{"id":1734,"date":"2012-04-25T12:48:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T19:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/?p=1734"},"modified":"2012-04-25T12:48:21","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T19:48:21","slug":"andrea-speed-looks-at-the-little-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/andrea-speed-looks-at-the-little-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrea Speed Looks At The Little Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot in his story that didn<\/em>\u2019<\/em>t make sense, but I was still intrigued. Okay, mainly by those rock-hard pecs barely constrained by the taut fabric of his T-shirt and the noticeable bulge in the crotch of his jeans like he was trying to smuggle a salami through customs. But hey, I’m only human.\u201d \u2013 The Little Death<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0If I\u2019m known at all, it\u2019s for my Infected<\/strong><\/em> series for Dreamspinner Press, where an ex-cop turned detective tries to solve crimes and keep his sanity, since he\u2019s also infected with a virus that makes him turn into a lion. While it\u2019s fairly hard boiled, with the protagonist being macho and gifted with a flippant sense of humor, it\u2019s not quite a hard boiled detective tale in the classic sense. This is where my novella The Little Death<\/em><\/strong> comes in.<\/p>\n

Released last year, it\u2019s my direct homage to Raymond Chandler<\/strong>, the father of all hard boiled detectives. Only the detective in the Little Death, Jake Falconer, is gay. There isn\u2019t a femme fatale, there\u2019s a homme fatale, but everything else is still the same: \u00a0he\u2019s a two fisted, hard drinking sad sack, a knight in tarnished armor, trying to do right in the world while constantly stumbling into the wrong. And always embracing a snarky sense of humor.<\/p>\n

Heat was just what I expected: noisy, hot, filled with wannabes and never-weres, posers who thought all they needed were designer jeans and too-tight shirts to make up for their fatal lack of personality. I should have asked if it worked, ’cause I could use all the help I could get.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jake does have a love interest. An ex-boyfriend named Kyle Gomez, who is, of all things, a cop. Not only that, but a squeaky clean do-gooder kind, a Boy Scout, the only honest cop in a precinct full of dirty ones, Jake\u2019s polar opposite. And he\u2019s the guy he can\u2019t forget, even though he knows they\u2019re doomed as a couple. But when has love ever been logical?<\/p>\n

Read an excerpt\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was genuinely worried about me? Wow. But I don<\/em>\u2019<\/em>t know why I was surprised; he was always a soft touch. Cops were supposed to be hard and jaded, but Kyle was a dough boy, soft and squishy, full of marshmallow fluff. He\u2019d been on the job for three years, but he still believed in people. I had no idea how he did that. After a moment, he asked, \u201cWhy did you go to Heat?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTryin<\/em>\u2019<\/em> to trace Sander<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s last steps.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow<\/em>\u2019<\/em>d that go?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

I heard something in his voice, a sort of flat tone, and I studied him, unable to keep from smirking. \u201cYou jealous?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Why the hell would I be jealous?\u201d he snapped. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t admit his jealousy made me happy. So he still cared, even though he dumped me.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Writing Jake\u2019s escapades as he searches for his client\u2019s missing twin, a simple case which quickly devolves into murder and a secret blackmail ring tied to the city\u2019s biggest villain, was a lot of fun. I\u2019d never claim to capture Chandler\u2019s voice, because there\u2019s no way I could \u2013 I\u2019m not that good of a writer. But I hope I captured the tone. It was a lot of fun, and I let it be known that if readers like him and Kyle as much as I did, I would write another Jake story down the pike. So if you check it out and like it, let me know! And maybe Jake Falconer, Kyle Gomez, and Jake\u2019s bartender will return for further hard boiled adventures in Echo City.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He ran around Heat, cutting down a side alley between it and a closed Chinese takeout. I followed, but more warily, as it seemed like the perfect setting for a mugging or a gang rape or a mugging during a gang rape. But I had my gun, so at least it was unlikely to happen to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Check out the rest of The Little Death here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.dreamspinnerpress.com\/store\/product_info.php?products_id=2531<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

You can find Andrea Speed here:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Website\/blog: http:\/\/andreaspeed.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook: http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100001496290042<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/aspeed<\/a><\/p>\n

Google+: https:\/\/plus.google.com\/109420358312270961913\/posts<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere was a lot in his story that didn\u2019t make sense, but I was still intrigued. Okay, mainly by those rock-hard pecs barely constrained by the taut fabric of his T-shirt and the noticeable bulge in the crotch of his jeans like he was trying to smuggle a salami through customs. But hey, I’m only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,63],"tags":[304,254,303],"class_list":["post-1734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","category-guest-posting","tag-andrea-speed","tag-backlist-strikes-back","tag-dreams"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzLgx-rY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}