Sunset '77 is now live on Wattpad.
The sequel to Watching The Detectives is here. If you have not read WTD and are not familiar with my favorite femme fatal-ish protagonist, Kat Price, I suggest you read my first detective novel before entering 1977 Hollywood and the sleaze of the Sunset Strip. I would not say WTD is a prerequisite, but it's the right the thing to do for Kat. She deserves to have her story known from the beginning.
This novel, like WTD, is a product of NaNoWriMo. Last November, I wrote the entire first draft of Sunset '77 to its completion. I forget the exact days and numbers, but I wrote like 80k+ words in less than four weeks. Then I did a quick second pass, tightening some areas, and elaborating in others. I could have published this book at that point. Sunset is my best first draft writing ever. I credit the NaNoWriMo model.
If your goal is to write a 50k novel in 30 days, you better go in with a story already roughed out in your mind with a written outline to organize your characters, events, and timeline. When the starting gun sounds at 12:00:01 on 11/1... run with it. Just write your ass off and get all those ideas into the mouths of your characters.
That goal oriented approach has given me three novels; Sacred Heart, Watching The Detectives, and now Sunset '77. It's no coincidence these are my three crime novels. NaNoWriMo makes you write tight. Tell your story, don't wander, solve the case. That is crime writing 101.
Sadly, a week after typing the above sentiment, I received an email announcing the end of NaNoWriMo. The non-profit is shutting down.
After NaNo 2024, I let Sunset simmer while I worked on my Punks 2025 rewrite. When I needed a break from Joe's drama, Kat and Vivian were waiting for me. I opened chapter one of '77 and escaped to glitzy, shallow, seedy, monied, glamorous, filthy Hollywood. I will not tell you all about it here... just go read it on Wattpad. The link is over there somewhere. >>>>>>
I will say this: I created some of my favorite characters in Sunset. Vivian is a rock star. Jimmy is fabulous. The deputy is a solid man, even if he fucks up. You will meet my first monster. I have never created a character as vile as my antagonist in Hollywood.
After another pass, a rewrite modest in scope, Sunset comes in around 94k words in sixteen chapters. My crime writing is the opposite of my punks' writing. It's tight and to the point, but in Sunset I use many scenes to set up future stories. Sunset '77 is a sequel, but it's also the first in a series of Sunset Private Eyes tales to come.
Now that I have the characters, the 70s Hollywood setting, and Kat's favorite places in LA sketched out, it's merely a matter of writing new cases for Kat and Viv to work on. I have ideas for novelette length cases with fewer than ten chapters. When I need a break from punks, I'll write in the underbelly of seventies and eighties Los Angeles.
I also have that other novel I keep bringing up, Sacred Heart. That's an entirely different thing, near future NYC vigilantism. Someday, I'll get around to finishing that.
I'm happy to publish something completely new for a change. It's been all rewrites this year. I'll try to mix it up more in the future. I have plenty of non-punks projects to choose from. The Venice Scene will follow Sunset. It's already uploaded to Wattpad and scheduled to publish.
If you choose to join me on this trip through a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat into seventies Hollywood, I ask one favor, or maybe it's three favors. Please give me a follow on Wattpad, hit that one-star review, and if something in particular makes you happy... tell me about it in a comment.
And yes, that is a bad book cover.