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Bill Mesce Jr.

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Born

The United States

Twitter

https://twitter.com/BillMesce

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction

Member Since

September 2015

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Bill Mesce, Jr. is an award-winning author and playwright, as well as a screenwriter.

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Not a ?: I just wanted to say thanks for a great article in the December issue of "The Writer's Chronicle." When I first learned of "Show, Don't Tell" I thought I'd discovered the golden nugget with which to improve my writing. Thanks for providing much needed clarity and balance on the subject. I'll have to back and watch the "Maltese Falcon." ~ Thanks again, Diogenes Ruiz

Bill Mesce Jr. Very nice of you to say, thank you. Very flattered to hear it. At the risk of being disgustingly self-promoting, that essay is included a book called …moreVery nice of you to say, thank you. Very flattered to hear it. At the risk of being disgustingly self-promoting, that essay is included a book called "No Rule That Isn't a Dare" which included a number of interviews with published authors on how they pulled off certain strategies in specific books of theirs. You might find it of interest. The key, of course -- and this was the theme of "Show, Don't Tell" -- is that there are no rules, that all these rules are really arbitrary. Good luck with your writing and, again, thanks for the compliment.(less)

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Endeavour Press has reprinted two of the books from your WW II trilogy originally published by Bantam -- THE ADVOCATE and OFFICER OF THE COURT -- but not the third book, THE DEFENDER. It seems to have been replaced by A COLD AND DISTANT PLACE. Why the switch?

Bill Mesce Jr. Bantam and I had always viewed the novels from different perspectives. I thought of them as war dramas, while Bantam considered them legal thrillers. …moreBantam and I had always viewed the novels from different perspectives. I thought of them as war dramas, while Bantam considered them legal thrillers. The first two novels -- THE ADVOCATE and OFFICER OF THE COURT -- had enough of both that it was never a problem, but Bantam and I had a major disagreement over the creative concept of the third novel, including that I wanted it to be the series finale, and Bantam wanted the series to continue on. In the end, to make the book conform to Bantam's needs, the manuscript was cut by 50-60% and the ending rewritten to allow for further sequels. For the most part, the bulk of THE DEFENDER consists of a trimmed version of the original manuscript's second act framed by vastly cut down versions of the first and third acts.
Although there would be no further entries in the series, this wasn't a matter of who was right and who was wrong. As evidenced by the reviews for THE DEFENDER, this truncated version works quite nicely; it just wasn't the story I wanted to tell.
When Endeavour Press approached me about reprinting the series, I agreed on the proviso that I could replace THE DEFENDER with something which restored most of the edited material. This is A COLD AND DISTANT PLACE.
I don't honestly know if COLD/DISTANT will work for people who haven't read the first two novels, and I can only hope that those who did think well of this final installment. That remains to be seen. For myself, however, my satisfaction comes from finally giving the series a true finale, completing, for the first time, the arc of one man's journey through the war.
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Bill Mesce Jr.’s books

Average rating: 4.25 · 2,441 ratings · 72 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors

	Median Gray 4.28 avg rating — 2,001 ratings — published 2020 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Harry Voss Case Files Books 1–3 (The Advocate #1-3) 4.45 avg rating — 211 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Officer of the Court (The Advocate #2) 3.93 avg rating — 69 ratings — published 2001 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Advocate (The Advocate #1) 3.48 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 2000 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Inside the Rise of HBO: A Personal History of the Company That Transformed Television 3.65 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Cold and Distant Place (The Advocate #3) 4.26 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Casualties of War: The Advocate Trilogy 4.64 avg rating — 14 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Defender 3.50 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2003 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Legacy: A DiMarchese Case File 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peckinpah's Women: A Reappraisal of the Portrayal of Women in the Period Westerns of Sam Peckinpah (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series) 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2001	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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The Advocate (3 books)
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Bill Mesce Jr. (Goodreads Author)

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