PRO-FILE TOM KAKONIS TREASURE COAST

http://www.mysterythrillerbooks.com/book/treasure-coast/

1. Tell us about your book / books that Brash is publishing. 

Brash Books is planning to reissue as E-books my six crime novels published from 1988-1997 and long since out of print.  Additionally, they are offering an entirely new, previously unpublished novel entitled TREASURE COAST.  This book is set in south Florida and peopled by an ensemble cast of losers caught up in a misguided kidnapping scheme that, sometimes comically, often violently, goes disastrously awry.  It will be available early in September.

2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?

Currently I'm attempting to put together a collection of short stories written over the years though never published, and held together by a common theme of warped and thwarted ambition.  The working title for this venture is A MAN'S AMBITION and OTHER STORIES.  Also, I'm blocking out the elements (characters, venues, narrative line) for another crime novel, a robbery gone wrong story tentatively titled IDIOT'S TALE.

2. Can you give a sense of what you're working on now?

Currently I'm attempting to put together a collection of short stories written over the years though never published, and held together by a common theme of warped and thwarted ambition.  The working title for this venture is A MAN'S AMBITION and OTHER STORIES.  Also, I'm blocking out the elements (characters, venues, narrative line) for another crime novel, a robbery gone wrong story tentatively titled IDIOT'S TALE.

3. What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?

Going to work in your underwear and still getting paid for it.

4. What is the greatest DISpleasure?

All the onerous, though absolutely necessary, work that follows the completion of the last line of one's book: the editing, copy editing, promotion, etc.

5. If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?

For the publishing world as such, it's far too slippery for me to offer any advice.  For someone trying to break into that world I can only pass along the cliched advice of persistence and don't give up the day job too soon.  I was 57 years old when I published my first work of fiction so I believe I bring a certain authority to that topic.

6. Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see
in print again?

I always liked the work of Horace McCoy, a forgotten writer of the thirties and early forties.  I'd really appreciate seeing his books (six of them, I think) in print again.

7. Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget
that moment.

I was fortunate enough to have a friend in the television business at the time I finished MICHIGAN ROLL, my first published novel.  He put me in touch with a large and prestigious agency (to remain anonymous here) and they agreed to look at the manuscript on his recommendation.  After about a month of anxious waiting, I discovered the returned manuscript in my mail box with a note politely declining to represent me while still praising the story and the writing.  Probably boiler plate rejection prose.  However, also included was a list of smaller agencies that they felt might be interested in looking at the manuscript.  I chose the first name on that list, contacted them (using the implied endorsement of the larger agency), and they agreed, albeit grudgingly, to look at a few chapters.  Evidently they liked enough of what they saw to invite me to send along the rest of the book.  At about that same time the annual ABA convention was going on, so one of the agents I'd been dealing with took the manuscript to the convention, showed it to a St. Martin's Press editor, who liked the book and made an offer on the spot.  It didn't matter to me that the money was far from huge.  After a lifetime of trying, despairing, dreaming, quitting in disgust, resuming, I finally had a much-stubbed toe in the door, and the phone call bearing that news was one of the highest points in my life

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www.leegoldberg.com