Charlie's Books

Charlie's Books
Buon Giorno, Amici!

Our motto ...

Leave the (political) party. Take the cannoli.

"It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

Right now 6 Stella crime novels are available on Kindle for just $.99 ... Eddie's World has been reprinted and is also available from Stark House Press (Gat Books).

Saturday, June 23, 2012

SNHU MFA Summery Residency ... Graduate: Jason Korolenko ... the line spacing felon ...

Amici:




Although my sentence on Shutter Isle was cut short due to a Momma Stella emergency, it was more than terrific being around the writing community that is SNHU’s MFA program.  New additions to the community (17 new kids on the block--all of them writers with a purpose) plus the new additions to our great staff are all wonderful) makes us rock.


Potty Mouth Mae earned a few more nicknames ... she’s now Mae, La Tourista, No way, Potty Mouth, She’s Got Game, Caldwell ...

The black market was deemed null and void after the Pelicans working the island learned where the caffeine was hidden (the coffee was close enough for jazz to fine) ...

I learned my 3rd semester mentor, Richard Carey,has game (he whipped my fat ass shooting hoops) ...

As will be the agenda here after every program residency,Temporary Knucksline will dedicate several new posts to the talents of those who’ve graduated and are on their way.





Our lead-off hitter is the one and only Jason Korolenko.  Aside from being a very gifted and published author, Jason is also a martial arts expert and master of the comeback (see Darren Leo). 




Jason's book, The Day I Left, is Shutter Island meets Stephen King, but set in the south of France. It is the story of Jarrod Nelson, a twenty-something American studying abroad, who falls in love with his professor's sister. But their love is complicated, made only more so when the professor dies while under Jarrod's care. Bestselling author (and Jason's final mentor in the MFA program) Craig Childs had this to say: "The Day I Left is a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a descent into madness...there were times when I had to put it down because I felt like I had fallen prey to what he was creating. I felt like I was starting to lose touch."

Jason is currently working on a new novel, The Devil In Stained Glass, revising a pre-MFA novel tentatively titled Night Terrors, and writing the biography of Brazilian/American heavy metal legends Sepultura.










While on Shutter this year I also learned there is a price to pay for felony line-spacing ... I was given a Southern New Hampshire University MFA DOC (Department of Corrections) jumper to wear on the ferry to Shutter ...





Line Spacing Felons of the world unite ... we have nothing to lose but our chains!


— Knucks


Early this morning on the isle of shutter off the coast of New Hampshire, after braving 100 degree temperatures (without air conditioning, showers and/or sprinklers), the crowd was thinking the following:

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Gone Fishing ...

Amici:



The ugly one is heading north with No Way Potty Mouth She’s Got Game Mae. We’re back to school at Southern New Hampshire University for a few days on campus before the Volga boat to Shutter Island.



We’ll be back the weekend of the 24th (assuming we survive the to and from voyages) ... in the meantime, LaFraud James catches a beating from the Durant-led Thunder ... Henry Hill finally finds justice and makes his bones as a deadfella ... and my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills remain undefeated in 2012 ... Don’t forget to check this singer out ... on June 16 at Arlene’s Grocery on the Isle of Manhattan. He’s got the goods.



Kevin Harrison in New York on Saturday, June 16 (7:00 PM)
Arlene's Grocery
95 Stanton St.
New York, NY, 10002

Go check this singer out ... we’ve touted him before. We’re still touting him.



Stay tuned ... and play nice ...


—Knucks

Saturday, June 9, 2012

MRB on Rough Riders ... Back to School … Quick hitters ... Kevin Harrison …

Amici:


Men Reading Books have some very kind words for Rough Riders ...



Wednesday it’s back to college (a.k.a. the joint). No Way (Potty Mouth) Mae and I will be heading north for a few days on campus before the ferry to Shutter Island, an environmental nightmare(too many miles off the New Hampshire coast to have showers every day, bathrooms in their rooms or caffeine in their coffee. We’ll be paroled on June 23, home in time for after dinner sfogliatelle. TK will be mute during our stay ... in the meantime here’s a few quick hitters and a concert some a’yous in the NY Metropolitan area should attend ...



Quick hitters ...




Scratch one more triple crown ... the heavy odds-on favorite, I’ll Have Another was scratched from the Belmont due to tendinitis. Good for the owners for not making the horse suffer ...

 

Tweet this, Mr. President ... for all the support unions give the Democratic Party and President Obama, not only did he ignore his 2007 campaign promise to put on some comfortable shoes and walk a picket line should collective bargaining ever be threatened, he disappeared two years ago when it actually happened and again last week when a recall election might have turned the union buster Scott Walker out on his ear ... Obama had this to tweet: It’s Election Day in Wisconsin tomorrow, and I’m standing by Tom Barrett. He’d make an outstanding governor. -bo — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 4, 2012 ... not even a mention about the unions.

Thanks for nothing, Mr. President. With friends like you ...



Heat-Celtics ... Listening to sports radio during my drives to and from work can get somewhat frustrating. Ever since the Celtics managed to take one from the Heat in Miami in game 5, the consensus was: If the Heat are going to depend on just two players (Wade and James), they’re going home early. Technically they were right, except it took one player (James), not two, to destroy the Celtics in Game 6. The same consensus has the Thunder rolling over the Heat ... as much as we want anybody but the Heat to win it all, the consensus is good enough reason to hedge those In Knucks We Trust Bucks, amici.





7:00 PM
Arlene's Grocery
95 Stanton St.
New York, NY, 10002

Go check this singer out ... we’ve touted him before.  We’re still touting him.



Okay, kids ... play nice ...

—Knucks

Friday, June 1, 2012

Great Book News ... Reviews: Girlchild … Who Mourns for Maggie … and here’s Charlie & Charlotte …


 Amici:



Dana King signs with Stark House ... this is a beautiful thing.  Dana King has signed with Stark House Press.  Check out the link above but ignore the very gracious words he says about me ... if anything, both of us owe GIGANTIC debts of gratitude to Ed Gorman.  Dana’s work speaks for itself ... recommending my publisher read him was a no brainer.  Stark House Press taking him proves he’s got the talent plus some.  He’s my favorite mob writer around, that’s for sure.  So here’s one for the little guys!  Dana King’s Grind Joint will be published in 2014 by Stark House Press.  How cool is that?










Girlchild, by Tupelo Hassman … a coming of age story of life in a trailer park for a very bright young girl haunted by her genetic misfortune (as she defines it).  Not for the faint of heart.  The young protagonist Rory Dawn Hendrix has four brothers she rarely gets to see (Hendrix, Hendrix, Hendrix and Hendrix—the 4H club).  Her mom started having them VERY young (Rory came during her sixteenth year) and life hasn’t been a bowl of cherries by any means.  Grandma (who maintains faith in Rory) has a gambling problem.  Rory’s Mom (Johanna) wants nothing more than to break the spell the women of her family seem to suffer.  She calls Rory Girlchild and although she’s protective and as well meaning as any other mom, she has her own issues (drinking/men) that too often get in the way.  Life in the Calle de Las Flores trailer park is tough enough without the extra burdens of pedophiles like the Hardware Man (the father of a friend of Rory’s).  The Girlchild’s exceptional intellect (she’s a reader like her mom and a spelling bee maven) makes her uncomfortable enough to hold back when she can almost break free.  As comfortable as she seems in this dark world of have-nots, things will get darker.  Sometimes even a girl scout handbook doesn’t hold the answers.  No spoilers here … a good read that encompasses breaking all the rules of the traditional novel (i.e., pages of redacted text where Rory seems to tell us about the Hardware Man, etc.) …



Ms. Hassman is an MFA graduate from Columbia University and she’s obviously off and running … Kirkus Reviews says: With a compelling (if harrowing) story and a wise-child narrator, Hassman’s debut gives voice—and soul—to a world so often reduced to cliché.







Blackie Noir has an e-story out and it is more than worth the small investment.  Who Mourns for Maggie is a raw, powerful and poignant tale of those left behind; a homeless woman in the desperate throes of her addiction(s) spots a potential score as one of her brethren teeters in a train yard.  Aside from the drink he’s holding, what he may have in his pockets could mean another night or two (or a dozen) of what has become salvation.  He’s lying across the tracks when a train can be heard and then seen around the bend … what does Maggie do?  She’ll tell us in her own words … the follow-up story is one of justice born of wartime camaraderie.  Sometimes survival requires peering into the deepest dark.  This one is a winner start to finish.  Check it out.




Charlie & Charlotte … my hell of a writer brother from another mother over in Oklahoma (Daniel Mitchell) raises goats the way I gain weight.  These two I got to name when they were just littlins … are they adorable or what?



—the birthday boyeeeeeeeee