Best Review Ever for JACK WAKES UP!

The DIY Author Returneth (Again)

Pat Holt, who is now my favorite reviewer, bar none, has just written up the third post in her series about DIY authorship and my own road in particular. This post also includes mentions of JA Konrath, JC Hutchins and newbie Erin O'Briant.

Pat's main point here is that things are changing, but she also talks about how it still comes back to the writing, its quality. That's where this piece gets special for me. Here's what Pat has to say about JACK WAKES UP:

“Jack Wakes Up,” which begins a series of books (Seth’s already written three), is both a refreshing crime novel and a witty look at 21st century existential angst through its title character, a charming wiseacre/former actor/reluctant sleuth named Jack Palms.

True, everything about this original paperback looks like a flashy postmodern Chandler spinoff that fans of paperback detective fiction might pick up for a good airplane read, something fun and quick.

But that’s just the page-turner part.     (READ MORE...)

Had it been published in hardcover like, say, a Chuck Palahniuk novel, the package would have said take this seriously; the author is a worth it. But that’s not what Three Rivers/Random House is saying here.

While I’m a big proponent of publishing first novels in original paperback, it’s sad to see a gem like this thrown out to the public without support or even (dare I even wish this) a little creativity. Maybe there’s no budget or even a person assigned to getting the word out, but I wish at least someone at Random House had spotted the map Seth laid out in creating an audience of 80,000 (see #2 in this series). And this is a primed audience that most certainly wants to be recontacted, wants to create new viral energy and wants to help launch Seth’s second book with inspiration and tweets galore.

And look how much they’d have to work with:  While “Jack Wakes Up” touches wonderfully on the full spectrum of  the hardboiled school, ranging from Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane to James Cain and Robert Parker, it’s also a meditation, a spoof, a homage and a pretty good action story all at once.

The Back Story
But it’s the hero’s vulnerability and a heckuva back story that win us readers over.

Early on we learn that a few years ago, Jack Palms got his big break as an actor by starring in  “Shake ‘Em Down,” a giant Hollywood success of the punch-’em-up variety that has turned cute guys into franchise millionaires like Eddie Murphy in “Beverly Hills Cop,”  Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky” or  Bruce Willis in “Die Hard.”

But before he could make the sequel, “Shake It Up,” Jack developed a drug problem, a bad marriage and a tendency to cold-cock the wrong people (like his ex, it’s rumored), at which point he found himself in rehab when he should have been making sequels #2, #3, and #4.

So at the start of “Jack Wakes Up,” our almost-hero is back, broke and single. He’s a lot wiser, conscientiously sober, and ready for a comeback if only the studio’s insurance company will cover him.  Waiting for the phone to ring at his classic hillside Sausalito apartment with its terrific view and overdue rent,  Jack is offered a job that throws him headlong into San Francisco’s underworld and face-to-face with one colossal babe named Maxine, and this novel is off and running.

Part of the fun for any movie-watching reader is that Jack is still recognizable as a tough-guy movie star whom every hotel clerk, bartender, parking attendant, bouncer or waiter claps on the back,  ushers to the best seat in the house, buys a drink or provides the info tip he needs. Jack knows it’s all phony: If the sequel is never made, he’ll sink into oblivion, and his famous face will turn into has-been land (”Say, weren’t you…”).

But the twist is that he doesn’t march around like that smug idiot on “Burn Notice”  trying to recreate the GQ image. His new sobriety and divorce have given him a peace of mind that raises real doubts about going back to the false Hollywood love-you-man bullshit again.

So unlike most crime novel heroes, Jack opens the crack in his emotional armor just a tiny bit more with each adventure, and this makes him far more human and intriguing to watch than any of the usual annoying smart-mouthed imitations parading around in “Oceans 11″ remakes.

It’s the Writing
As always,  it is the writing and in this case the observational acuity that makes a novel like this follow us around.

We do hear Chandler in the background when a beautiful bartender “gives Jack a look, all eyes and big red lips, that would stop a train.”

We do feel that sinister noirism as Jack sees his name on a possible death list and “gets a soft chill up his spine.” But we’re more engaged watching the author play with existential  references when, for example, Jack starts agreeing with a bad guy who’s lying to him and, and, glancing at “the flat surface of his coffee,” Jack notices that his reflection has disappeared.

Mini-finesse like that makes  “Jack Wakes Up” more than a hoot, as is “Young Junius,”  Seth’s work-in-progress about a streetwise kid from the projects. But the real treat in Seth’s writing  can be found in short stories (”A Long Way from Disney,” vols 1 and 2) that he seems to be hiding under the covers like a little kid.

She goes on to talk about my short stories A Long Way from Disney, but I'll save more on that for a later post. You can read Pat's entire post on publishing, my work and others, here.