C.I. Dennis's Blog

Tanzi’s Turf is now on Kindle!

Vince takes on a missing person case while juggling his duties as a single dad. Add in some car trouble, lots of girlfriend trouble, poisonings, daylight shoot-ups and a few dead bodies, and Tanzi finds himself caught in a whirlwind of intrigue and deceit. Click here for link.

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TANZI’S LUCK, the fourth book in the Vince Tanzi series is live! Now available on Kindle.

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About a year ago I wrote a mystery thriller, set in New York, under a nom de plume. The plot takes certain liberties with time. It has nothing to do with the Vince Tanzi series, hence the pseudonym. In fact, it’s a bit on the dark side, but as one Amazon reviewer said: “It will grip you like a gripping thing until you’ve read to the last page!” 

Martin Gonlea’s life takes a sudden wrong turn as he rounds a street corner in lower Manhattan to find his mistress dead on the sidewalk. He can’t account for the minutes leading up to her death, and the more he tries to fix things–with his wife, and with her hard-boiled NYPD detective sister–the more quickly they unravel. Clocks fly out of windows, watches run backward, and time becomes undependable in this fantasy-tinged story of guilt, lust, obsession, and redemption.

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I was always a solid B+ student in school. Pretty good, right?

A’s belonged to the overachievers, who were suspect. Some neurotic impulse was driving them to excel amidst all the social distractions. I never really trusted the A’s, despite their credentials.

C’s were for the slackers. The C’s were the party people, who were having maximum fun while barely getting by. C’s drove motorcycles, disappeared for weeks at a time, and always had the best stories. But I worried what would happen if I became a C.

The D’s were the people who could care less. D’s tangled with the cops, had the sketchiest friends, the best pot, and got badass tattoos. D’s didn’t just drive motorcycles; they crashed them. D’s had nothing to prove except that they had nothing to prove.

It has been a long time since I received a B+, or any letter grade. I am no longer judged by teachers, or by an educational system. The judgments levied upon me are less obvious now. They originate more from within.

What has become apparent as I’ve grown older is whether a B+ means anything, and I think that the answer is no. In fact, I’m starting to believe that a B+ is possibly the worst grade that you can get. Worse than an F. Because it means that you have opted for safety over everything else.

To reach for an A takes courage. You’re trying to be among the best, and if you fail, you’ve really screwed up. People will be disappointed. You have been groomed for success, and everyone expects it.

And, to fail utterly—to flunk out with an F—is at the very least a life lesson that can’t be ignored. A B+ is quickly forgotten, but an F stays with you.

Not everyone can be a Faulkner, a Picasso, a Hemingway, or a Jim Morrison. Nor would they want to be. Many of the greatest talents were a gigantic pain in the ass. They suffered. People hated them. If there had been an Amazon during their time, they would have racked up the scathing, confidence-sucking one star reviews.

But they took risks, and were unafraid of the critics. The greatest achievements in any art form have always left conventional criticism behind. Criticism is bound by comparing to established norms, and artistic greatness has little to do with what has already been done.

Greatness is an unsafe choice. It involves the risk of failure. It is a lonely path, and is often an even lonelier place when it is achieved. The greatest among us are fragile, remote creatures. It’s so much safer to be pretty good. You can live a decent, satisfying life by being pretty good…and never feel the need to aim a shotgun at your mouth.

Or, you can crash the motorcycle, lose your friends, beat your head against the wall, and try to produce something that the world has never seen. Something appallingly ugly, or spectacularly beautiful. Something different, that comes from the deepest part of your unafraid soul. Something that might inspire one or two future generations to wonder what became of your dust.

Pretty good feels…pretty good. I’ve been there, and I like it. It’s a sunny day. But as the days pass, I admire greatness all the more, and the sacrifices involved seem less worrisome. Bring on the clouds, and even some thunder and lightning. I may never achieve it, but I’ll die trying.

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Here’s a question that I have been asked more than once: do I work from an outline, or just let the ink flow?

The answer is both, and each has its pros and cons.

Some writers swear by an outline. A friend from my college days co-wrote several books with James Patterson–who insisted on extensive outlines–and my friend (who now writes exclusively under his own name) has continued this process. His outlines can run eighty pages for a 300-page book. He’s a true pro who takes his craft seriously, and it’s obviously working for him as his novels consistently end up on the NYT bestseller list.

But how much room does that leave for inspiration? Where’s the spontaneity?

Here’s where I like the open-a-blank-page method, which is how I began two of the three books in the Vince Tanzi series. I believe that there is value in simply writing a couple thousand words and seeing where it goes. Start with a few ideas, and then let the characters take hold of the story and lead the way. When it’s working, it’s a thrill ride. When it’s not…let’s just say that on two occasions I have thrown out 75,000-word drafts and started all over because the characters were leading me down a blind alley. That’s a lot of pages to tear up.

Currently, I use what I call a “flexible” outline. I will know what the novel will be about, what will happen, and I will have the major characters pretty much described in brief outline notes—no more than a few pages. And then I will sit down and write. If things go well, I’ll become immersed in the world of the story, which is one of the most thrilling, bordering on self-indulgent feelings that I can enjoy as a writer.

After a few pages I will revisit my initial, bare-bones outline and flesh it out, which I find much easier to do when I’m becoming more familiar with the setting and characters simply by putting words on blank pages. At this point my outline will grow, and I’ll put some hard thought into character development, plot refinements, and enough twists to keep the reader’s attention.

My outline at this point is flexible, meaning that if the narrative is missing something I will change it. Halfway through the third Tanzi book I felt that the story needed another major character, so I wrote one in. It was a surprise to me and had never crossed my mind in the early outline process, or even while writing the first 30,000 words. I had to rewrite much of the outline, but better to do that than to toss a complete draft and start over. Done that.

Writing dialogue is where I most often come up with unexpected outline changes. A character can say something that will alter my thinking. Good dialogue can take on a life of its own, and my advice is to listen. But keep the red pen handy, as not every bit of unanticipated inspiration should be acted on.

In my writing process the first draft is nothing more than a very long outline. My editors and beta readers have taught me that the more revisions I make, the better the final product. My first drafts are often completed in eight weeks if I’m working hard, but it takes much longer to revise to the point where I can say: it’s done. And when it is, I will sometimes open the original outline and think—really? How did that become this? Usually that’s a good feeling.

Outline, by all means. It really does help. But leave room for happy accidents along the way.

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If you’d like to keep up on upcoming books, puppy pictures, and general goings-on, please check out my Facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/CiDennis

Oh yes–did somebody say puppy pictures?

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Artwork by Alexander Dennis

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Greetings friends, and welcome.

First–I can’t tell you how much your support and readership has meant to me! 2014 has been a phenomenal year, as sales of both of the first two Tanzi books took off in January, and it hasn’t stopped. The reviews have been nice to read and it seems that there is an audience for our imperfect but well-meaning P.I. friend Vince.

The third Tanzi novel is done except for some final buffing and polishing by ace copy editor Deb Heimann. It takes Vince back to Florida, and even further south. His young friend Roberto plays a major part in the story, and Vince’s personal challenges, screw-ups, and  entanglements also feature prominently, as he seems to have a talent for that, doesn’t he?

Again, thank you for reading! I’m excited about the new book and hope that you will enjoy it when it hits the shelves.

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Here’s a recent interview with SONS OF SPADE, a blog that spotlights the fictional private investigator:

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