Monthly Archives: April 2017

Snarkey & Putts, Writings

More Snarkey & Putts

There’s another Snarkey & Putts I: The Case of the Undead Arbitrator excerpt below, the fourth. You know the drill by now. I read. You listen. You hit the “like” button. That’s all there is to it.

I try to build each of these Snarkey & Putts stories around some point of law. Undead Arbitrator revolves around a testamentary bequest and the provisions of the federal Arbitration Act.

D.P.W.: A Devilish Political Fantasy Cover
D.P.W.: A Devilish Political Fantasy

The second adventure, The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter – due out shortly; I’m waiting for the cover art to be completed; you can see a draft in the previous post – is based on a topic near and dear to every writer’s heart: copyright protection. The third story, The Case of the Canine’s Curse, currently out to my beta-readers, concerns landlord/tenant law, evictions and eminent domain takings. I did something similar in my novel, D.P.W., where the plot points involve the unexpected interplay between some real federal anti-terrorism statues and some fabricated, but not unlikely, municipal ordinances.

Which leads to my latest problem. I’ve got the plot for my next Snarkey & Putts story but no legal point to… Oh, gosh! Talk about inspiration. The creative process has taken place right before your eyes. I’ve got it. Immigration law! That’s it! And it’s topical! Perfect.

Remember him?
Remember him?

Unfortunately, I’m no immigration lawyer. I’ll have to fake… er, research it. What? You wonder, what’s it about? The story? Of course, a writer should never discuss his ideas before they’re down on paper. For one thing – and this is the trouble with pitches – they never sound as good as they read. But, I’ll give you a clue. It has something to do with the TV character above. If you remember who he is, and you can put him together with one of my characters, you’ll have an inkling what I’m up to.

Why don’t you mull that over while your reading, or re-reading, all my three previous Snarkey & Putts stories. That will give me some time to write the fourth and, with luck, come up with an ingenious title.

Snarkey & Putts

Another Day, Another Video

I’m shocking myself. After doing a blog post yesterday, you’d think I’d take a month or so off, judging by my track record. But, as they say in the stock market, “past performance is not indicative of future results.”

Below, you’ll find another Snarkey & Putts video, which features me reading a third excerpt from their origin story, The Case of the Undead Arbitrator. I made it two or three weeks ago, recording the whole series of 11 videos in one day, which is why I’m wearing the same clothing in each segment. Since then, I’ve made a couple of additional videos for the second S&P story, The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter. I’ll post them here eventually, so you’ll get to see other components of my wardrobe. I’ve got more than one shirt, even though I am an author.

Here’s Excerpt No. 3.

The first series of videos is admittedly a little reserved, i.e., stiff. But I’m learning. You need to get used to the camera and the mic and I nearly threw out my back moving in all those bookcases that form the backdrop.

That’s it for today. Back with more tomorrow, hopefully.

Oh, almost forgot the call to action: buy, read and review The Case of the Undead Arbitrator and do the same for all my books by visiting my Amazon Author Page. Please!

 

 

Snarkey & Putts

Another Snarkey & Putts Video

The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter
The Ghastly Ghostwriter

O.K., so I didn’t get back in a week. I’ve been busy getting the second of my Snarkey & Putts stories ready for publication (self-publication, that is). This time, the boys rate a full-length novel. The title is The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter. I’m not going to tell you any more about it for the nonce, but you might like to see the latest version of the cover. (See left.)  It’s not quite finalized, but it’s very close.

The artist is Angel Nichols, who did the cover of The Case of the Undead Arbitrator. Angel is a breeze to work with, very talented and reasonably priced. If Ghastly Ghostwriter sells, I may be able to afford to have her work on the cover art for the third Snarkey & Putts story.

But to get back to the topic of this post, here is my reading of the second excerpt from The Case of the Undead Arbitrator.

To take a look at all my books, go to my Amazon Author Page.

That’s all for now. Back soon.

 

 

Whatever

I’m Live with Snarkey & Putts

It’s a long time since I added a post. I’ve been busy writing. Although it’s no excuse, I have finished two new Snarkey & Putts full-length novels to accompany their introductory adventure, The Case of the Undead Arbitrator.

For those of you who who aren’t in the know, Jack Snarkey and R. Andrew Putts are a pair of attorneys who stumble into a new legal specialty, the paranormal! It turns out that Putts, who’s always been the much-abused, bumbling, junior member of the team, possesses latent psychic powers that have been waiting to be unleashed when the right case comes along. Come along it does in the first story, when Snarkey makes a crafty legal move in a dispute between three elderly sisters over their father’s estate, leading the unwitting Putts to open a portal to the spirit world. Talk about a change in venue!

Undead Arbitrator is available as a Kindle ebook on Amazon. It’s right on the dividing line between novelette and novella, so I’m calling it a short novella. Publishing terminology has become so precise, i.e, nit-picky.

In a few weeks, I’ll release the second Snarkey & Putts story, a novel-length extravanganza entitled The Case of the Ghastly Ghostwriter which, as you may have surmised, features a real but somewhat unusual ghost, a spectrum concretus, to be precise.  Ghostwriter also delves into the dim netherworld of copyright law. Talk about horror!

To jig up enthusiasm for my paranormal attorneys, I’ve recorded a series of YouTube videos of yours truly reading excerpts from the Undead Arbitrator story. Here’s the first one.

I’ll be posting a new video every couple of days. If you can’t stand the suspense, you can head over to my YouTube channel and watch them all.

So be on the lookout for Snarkey & Putts. Ghastly Ghostwriter will be followed by the third in the series, The Case of the Canine’s Curse, a novel-length sort of werewolf story that deals with summary process and eminent domain proceedings. Real estate always brings out the worst in everybody. Canine’s Curse is currently out to beta readers.

I’m always looking to expand my beta reader corps. If you’re interested, contact me at joe.eliseon@gmail.com.