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International Book Jackets

Joseph and His Camel of Many Colors.

“Where’ve you been, Joe?”

Of all the questions I get in my e-mail these days, that’s the one I’ve been getting the most often in the last couple of months. Where’s your new book? It’s summer — where’s the new Joe Finder?

Well, unfortunately, not this year. It’s the first year since 2004 that I won’t have a book out. 

But there’s a good reason for that. My new novel, out next summer, will be the first in a series that I’ve spent more than a year developing. The hero of the series is a guy named Nick Heller, a high-powered “fixer” who investigates international corporate crimes — bribery, corruption, etc. — wherever they might lead.  Sometimes his investigations will unravel high-level conspiracies. Or secrets that powerful people would rather keep buried. Nick is tough, smart, and far too stubborn for his own good. From his own family background — he’s the son of a notorious Wall Street tycoon who’s now in prison — he knows a lot of dirt. And as the black sheep of the family, who rebelled by enlisting in the Special Forces instead of going into business, he’s a guy you don’t want to mess with. 

I decided to do a series after getting countless requests from readers, on tour or by e-mail, to bring back one or another of your favorite characters — Adam Cassidy from PARANOIA, Jake Landry from POWER PLAY, Jason Steadman from KILLER INSTINCT.  But those guys had already suffered enough in one book: it seemed cruel to inflict any more on them. I needed a character with the resources and the fortitude to withstand whatever I threw at him, book after book.

I think Nick’s a great character. We’ve only worked together for one book, but I can foresee a long, happy working relationship. Nick Heller has been a hell of a lot of fun to write, and I’m confident you’ll enjoy spending time with him as well.  I sure hope so.

And thanks so much for hanging in there, for staying loyal and interested despite this little hiatus.  I look forward to keeping you all updated with the latest news as soon as it happens over the next several months.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of finish a novel after you’ve lived with it for months.  Relief, exhaustion, ecstasy — these words just don’t do it justice. And in truth, I’m never able to fully exhale until I hear back from my agent and my editor. 

Anyway, my wife put together a little photo essay that I think conveys the emotional range far more accurately than any words could do (and as a writer, I’m not proud to say it). Check these out:

In the old days, when you finished a book, there was a certain crisp finality to packing up the manuscript, going to the post office and sending it off to your publisher. 

But those days are gone. Now we click Send to e-mail a document. It’s just not the same. There’s no ceremony to it. 

So when I’m ready to send off the final manuscript, I create my own ceremony. I blast a song, usually something that’s been going through my head in the last days of writing. I call it my LaunchTune — the song I use to launch the manuscript into cyberspace. 

When I sent off COMPANY MAN, for instance, I played one of my favorite gospel songs, “No Hiding Place” — if you’ve read the book, you understand why that was stuck in my head. The version I used was a great but hard-to-find rendition by Marva Hicks that appeared in an episode of the sci-fi TV series Babylon 5 (you can listen to it here.)

The LaunchTune for the new book? Well, there were two. The first draft went off to the tune of The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” By the time I sent off the final version, though, a completely different song had lodged itself in my brain: Johnny Cash’s “All I Do Is Drive.” (Maybe I’d subconsciously converted the lyrics to “All I Do Is Write.”)

I did manage to escape my desk a few times over the summer, making it to both Craftfest/Thrillerfest — the annual gathering of the International Thriller Writers — and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, better known as Harrogate. 

Both were fantastic times, and thanks to everyone who took the time to say hi at either event. The strange thing is, though, I have no photographs of myself in either place … so if you were there, and you happened to take some pictures that by some chance included me, could you please do me a favor?  Send the photos to Webmistress Clair at info@josephfinder.com. We’ll send you something fun to say thanks.

In the meantime, though, reviewer David Montgomery wrote up one of my Craftfest presentations here, and you can listen to my Harrogate panel discussion on our continuing fascination with James Bond here. (If you live in or happen to be visiting London, do not miss the James Bond exhibit at the Imperial War Museum — "For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond”).

This year’s Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention) happens at a tricky time on my calendar, but I plan to make it for at least the last day. If you’re there, please look for me and say hello!

In June my wife and daughter and I spent ten days in Israel, the most amazing trip we've ever taken. What a beautiful, remarkable, fascinating country that is — and yes, it's perfectly safe (so long as you stay away from the Gaza strip, but you wouldn't want to go there anyway). We hired a truly great private guide, a young guy named Aran Yardeni, who's an archaelogist and historian, a gifted storyteller who became part of our family. (If you're thinking about visiting Israel, you can hire him too — check out his website here).

I had a terrific book signing in Tel Aviv, and among the very enthusiastic Israeli fans was a guy wearing a Jeffery Deaver shirt. I asked my daughter to take a picture to send to Jeff, who replied jokingly, "Actually I think I look pretty good, all things considered. Of course, was he a Mossad hitman? Well, no matter if he buys our books."

So that’s the latest news from me. Over the next several months I’ll be looking for ways to keep my website fresh and up-to-date, and one way to do that is posting new photographs of my readers and my books in exotic places. If you’ve got a picture of yourself with one of my books in some unusual setting, send it along to Webmistress Clair at info@josephfinder.com, and we’ll add it to the featured rotation on the front page of my website. (Uh, please keep it appropriate for a PG-13 audience). 

Don’t forget that we update the trivia question on the Free Stuff page every other month — and if you’re signed up to receive this newsletter by e-mail, you’re automatically entered in a monthly drawing for a free book. Won’t you take a moment to forward this newsletter to a friend, so they can sign up, too? I’d really appreciate it.

Happy reading, and thanks again for your support!

All the best,
Joseph Finder
Joe@josephfinder.com