Friday, January 20, 2012

What is Randy Rawls reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Randy Rawls, author of the Ace Edwards, Dallas PI series.

His entry begins:
I have to open with the fact that I am an avid reader. I always have a book near me, ready to open—home (of course), doctor's office, bank, post office, etc. Of course, that's easy because I read on a Kindle. I've had one since early in the K-life and am now using a K-3. I suspect there is a Kindle Fire in my future.

I have my favorite authors from the NY publishers, but don't read as many of those as I used to. Publisher-greed has caused me to look to them much less than once upon a time. Some of those are John Hart, Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, PJ Parrish, C.J. Box, Michael Connelly, and many others. However, paying more than $9.99 for an ebook goes against my sense of fairness. In my opinion, the big publishers are simply gauging the public.

So, what I love to do is find a new author, one who has not gotten the NY treatment. I used to search a lot of books by people I'd never heard of, looking for a good read. Recently, after being burned many times by badly written stories that are not ready to be published, I've quit looking at self-epub'd unless I happen to know the author, or someone I trust recommends it. Too much dreck out there to sort through. And before I start getting the blistering emails, I know there are some worthwhile, even good, books being self-epub'd. But honestly, I don't have the patience to dig through the pile to find them.

So with those standards in mind, I look at small publishers and their authors. One of those I found is Tom Lewis. He is published by a small press in North Carolina. My last read of his is Fifty Years to Midnight. Tom has taken the typical "can't go home again" story and transitioned it into one with more twists and turns than...[read on]
About Thorn on Roses, from the publisher:
Tom Jeffries has good reasons not to trust the justice system. It failed his sister and could fail his best friend, who lost his stepdaughter to a gang rape. Tom launches a vendetta to find and destroy the Thorns on Roses gang, proclaiming them not fit to live. As Tom methodically stalks the gang, eliminating them one by one, the police make slow progress, closing the gap between them and Tom.

Further complications arise in the form of Abby Archer, a lawyer assigned to "help" Tom. She quickly becomes a nuisance that will not go away. But, in spite of their aggravation with one another, proximity turns animosity into respect, then into...
Visit the official Randy Rawls website.

Writers Read: Randy Rawls.

--Marshal Zeringue