Guest Post: Reed Farrel Coleman Takes Us to Church

I met Reed Farrel Coleman the same night I met Ken Bruen and Jason Starr, during Edgars Week 2004. That night, I nervously dropped (and shattered) a pint glass full of beer right in front of Reed. For some reason, he continued to speak to me. We've served on con panels together, hoisted more beers together, even shed a tear together. Reed and me... we've been through quite a bit. So of course I'm proud to present a guest post from Reed, even though he still hasn't let me forget about that shattered beer. -D.S.


One Month/Two Books
By Reed Farrel Coleman

On November 8th, Gun Church, my second stand-alone novel will be released as an exclusive audio download by Audible.com. Later in the month, my 7th Moe Prager Mystery, Hurt Machine, will be released by Tyrus Books. Talk about two different journeys! Other than the fact that both novels bear two words titles, the writing experience and the novels themselves could not be more divergent. I guess that’s why I love writing so much. Every project has its own distinct qualities and presents its own unique challenges.

Hurt Machine is the 7th novel in a series, but anyone who has followed Moe Prager’s trials and tribulations knows that each novel in the series is its own animal. Moe ages throughout the series and because he does, he is forced to face the changing realities that aging represents. Moe’s in his 60s at the beginning of the novel. Just two weeks before his daughter’s wedding, he receives some pretty serious news about his health. His ex-wife Carmella, who had left him years earlier and moved up to Canada, returns to ask a favor of Moe, a favor she has no right to ask. It seems that Carmella’s estranged sister has been murdered and no one in New York City seems very interested in finding her killer. Why? Well, as they say in marketing departments around the world, you’ll have to read the book. Unique as Hurt Machine is, it only took me about five months to write. The advantage of a series is that the author knows his setting, knows the characters, knows how his characters think and feel. There’s very little guessing for me when I write Moe.

On the other hand, it took me nearly six years to write and publish Gun Church. Strangely enough, the entire plot for Gun Church popped into my head the moment I got the idea for the novel. I can even remember the exact moment I had the idea. I was watching a weapons demonstration by the author Jim Born. During the Q & A, an audience member asked Jim something about the spread of pellets in a shotgun shell. Jim said something to the effect that only a true gun expert would know the answer to that. Bang! (no pun intended) The idea came fully formed into my head. A debauched former 80s literary wunderkind has fallen on hard times and is now teaching creative writing at a rural community college. A student tries to take over his class at gunpoint, but the washed up writer saves the day. He gets a second fifteen minutes of fame, but also gets deeply involved with a cult-like group of locals who worship handguns. I swear, that came to me in a flash. Unfortunately, the book itself took much longer to write.

The challenges were legion because not only does Gun Church feature a book within a book, first and third person narration, and sections in Irish dialect, but also includes a plot that revolves around art imitating life imitating art. It was like writing the anti-Moe book. I was forced to develop a whole new range of skills to tackle the problems I faced and to deal with all the moving parts. What I needed most was a patient editor who believed in the project enough to nurse me along. When the manuscript—in a very different form—finally found its way to Steve Feldberg at Audible.com, I found that editor. He found the book I had lost sight of.

Called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan, Reed Farrel Coleman has published fourteen novels. He is the three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best Detective Novel of the Year and has been twice nominated for the Edgar. He has also won the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. Reed is an adjunct professor of English at Hofstra University and lives on Long Island with his family Visit Reed at www.reedcoleman.com or on Twitter: @ReedFColeman.