Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Down & Out Books (September 17, 2014)
ISBN-13: 978-1937495763
Synopsis
Wall Street’s miasmal garbage washes up on the Jersey Shore when a small time broker falls in love: Is he attracted to the beautiful lady — or her brother’s inside information? Held spellbound by a steamy, auburn-haired woman with a questionable past and a get-rich-quick, insider trading scheme, Austin Carr knocks down a beehive of bad-acting Bonacellis, including the ill-tempered Mr. Vic Bonacelli, who wants his redhead back, and local mob lieutenant Mama Bones Bonacelli, architect of a strange and excruciating death trap for the fast-talking stockbroker she calls smarty pants. To survive, Austin must unravel threads of jealousy, revenge and new affections, discovering the fate of a pseudo ruby called the Big Mojo, and close the lid on a pending United States of America vs. Austin Carr insider trading case. Can Austin and his Jersey Shore mouthpiece possibly out maneuver the savvy U.S. District Attorney from Manhattan? Does anything matter for Austin again if Mama Bones flips that switch?
About This Author
Former Los Angeles Times reporter Jack Getze is Fiction Editor for Anthony nominated Spinetingler Magazine, one of the internet’s oldest websites for noir, crime, and horror short stories. Through the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Syndicate, his news and feature stories were published in over five-hundred newspapers and periodicals worldwide. His two screwball mysteries, BIG NUMBERS and BIG MONEY, are being reissued by DOWN & OUT BOOKS, with the new BIG MOJO to follow. His short stories have appeared in A Twist of Noir and Beat to a Pulp. Getze is an Active Member of Mystery Writers of America’s New York Chapter.
Author Links
Interview
How long have you
been writing?
JG -- I wrote my first short stories for the high school
literary magazine when I was 15, earned my first byline in the Los Angeles
Herald-Examiner at 19. That was half a century ago.
What makes you like
to write?
JG -- I enjoy laughing and making other people laugh, so
I've always enjoyed telling stories that cracked people up. Turns out I'm my
own best audience. If the scene, characters and dialogue make me chuckle or
laugh, chances are good my fans will also enjoy the work. I should also add
that writing about my life and the people I meet never felt like a choice: From
the first day I went to work at the high school newspaper, I knew I was a born
observer and commentator. It's my nature to look for things and watch others. I
gave up my newspaper career sixteen years later because I found actual facts
too confining. Ha.
Who is your favorite
author and why?
JG -- This one is easy: Elmore Leonard. His dialogue is so
much fun to read, the characters are so interesting and he always delivers a
big finish. He hasn't gotten the acclaim he should, I believe because his
stories are "small," or about average people, but I've read
everything he's ever written -- maybe thirty novels? -- and while I enjoyed
some more than others, not one was a bad story or poorly written. Elmore
Leonard is a master of the fiction craft. There is no author intrusion, no
place where you wonder who's talking, no "literary" (fancy)
description. "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it," Elmore always
said. I'm sad he died and there will be no more of his tales.
What are
your favorite things to do besides writing?
JG -- I read 10 to 12 novels a year, play fantasy baseball
and watch a few dramas on TV. Justified, Ray Donovan and Homeland come
immediately to mind. I also enjoy gardening, nature walks and rooting for my
sports-minded granddaughters. I try to limit my time on Facebook, but I'm good
for at least an hour a day of wisecracks. Be prepared if you friend me.
What is your favorite
scene to write?
JG -- The climax. My stories always boil down to a
confrontation between Austin Carr and his antagonist in unusual and dangerous
situations. In Big Numbers and Big Money, the first two books in the series, I even
opened the novel with part of the climax -- that is, with Austin about to be
killed by a giant tuna, and then by an unnamed woman with a shotgun. These
prologues meant most of the novels were flashbacks. How did Austin get in this
predicament? Will he get out alive? In the new book, Big Mojo, I dumped the
prologue: I don 't give the reader a peek at that big scene up front. I've
saved everything for the finish. Diabolical, huh?
Who designed the book
cover?
JG -- J. T. Lindroos is a professional artist who designs
most of the covers for Down and Out Books. He's best known as co-founder and
senior editor at Point Blank, where he published the first novels of Allan
Guthrie and Duane Swierczynski.
Who is your favorite
character in your book and why?
JG -- Angelina "Mama Bones" Bonacelli is my
favorite now. She strolled into book two, Big Money, because of a story I heard,
something that happened to one of my wife's aunts, and a minor joke about
cheating at the church bingo game turned into a driving force in Austin Carr's life
and the series. In book four, the one I'm currently finishing up, Mama Bones
changes Austin's life forever, and he changes hers, too. They must both step up
their game in Big Shoes.
When did you start
writing?
Before those short stories at 15, I stole jokes from TV or
joke books and wrote them down in my own funny magazine. I was a fan of Mad
Magazine and tried my own version at 9. I hand printed a few copies and tried
to sell them to my friends for five cents. I think my Mom bought one.
How many books did
you write before you were published?
Ten, although four were Big Numbers retold with different
protagonists. Back in the mid-1980s, my first version of Austin Carr was deemed
unlikeable by just about everyone, so I tried various protagonists in the same
story many times over the years until I finally hit with a small press in 2006.
(Big Numbers has a great twist I love.) One Austin Carr substitute was a woman named
Roberta something. I called her Bobbi and she slept with a baseball bat under
her bed. A New York editor told me Bobbi -- and maybe me -- was a misanthrope. Ha.
I could have whacked that guy with a bat, I'll tell you. The big thing about
rejection, it only takes one yes to make all the NOs go away. Listen to your
critics and consider what they've said. That's how an artist gets better at
communicating to the reader or viewer or listener. But never give up. If they
come from the heart, your stories are worth telling.
Any other books in
the works? Goals for future projects?
I will keep writing Austin Carr stories until I die, but I also
have a completed thriller called BLACK KACHINA placed with an agent. All
different characters and not written for laughs like Austin's books. The agent's
had no luck yet selling it, though, so I might need to bring that one back to the
drawing board soon. Funny story: I wanted to call the thriller COLONEL MAGGIE
AND THE BLACK KACHINA, just because of the story's fantastic nature, but the
agent said no, it's too young a title. So when one New York editor rejected it
because Black Kachina was "far-fetched" and the characters
"cartoonish," I had to laugh. If you consider the title I prefer for
even ten seconds, you'll guess far-fetched and cartoonish is pretty much what I
was shooting for. It's a compelling tale, one with an ancient lake, Indian
spirits and my own California family history involved. I bet it'll see the
light of day one of these days.
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