One change brought about by 2020 is that my first crime novel, ROOSTER, was not published this fall--which you may already have noticed. I'll have more to share as things are sorted but hope to unleash it in the wild in 2021. (Publishing being what...
2020 being 2020 has slowed down production a bit and presented a few changes. On the good news front, I'm revising a third draft of THE HARD SIX (formerly Mister Madame) and it's coming along well. In a fit of autumn energy I've also written...
I finished the crime novel Six Girl Smile a few weeks back and am working on draft two. The title comes from a line of dialogue in the story and seems to fit better than the original working title, Mister Madame. I think you'll like...
As often happens, plans change (which may be this year's theme) but in this case for the better, I hope. I'm adding another new story to the mosaic novel Archibald Leech, the Many Storied Man. This one is titled "The Skinny" and, well...
As Covid deaths soar and Trump dispatches secret police to Portland, NYC is hunkered down against a heat wave. Fortunately the time has proven productive and I'm making steady progress through Act III of Six Girl Smile. I'm also working with Shane Keene at Inkheist...
Work on SIX GIRL SMILE continues apace, but it is a slow pace as current events gnaw at me. Still, I've pivoted into the third act and we're on the downhill slide. I will chain myself to the typewriter until it's finished. ...
As I prepare for a special edition of Crime Wave centered no Walter Mosley, I thought it high time I shared Crime Wave #4, "Contender for the Crown," in which I discuss the genius that is Megan Abbott's noir novel Queenpin. You can read the...
I interviewed Ryan Wick about his forthcoming novel Safe Cracker, hand to hand combat and picking locks. Behold! The third installment of Crime Wave is on Ink Heist. https://inkheist.com/2020/04/02/crime-wave-3-picking-locks-with-ryan-wick/...
People have been sharing work to help us pass the time during the pandemic lock down, so here are the opening pages to Six Girl Smile, (aka Mister Madame), my current WIP. Six Girl Smile By John C. Foster CHAPTER ONE 1. “Go to Hell, Wrecker,” the old man said....
Ink Heist ran my second Crime Wave column, Will the Real Donald Westlake Please Stand Up? You can read about this titan of crime fiction here...