Erwin's Law: The "hidden" story. Waiting for Godot or just Amazon.com?

A paperback version of my detective novel Erwin's Law was published recently. But the book's story description still hasn't shown up on Amazon.com. About all you are told is that it's "An Erwin Tennyson Mystery," has 262 pages, measures 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches, and weighs 12.3 ounces. Oh, and the list price is $10.99.

So, for those who have asked what it's about, here's the summary:

Erwin Tennyson is an unemployed newspaper writer who made his living reviewing detective novels until he lost his job in the Great Recession. When he stumbles over a woman's body in a park, he reports his find to the budget-challenged Austin, Texas police, and is convinced the woman was murdered. He is appalled when he learns the police have listed her death as a "Jane Doe suicide."

Erwin can't find another paid book reviewer's position, so he decides to become a private investigator to try to earn a living—and track down the woman's killer. But Erwin is no tough guy. He has zero fighting skills, and he hasn't fired a gun in 40 years. Working as a P.I. without a state license is a felony in Texas; only ex-cops, ex-insurance investigators, or university graduates with criminal justice degrees qualify for the permit.

Undaunted, Erwin takes the law into his own hands and risks arrest as he investigates, unaware that he also is setting himself up to be..the killer's next victim.

Erwin's Law: An Erwin Tennyson Mystery

-- Si Dunn

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Sometimes, a good Western screenplay needs...a town-saving cavalry charge?

BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK

by Si Dunn
 (WGA Registration: #1118098)

HIGH NOON meets AIR FORCE ONE -- on a moderate budget. 

  

BATTLE AT BUCK CREEK

An Old West town’s new mayor and its free-spirited school teacher must team up and fight a murderous gang that has seized many hostages and will kill one hostage per hour until the mayor’s father, the state governor, releases the gang leader’s brother from prison.

Synopsis

WILL HANSON, troubled son of  GOV. JEB HANSON, has been sent into the Texas version of political exile by his father. In a sham election, Will has been voted into an office no one else could be bothered to take: mayor of the dusty, isolated community of Buck Creek.

Will has arrived just as Buck Creek’s townspeople are preparing to celebrate their remote settlement’s 10^th anniversary. But not everyone is happy. In Buck Creek’s telegraph office, free-spirited school teacher ANNA BAIN is pestering the telegraph operator, NASH GRAHAM, trying to convince him to let her send a message. She has been studying Morse Code, she tells him. Angrily, Nash throws her out and takes an incoming message of congratulation for the new mayor from his father, the governor, JEB HANSON. But when Nash leaves to deliver the message, Anna slips back into the telegraph office and receives an urgent message from another tiny community. More than a dozen riders who don’t look friendly may be riding toward Buck Creek to cause some kind of trouble. Anna gives the message to Nash when he returns. But, angry at her insolence, he tears it up without reading it and throws her out again.

As Will nervously prepares to make his inaugural speech and the governor’s telegram is read to the crowd, several RIDERS who seem to be trail-weary cowboys ease into town from different directions, in small groups. They are barely noticed as they gather at the local saloon. Actually, they are members of the BO BARRETT GANG.

When Will was a young sheriff in another town, he managed to help put Bo Barrett’s brother into prison. Now Barrett and his men have arrived with a murderous plan. They will seize Buck Creek’s only link to the outside world, the telegraph office, and take many hostages, including Will. Then they will notify the governor that they have his son, and they will kill one Buck Creek citizen per hour until Bo Barrett’s brother is released from prison and sends a message verifying he is free. Buck Creek is so isolated that the nearest army post is a two-day ride, so the townspeople will not be able get help.

Barrett’s scheme soon is set into motion with bloody results, but Will Hanson, Anna Bain and the previous mayor, JOHN RIDEOUT, manage to escape and hide in the town. And there is a growing chemistry between the mayor and school teacher, but no time to act on it.

Bo Barrett hangs his first hostage, the town’s PREACHER, to show he means business, and the town’s UNDERTAKER is his next victim. Outgunned, Will, Anna and John can only watch helplessly from their hiding place, until Anna convinces Will that she can work a telegraph.

They try but fail to regain control of the telegraph office. John Rideout is wounded. Anna remembers that her older brother, ANDY BAIN, a Lieutenant in the 7^th Cavalry, sometimes trains new recruits about 10 miles outside Buck Creek, with strict orders to stay away from the town. He taught her Morse Code. If she can climb a nearby hill with a mirror, she may be able to flash a message to him.

It’s a desperate and dangerous gamble. But Will distracts most of Barrett’s men by challenging Bo to a showdown, and Anna escapes the town. Will, however, is captured and will be the next hanging victim unless the governor responds.

As Anna climbs the hill with a big mirror, she is spotted by two of Barrett’s men. They chase her. She fights them off , knocking out one and killing the other with part of the shattered mirror. Now she has just enough mirror left to start flashing a plea for help.

One of the raw troopers being trained by her brother sees the flashes. Lieutentant Bain reads the message, and he and SERGEANT HARRIS lead their green cavalrymen on a desperate gallop toward Buck Creek. They charge into town with bugle blaring and swords flashing and do battle with Barrett’s men just as Will is being hanged.

Anna runs into the battle and helps save Will. Barrett escapes the melee, but Will soon chases him down. They fight to the death, and Will is the survivor.

After the day’s many dead are buried, a happier time soon dawns. A high-noon wedding is held in Buck Creek. The mayor marries the school teacher, and they march beneath an archway of flashing cavalry sabers as they leave for their honeymoon.

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For more information regarding the availability of this screenplay, contact Si Dunn, Sagecreek Productions, LLC, 3800 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite 730-131, Austin, TX 78756-4011, sidunn@hotmail.com.

Hawking Books on the Digital Highway - #amwriting

Many of the people I follow on Twitter are writers. And many of them, like me, have new ebooks. So  naturally, we use Twitter to try to help us sell copies of our latest works.

In a typical two minutes now on Twitter, I often see two or three tweets go by that are promoting ebooks. Sometimes, I add one of my own ebook links to the digital hustle and flow.

But the reality is, trying to sell books this way is a bit like trying to sell them while standing in the middle of a freeway, facing onrushing traffic.

It's hard to get anybody to veer off the Digital Highway long enough to click on a link, look at a cover image, read a book summary and reviews (if you're lucky enough to even have any), and then press the "Purchase" button, etc., etc.

There is just too much other information and interesting or outrageous statements continuously flowing by to help us stay self-absorbed. Also, thanks to easy ebooks, there are now more works available than readers willing to part with even 99 cents. Or zero. As in "Read it free!"

Once in a while, some writers get frustrated with their lack of ebook sales, and they try to do the one-person digital equivalent of  Occupy Twitter. They throw themselves into the roadway, kicking and flailing, and hope for some kind of miracle. Or mercy.

They unleash long strings of BUY MY BOOK tweets, offering discounts, freebies, coupons, rewards in heaven, anything they can think of to try to convince someone -- anyone -- to stop, look and click.

By the way, thank you for veering off the Information Superhighway long enough to read this thought-provoking post.

While you've been parked here, I've quietly removed your tires, radiator and distributor cap.

Hey, but I can get you get moving again in mere seconds!

All you have to do is click on this link ... yes, and BUY MY BOOK!

– Si Dunn‘s latest book is a detective novel, Erwin’s Law. His other published works include Jump, a novella, and Anchoring, a book of poetry, plus several short stories, all available on Kindle. He is a freelance book reviewer and a former technical writer and software/hardware QA tester. In an earlier career, he was a photojournalist whose works appeared in numerous regional and national publications.


 

The Story Behind the Criminal Conversations Screenplay

By Si Dunn

The screenplay for Criminal Conversations explores several areas that intrigue me. (Here's the logline: A man meets up again with his ex-wife while his current spouse is dying and his ex-wife's current husband is suing her for divorce and trying to prove she is guilty of adultery.)

First, I am interested in what can happen when two people who have had a previous, unhappy history together suddenly need each other again, yet they are constrained by forces both inside and outside their new circumstances.

The youthful marriage of Ted and Alexandra ended badly several decades ago, and the two of them moved on to separate, successful lives and new marriages.

Now, they are in their fifties, and happenstance has brought them back together just at the time when their current lives are crumbling.

They could try to be friends or lovers again. They both need someone who understands them and they are increasingly are aware of their own mortality and how time is beginning to run out in their lives. But both of them are still married. There are strict limitations on teacher-student relationships. They have the feelings of their own families to consider, and they are being spied on Alexandra’s estranged husband, Frank.

One wrong move could cause them both to be sued for “criminal conversation,” an old legal term for adultery.

How can they be close again and helpful to each other while maintaining what the law and society would consider a “respectable” distance?

Secondly, I am interested in exploring how two people who once loved each other can find enough forgiveness to overcome the transgressions that tore apart their marriage. They cannot go back and change the past -- anyway, they would not want to give up their children and the careers they have formed since they went their separate ways.

Yet, their new circumstances have thrown them together in a way that causes them both to face a choice: Can the one who was wronged forgive the one who bears the most blame? And, can forgiveness, contrition and the healing passage of time lead to a renewed relationship--one that can succeed this time?

In a third area of interest, the Criminal Conversations story examines how sudden new realities in peoples’ lives can turn their lives in unexpected – and sometimes unwanted – directions that ultimately prove beneficial. At the same time, these changed directions may be limited or misinterpreted or exploited by others outside the new relationship.

Fourth, Criminal Conversations also explores greed and deceit in a divorce setting. It looks at student-faculty relationships in a college or university setting. And it deals with the process of teaching and imparting knowledge.

 As all of this unfolds, the major characters in Criminal Conversations confront matters that include their feelings about life, life after death, faith, courage, and love in the face of death.

I think you’ll be surprised at how it all turns out.

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For more information:

The project's one-sheet is available at: http://bit.ly/9JNu6N.
A recent draft of the script can be read at: http://bit.ly/c4VEAX.
A video about the screenplay can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sPZasOf1o.

Donations of any size can be made via PayPal to si@sagecreekproductions.com. Donors will receive on-screen thanks in the movie's ending credits. It is not necessary to have a PayPal account to donate.

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