Official Website of author T.J. Vargo

This is pretty cool. Check out this press release by my good buddy Peter Peterson:

MANSFIELD, OHIO: The ethnic neighborhoods of Cleveland serve as the stomping grounds for Les Roberts’ fictional private investigator Milan Jacovich. New Orleans is a backdrop for James Lee Burke’s novels featuring retired homicide detective David Robicheaux. And now the blue-collar city of Mansfield, Ohio sets the stage for small-time crook Curtis Monroe in the crime series Tombs.

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year award-winning author TJ Vargo has recently released his novel Tombs, the first in a crime series featuring a cast of crooks and thieves that live, steal, fight and die in the bars, neighborhoods, and churches - yes, you heard that right - churches of Mansfield. "The church actually plays a pivotal role in the first novel," said Vargo. "It's where the gold is."

The gold Vargo references is a major plot point in the novel, which revolves around Curtis Monroe, a low-level criminal who has been stashing stolen cash for years in hopes of saving enough to move out of town and escape his life of crime. The novel begins with Monroe pulling his last heist and making his final preparations to leave town. Unfortunately for him, this is a crime novel, so his plan is doomed from the start. By the time the novel hits the final stretch, it’s apparent that Monroe’s getaway with a sack full of loot isn’t likely, but the odds of him meeting his maker are looking pretty good.  
        
Using Mansfield for the backdrop of a novel may seem to be a stretch when compared against the other big-name cities that lurk as backdrops in contemporary fiction. It’s not hard to see the allure of having The Big Easy, or The Big Apple, or The Windy City, serve as the canvas for a fiction writer’s imagination. But Mansfield?
          
“The city is called ‘Tombs’ in the novel, but it’s based on Mansfield,” said Vargo. “There’s more than enough fiction out there that’s set in bigger, more cosmopolitan cities. What I envisioned was something more intimate. I wanted to take the reader into the small neighborhood bars and neighborhoods of Mansfield and show how these crooks live. The atmosphere of a small blue-collar city like Mansfield helped me add a layer of realism that wouldn’t have been possible with a city like New York that’s already been used a hundred times before.” Vargo warned, however, that readers of Tombs shouldn't expect a travelogue through Mansfield. “This isn’t a cozy mystery,” he says, adding, “The characters are criminals. There is a fair amount of language and adult situations. If it was a movie, it would have an R rating.”
           
A major point of interest is Vargo’s plan to release Tombs as an ebook. “I’ve done my research,” Vargo said. “I’ve gone the traditional publishing route in the past, but the publishing world has reached a tipping point. In May of 2011, Amazon announced that their sales of ebooks surpassed their print book sales. Major authors like Barry Eisler have decided to forego traditional publishing and release their work strictly as ebooks. Amanda Hocking, an unknown author only a few years ago, has over $2 million in ebook sales. With the exploding proliferation of ereading devices like Nooks and Kindles, the time is now when it comes to epublishing.”
            
For more information about the crime series Tombs or author TJ Vargo, visit
www.tjvargo.com.

I caught an old movie the other night that got me thinking about heroes. The movie was "Jeremiah Johnson." Robert Redford plays Jeremiah, a mountain man who lives in a remote wilderness that is teeming with hostile American Indians. Over the course of the film he makes a horrible error in judgement that causes the Indians to target him and his companions for death. Unfortunately for the Indians, Jeremiah is a man of uncanny inner strength and resiliency. Killing Jeremiah, it seems, is a task that is better left to the gods. Now the thing about this movie that makes an impact isn't the breakneck action or the impending dread of the Indian forces gathering against Jeremiah. In my mind, it's the sheer vacuum of bravado expressed by Jeremiah. He never prepares in any real sense for the Indians' onslaught of murderous rage and vengeance. He simply and quietly deals with it. He is implacable. He is steadfast. He is as resigned to his fate of neverending battle as he is to the fact that the sun will rise each day. And it's this utter lack of action-hero antics that makes Jeremiah, in my eyes, a hero to be reckoned with. As the film goes on, even the Indians attacking him begin to treat him with a reverence that borders on worship. Jeremiah becomes a quiet, ghostly pillar of strength, and it's all because he is a hero that prefers to walk toward danger rather than run toward it. That cool-headedness is very powerful, and there's an old joke that helps drive the point home -

A young bull and an old bull look down on a pasture of cows. The young bull nudges the old bull and says, "Hey, lets run down there, have our way with one or two of those lovely cows, and then run away." The old bull turns to the young bull, narrows his eyes and says, "I'd rather walk down there and have my way with all of them."

I like a hero who walks.

If you're interested in finding out who I'd take with me on a desert island, check out my interview with Patti Roberts from Cairns, Queensland, Australia at:

 http://goo.gl/BsYEy

Thanks, Patti!

Yeah, I know I'm an idiot, but sometimes I try to do something good. I recently went down to Columbus, Ohio to see if I could work with some great people that run a non-profit agency called Community Shares. They're basically a marketing arm for sixty-five Columbus-area organizations that depend on donations to fulfill their various missions. The organizations being helped by Community Shares are very cool, and include animal welfare, civic involvement, civil action, promotion of individual achievement, fostering the arts, environmental protection, fightng hunger... you get the picture. I guess the reason I'm psyched about this is I really like the idea of helping the local community. If you're someone like me that's usually watching from the sidelines because you don't know how to get involved, then today's your day because if I can do it, you can too. Just pick an organization you like, any organization, and give them a call to see if there's something you can do. It will change your life, or someone else's that might really need your help.

Oh, and if you're interested in finding an organization to donate to, feel free to check out Community Shares at:
http://www.communityshares.net/

Enjoy the day:)

Occasionally I'll be asked where I come up with ideas for my fiction. One place that's always good is the newspaper, and what I read today is so good I have to share. And let me add - I am not making this stuff up. Okay, so here's the gist of it. It seems that Youngstown, Ohio has been experiencing numerous earthquakes lately, topped off by one registering 4.0 on the richter scale yesterday. According to the experts, these earthquakes are a result of truly gargantuan amounts of waste fluid from fracking being forced deep underground. For those of you unfamiliar with fracking, it's a process in which natural gas is forced out of shale deposits by pumping vast quantities of fluid underground and literally forcing the gas to the surface. There has been a vigorous debate about the safety of fracking due to numerous incidents of groundwater contamination. This contamination has resulted in people being able to turn on their faucet and light their water on fire. With the addition of earthquakes now being added to the dangers of fracking, I think there's a great opportunity to write a sci-fi, environmental thriller here, something along the lines of a story Michael Chrichton would write if he were still alive. The only problem is, I'm not talented enough to write something this outlandish and make it seem real, even though it's the God's honest truth.

As a student in the Northeast Ohio MFA program, I've had the special privilege of listenting to some great authors talk about their writing process. Sam Lipsyte, Dan Chaon, Salvatore Scibona, and Jess Walter are my favorites over this past year because they each helped me improve my writing. How did they do that, you ask? Well, after reading my work, Dan Chaon gave me a few authors to read that opened my eyes to a couple things. Salvatore Scibona taught me the importance of sentence structure. Jess Walter read the first few chapters of Tombs, had some very nice things to say and provided excellent constructive criticism. And Sam Lipsyte talked about music he listened to while writing, which made his writing seem so much more approachable. When I read a great novel I often feel as if the author is some kind of god, so far above us puny humans. Hearing Sam talk about blasting obscure bands while writing grounded him and gave me some insight into his creative process. I recently finished writing my first crime novel and music was a big part of the process. The story runs so hot and cold that I sometimes needed something to kickstart my mind into the attitude, violence, romance, danger and ache for something better that fills the heads of the characters. Here's a few bands and songs that got me in the mood:
Attitude/Violence/Danger - Rage Against the Machine (Guerilla Radio, Renegades of Funk, Sleep Now In the Fire) , Cage the Elephant (Ain't No Rest for the Wicked), Toadies (Possum Kingdom), Jim Carroll Band (People Who Died), ACDC (If You Want Blood), Collective Soul (Precious Declaration)
Romance - Sufjan Stevens (To Be Alone With You, Dress Looks Nice On You), Sun Kil Moon (Heron Blue, Half Moon Bay), Goo Goo Dolls (Black Baloon), Death Cab For Cutie (I Will Possess Your Heart), Lifehouse (From Where You Are)
Ache For Something Better - Ben Harper (Ground On Down), Ben Harper and Jack Johnson (With My Own Two Hands), Creed (One Last Breath)
 

We put up our Christmas tree last Sunday, seven days before Christmas. A lot of people put their tree up early, but we've always put ours up close to the actual day. In fact, seven days before Christmas is probably the earliest we've ever had one up. It all goes back to when my wife and I had three kids and zero money. We lived in Northern Virginia back then, and Christmas trees were expensive. Something like $60 or $70 bucks if I remember correctly. That was money better spent on food, the mortgage or heat, so being a storyteller, when my kids asked why we didn't have a Christmas tree like everyone else, I told them Santa brought the tree when he brought the presents. Having half a brain, my kids followed up with, "But why did Santa give everyone else a tree already?"Not to be outfoxed, I said, "Oh, those trees aren't from Santa. He only brings trees to good boys and girls." Well, the kids liked hearing that. So, on Christmas Eve, after the kids were sleeping, usually around nine or ten o'clock, I would go out to get a tree. The best thing about this was all the Christmas tree lots were closed, which meant everything was free, even if the remaining trees were missing limbs and dropping needles if you looked at them cross-eyed. The worst thing was I always thought I was one step away from a police cruiser pulling up and slapping cuffs on me. But it always worked out. So I'd haul a tree home like some kind of half-assed cat burglar and then me and my wife would decorate it and wrap presents until late into the night. Sleep was in short supply those nights as the kids always woke up early, poking me in the forehead while they whispered, "Dad, get up. Santa came." I have to tell you, nothing felt better than walking down the stairs and seeing that tree on Christmas morning all twinkling with lights and ornaments. For that first moment, it did look like something that only Santa himself could've brought. My kids are all grown now and money isn't as tight, so I don't raid Christmas tree lots anymore, but I got a kick out of setting up the tree on Christmas Eve while it lasted. And looking back on it, I'm not sure who liked those trees more, me or my kids. But if you made me guess, I'd say it was a tie.

Can't believe I'm doing this - like i don't have enough to do - but I created this website for my fiction writing and to epublish some of my novels. I'll tell you what, converting a manuscript into an ebook is not for the faint of heart, but somehow I plowed through. Now I'm waiting on confirmation that my novel Low Man will be accepted into the various distribution channels. After I see how that works I'll epublish some of my other novels, but I'm gonna take this one step at a time so I don't screw it up. It's actually kind of exciting - I'm a publisher, woo hoo. I probably would have never considered this route, but after I saw that crime writer Barry Eisler was going the epublishing route I thought, "What the hell - I'll give it a shot." 
I loved Barry's crime series on the assasin John Rain and I respect him as a writer, so for him to choose epublishing over a traditional publisher really made me take notice of this epublishing revolution. And now I'm part of it. I'll keep you informed how things are going as I move along, but feel free to drop me a line if you're so inclined.