Blogs

YOUNG MONDAY -- Coming Soon!!!

Submitted by Seth on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 23:18

This is it, folks, we get ready now to rock and roll again, to crank up the band and fire up the wagons! Put your earmuffs on your kids!

Click here to download and listen to episode.

Listen up and get ready for October 18th: YOUNG MONDAY!!

  1. It's the day we rush Amazon like crazy people to see how high we can get Young Junius up the charts.
  2. It's exactly three weeks from today.
  3. It's gonna be awesome, baby!
  4. We'll be having a live call-in podcast interview show via PodioRacket at 9PM EST/6PM PST!

Be there! Join in all the fun. Coming soon: new Twitter and Facebook Avatars to help spread the word!

Word.

Know what else? In ONE WEEK, I'm bringing you Episode 1 of TRIAD DEATH MATCH!

CrimeWAV Episode 62: Gary Phillips reads from The Underbelly

Submitted by Seth on Fri, 09/24/2010 - 13:40

Click here to listen to episode 62 of the CrimeWAV: Gary Phillips reads from THE UNDERBELLY

Thanks much to Gary for coming back on the show! Some of you might recall his excellent story "Swift Boats for Jesus" from all the way back in Episode 5.

Now Gary re-joins us to deliver the opening of his new novella The Underbelly, out now from PM Press. Gary has published over 7 novels including, bangers, Freedom's Flight, Perdition USA and most recently, The Jook, also from PM Press.

PM Press is a dynamite publisher who's recently come onto the crime fiction scene displaying superb cover art and an impeccable choice in authors and books. Visit them now at PMPress.org.

Gary's website is GDPhillips.com You can also contact him here for your questions and feedback.

Young Junius hits Bouchercon on 10/14 and will be in stores on 10/18 when we'll be rushing the amazon charts! If you're in Northern California, Boston or NYC, I'd love to see you out at one of my reading events! Full info is here: http://sethharwood.com/tour

Just because it's awesome

Submitted by Seth on Mon, 09/20/2010 - 04:02

I had to share this. This movie gets two BIG thumbs up from me. If you want to see a pitch-perfect review, watch these two guys (Burr and Morris from Boston.com) break it down.

Using Scribd.com to Publicize Your Book

Submitted by Seth on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 13:10

Today I want to talk about a great new way to publicize your work online, one that's working very well for authors Kemble Scott, Hyla Molander, and today's guest Ransom Stephens: uploading your ebook to Scribd.com. Here, lots of readers can discover your work, "read-share" it via Facebook and generally help you get the word out.

Ransom Stephens uploaded his book The God Patent to Scribd in May 2009 and since then he's seen the book rack up over 19,000 reads and 80+ great reviews. This was enough for the book to get picked up and published by Numina Press (Vox Novus) last December. Billed as "The Scribd eBook Sensation," you can read The God Patent for FREE here.  

Looking ahead to publicizing YOUNG JUNIUS next month around its release from Tyrus Books, I caught up with Ransom to ask a few questions about how I can use Scribd to help: [more after the break]

What's old is what's new

Submitted by Seth on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 17:12

Anyone recall that old commercial for Jamaica that went something like, "Come back to Jamaica, what's old is what's new... we want you to join us, we made it for you."

Well, they shoulda said they rolled one up for you, but nevertheless...

Anyway, today's news is that the old(er) cover for YOUNG JUNIUS by Jerry Scullion, you'll recall that this was originally supposed to be only for the special edition, is now the official formal cover for all formats of the book. 

Don't worry, the special edition will still be special. But this had to happen because of a few technical glitches and the upside is that we now have a great cover that I think will really stand out in stores, on shelves and in people's happy reading hands!

Thought you should know. If you like, please download the image to left of the cover and post it somewhere in your social media space. Book hits stores on 10/18 and... you guessed it, that'll be the day we're bumrushing every bookstore, online Amazon site and yard sale to buy copies! With me? Hope you'll also tell your friends.

In other good news, I'm busy at work on Triad Death Match again. Shit is really happening with it these days. I plan to have a version of it and podcast episodes for you by end of Sept. How about THAT?

Foggy City My Home

Submitted by Seth on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 15:09

Photo: Mark CogginsPhoto: Mark CogginsThanks to Janet Rudolph for posting this reminder essay on her blog Mystery Fanfare last week.

Direct link to "Fog on the Horizon."

It was a couple of years back, in summer 2008, when I wrote this essay about my newly adopted city of San Francisco and how living here enabled me to start writing the Jack Palms Crime series. These days I'd probably envoke Joyce's concept of exile to talk more about how I've been able to see the Cambridge of my youth more clearly this past year in writing YOUNG JUNIUS.

I've also started developing a lot more to say about SF as I live here in the city since moving across the bridge this summer.

In any case, enjoy the following essay. You can jump to the rest after the break.

"Fog on the Horizon"

James Joyce said a writer has to have three things: silence, exile and cunning. I don’t know about how my silence or cunning stack up, but when I landed in the Bay Area three years ago from my native Boston, it didn’t take long to realize I’d found my share of exile. From one coast to the other is far! Factor in the reality that by 8PM here most of my family and friends are asleep, and I’ve been good to go.

Publishers Weekly Review for YOUNG JUNIUS

Submitted by Seth on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 15:42

It is IN!! Pub Weekly, the powerhouse reviewing company has weighed in on Young Junius. This is what they had to say:

Young Junius
Seth Harwood, Tyrus (Consortium, dist.), $24.95 (408p) ISBN 978-1-935562-28-3; $14.95 paper ISBN 978-1-935562-27-6

Set in 1987, Harwood’s searing if overlong look at doomed youth chronicles a few pivotal days in the life of 14-year-old Junius Posey, a captive of poverty, ignorance, and misguided social programming in the Rindge Towers, a drug-ridden Cambridge, Mass., housing project. Beginning with his older brother Temple’s funeral, Junius’s extended quest to wreak vengeance on Temple’s killer and make himself a power in his ’hood results in a vicious black comedy of murderous errors. Harwood (Jack Wakes Up) pulls no punches, revealing not only the white death of crack cocaine but the ineffectuality of black liberals who believe their Harvard Law books can cure the malignancy inherent in “forgotten civic ideas” like the Towers and the desire of the Towers’ inhabitants to destroy anyone trying to escape. In the end, Junius’s fate is as old as Aeschylus, the endless cycle of killing “just a snake eating itself.” (Oct.) 

---I have to mention here that I've also heard the writers of The Wire refer to their work as an Aeschylus story/tragedy. So I take that very well. Very well indeed. Black comedy? Yeah. I guess it is.

So there.

 

On the road again!

Submitted by Seth on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 20:44

Hey folks, I'm on the road again this week, doing some traveling, but the good news is I'm lining up reading dates for YOUNG JUNIUS!! 

So far we have NYC: Nov. 3rd -- Wednesday at 6:30 at the Mysterious Bookshop! Awesome! Hope to see you there!

New CrimeWAV hits the Net!

Submitted by Seth on Thu, 08/05/2010 - 21:50

with Cousins Maggie and Shira at the Sawks!with Cousins Maggie and Shira at the Sawks!Hey! Have you checked out the new episode over at CrimeWAV? Jason Duke presents part THREE of Phoenix Nightlife. Hope you've been checking it out.

I'm in Boston, kicking back, working pages, and planning a few readings and events for the YOUNG JUNIUS release this fall. Wicked awesome!

You pumped? Hope so.

July 31st -- Last Day to Order YJ Special Edition!

Submitted by Seth on Sat, 07/31/2010 - 11:06

TODAY -- July 31st is your last chance to pre-order a copy of the YOUNG JUNIUS SPECIAL EDITION. 

No, after today you cannot get one. You'll have to cry and covet your friends' copies. Sorry.

You want one, you have to act now. Because after this we roll up the magic carpet of literary fancy-edition goodness and that's that.

Thanks to all who've already bought copies. This promotion, pre-sale and special edition publishing endeavor have all been huge successes! Tyrus and I are stoked about what we've accomplished here. We're damn close to having sold 200 copies of the book! 

That's awesome for a special edition like this, in pre-order and takes us a long way toward what the overall cost of printing all copies of the book will cost us. You guys rock! Thanks again.

Next up is publicity and marketing and we'll be paying for that from Special Edition proceeds too. Readings coming up: October in San Francisco and early-November on the East Coast!

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