whiskey Creek Press has set the release date for both the paperback and the ebook of my novel THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION for September 1. I have a box of copies of the paperback coming in the mail.

The Story in Brief

Gene's father Stan is a detective and is Gene's hero. Father and son are away at Boy Scout camp when Vi, Stan's wife, Gene's mother, is shot dead. She seemingly was an innocent by-stander. Father and son share grief and the determination to find the killer. But the case remains unsolved and finally is shelved. 17 years later Gene is also a detective, father and son are on the same elite squad, and Stan is still Gene's hero. Then Gene learns that before her murder his "saintly" mother had a love affair—with another woman—and that his father found out.

Questions and Answers

Q: Has The Son Who Paid Attention been published yet? When will people be able to buy it?
A: Whiskey Creek Press lists it on whiskeycreekpress.com as a September 2010 Coming Soon book. I think people will be able to place advance orders soon.

Q: In what formats will the novel be published?
A: My contract says that Whiskey Creek Press will publish The Son Who Paid Attention as an e-book and has the option to also publish it as a trade paperback book. Very likely it will be published in both formats.

Q: Is The Son Who Paid Attention based on a true story?
A: No. I made it up. It's based on my imagination.

Q: What is The Son Who Paid Attention about?
A: The murder of Vi Kostka and the solving of that murder case.

Q: Who tells the story?
A: The character who narrates the story is Gene Kostka, son of Stan and Vi Kostka.

Q: You describe the city of Azure as being on Lake Michigan 40 miles north of downtown Chicago and 10 miles south of the Wisconsin / Illinois border. On a map the city at that location is Waukegan, Illinois. Does the city of Azure, Illinois in your novel equal the city of Waukegan, Illinois in real life, and why did you choose to not use the city's real name?
A: I wrote the first drafts of the novel while living in the village of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, in Lake County, a few miles north of Waukegan. I found it handy to use the geography of Lake County as the "stage" on which my characters act. The story actually takes place in Fictionland on the world of Imagination. I used fictional names to give myself the freedom to change reality to suit my plot and my whims. For instance, the city park that I put in Azure along the shore of Lake Michigan does not exist thus in Waukegan. My model for it was the real life lakeshore park in nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin. The model I used for the murder scene church building in Azure is in real life in a different town than Waukegan. There is no Slavtown neighborhood in Chicago; it's loosely modeled on several actual neighborhoods. And there are many other examples of my playing with reality as a child plays with toys in my writing of the novel.

Q: What inspired you to write this story?
A: Up until I began The Son Who Paid Attention, my fiction writing had been autobiographical. I wanted for a change to write something not at all autobiographical. I daydreamed of a film noir of the senior cop buddy goes bad variety. From there it was a matter of making a sequence of decisions regarding characters, relationships, motives, point of view, and so on. Being more familiar with that form, I decided to write the story as a novel. The choice of the motive for murder led to the choice of the theme -- the beginning of the end of patriarchy with the coming of the women's movement of the 1970s.

Q: Is this a conservative or a liberal story?
A: It's a story about law and order and about family values; about intolerance and self-righteousness versus forgiveness and empathy; about duty, control, and autonomy; about social decay and social progress; about tradition and changing times. In other words, yes.

Cover design

Today I approved the cover image and design for THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION suggested by Gemini Judson.

final approval

Today I gave final approval to the ready for the printer galley pdf file of my novel The Son Who Paid Attention. No more rewrites. No more touch-ups and tweaks. May it fare well.

Hurray!

Hurray! The Whiskey Creek Press COMING SOON web page now includes THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION by Brian Leekley as a September release.

proofread pdf gally

This past week I proofread a pdf galley of my The Son Who Paid Attention novel, due for release in September. This morning I emailed my editor at Whiskey Creek Press a list of little changes to the text for clarity, and by late afternoon she had emailed back that she had made the changes. I guess it won't be long till review copies are sent out.

proofreading the galley

Yesterday my Whiskey Creek Press editor emailed me the pdf galley of THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION, and this morning I've started proofreading it and creating an errata list to send back to her. I expect and hope that there are very few typos and errors of spelling, grammar, and word usage. After the many times I've revised the work and after the many times that colleagues have critiqued it, there shouldn't be many if any.

THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION is listed on the whiskeycreek.com Whiskey Creek Press website as a September 2010 Coming Soon book, but they omitted the author's (my) name. I emailed the publisher about that. I hope they correct that error of omission pronto.

Got me an editor for The Son Who Paid Attention

Hooray! Yesterday I got an email from college English teacher, poet, essayist, novelist, and senior editor at Whiskey Creek Press Marsha Briscoe saying that she'll edit my forthcoming novel THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION. She requested and I sent a copy of the form giving title, acknowledgments, my bio, and the back cover blurb. Next step, learn if she wants a rewrite or minor tweaks or gives my novel the go ahead.

Progress in the publishing process -- form received

Hurray! Progress! I received this email from Whiskey Creek Press publisher Debra Womack:

Hi Brian,
Yes, I did receive and review the completed form. It looks great! It will
be approximately three to four months prior to publication when you will
hear from an editor or artist. Now is the slow, tedious process of waiting.
Take care,
Debi

Still Waiting

After over 60 days the publisher has still not contacted me. The submissions editor has been trying to find out why, with no luck yet.

Awaiting word from WCP publisher

When I electronically signed a contract with Whiskey Creek Press last month, an email from the submissions editor thanked me for it and said the publisher would be in touch with me within 30 days. When 30 days had come and gone, I emailed to ask about the status of The Son Who Paid Attention, A Novel in the publishing process, and the submissions editor replied that the publisher would send me the standard welcome letter with instructions soon. I'm still waiting to receive that. Stay tuned. I worked for a tiny publishing house back in the 1970s as a copy editor (plus informally a babysitter, office manager, errands runner, and more), and I can imagine the long hours and variety of problems that the publishers and staff at Whiskey Creek Press confront daily. For instance, the submissions editor mentioned that one computer crashed last month, putting the WCP schedule behind. Lots of work, talent, and determination goes into getting a book from manuscript to publication.

Signed contract and awaiting word

Sunday I did electronically sign the Whiskey Creek Press contract to publish THE SON WHO PAID ATTENTION, A NOVEL, and I am awaiting word of what is needed from me in the manuscript to published work process.

Crossing Another Threshold As A Writer

I feel good about crossing another threshold as a writer, that of having a book length work accepted by a paying publisher. I'm optimistically hopeful all will go well in the manuscript to published work process. Then time will tell if the public likes the work as much as my family, friends, and colleagues.

I May About To Be Officially A Novelist

Today Whiskey Creek Press in Casper, Wyoming emailed me an author contract for my short crime novel, working title The Son Who Paid Attention. Upon first reading the contract looks agreeable. I'll give it a second reading tomorrow. If it looks as good then as today and all goes well, I'll soon be working with a Whiskey Creek editor to get the manuscript ready for publication, as an ebook and possibly as a trade paperback book.