On Writing Guns: Will a Conveniently Placed Item Stop a Bullet?

In a classic episode of The Simpsons, Ned Flanders takes two bullets to the chest. The pious neighbor walks away unscathed, all thanks to a Bible and a piece of wood from the ol’ rugged cross under his shirt.

Although the show is meant to be satirical, it’s a scene played out with a straight face in the rest of fiction, most notably the crime genre. A character is seemingly shot to death, only to stand back up thanks to a convenient object beneath the clothing that “stopped the bullet.”

So how close is this to reality? Is it possible for this to happen? Continue reading

The Invisible Hand – A North Dakota Oil Boom Crime Novel

Kindle-Scout-Novel-Invisible-HandIt’s been quite the ride for The Invisible Hand, my crime novel set in the North Dakota oil boom, but I finally have some good news. I just dropped a publishing contract with New Pulp Press into the mail. The Invisible Hand should release some time in late 2015, although that’s not set in stone.

New Pulp Press is an incredible indie outfit publishing some of the best crime fiction today. Hell, it even publishes Les Edgerton’s The Bitch, one of my all-time favorite novels, among others. For me, it’s a best-case scenario. Continue reading