Available now in both eBook and print!

https://amzn.to/2SyqyYH

Murder & Rivers

Elizabeth Randall Interview

I had the pleasure to interview Elizabeth (Liz) Randall about her upcoming book “The Ocklawaha River Odyssey” and another title that is dear to my heart, “Murder in St. Augustine.”

Elizabeth Randall is the author of many fine books, including: Murder in St. Augustine, Haunted St. Augustine and St. Johns County, The Floating Teacher: A Guide to Surviving and Thriving and soon-to-be released: The Ocklawaha River Odyssey

 Please tell us about your upcoming title and when and where it will be available?

The History Press is publishing it in the spring (fingers crossed). It should be available from the publisher’s catalog, Amazon, and local Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Why did you choose to tell this story?

Primarily to clear the name of the murder victim who was vilified before and after her demise.

How did you research the book?

I had a tight deadline and I work full time as a teacher. So I spent a lot of my summer in St. Augustine and also traveled to South Carolina and Massachusetts for additional research. I interviewed local people and the officials who were still alive. The St. Johns County Sheriffs Department supplied 1000 pages of documentation. I got former commission meetings on CD. There were, however, no court transcripts. Rumor has it that someone took them.

What drew you to the compelling story for Murder in St. Augustine?

 My first book about St. Augustine, Haunted St. Augustine and St. Johns County, had a chapter in it about the murder. During book talks, that was all anyone wanted to talk about. I thought there might be a book there.

How did you first learn about the crime?

When I read Powell and Mast’s book: Bloody Sunset, a somewhat fictionalized version of the crime.

Why did you choose to tell this true crime story?

My grandfather was the former editor of the New York Daily Mirror and he wrote about true life murders for detective magazines. So you could say I am keeping the family tradition alive in my own way.

Describe your current work?

I escaped into nature after writing a true crime story and spent two years kayaking, writing, and photographing the lower Ocklawaha River.  

Which writers inspire / inspired you?

Hunter Thompson, Thomas McGuane, David Foster Wallace, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Laura Lee Smith, Carson Mccullers, Harper Lee.

Why do you write?

I like the organic process of formulating language.

What are your common themes?

I am a political person. Most of my themes involve justice for someone or something.

How often do you write and where?

I write every day although not for as long as I’d like since I work full time as a teacher. I have an office, but sometimes I just sit in a chair with my laptop. I take notes on my phone.

 

Thank you, Liz.

I’m looking forward to reading The Ocklawaha River Odyssey.

 

All the best,

Greg Jolley

The Danser novels

 

 

Greg Jolley

The Danser novels

The Girl in the Hotel by Gregory French is now available in both eBook and printed versions.

We are still shamelessly shilling for Amazon reviews, in particular of the eBook version. As an enticement to post a review (the good, the bad, the strange), Greg will get you a free copy of the ebook or, if you prefer, mail you a signed copy. Our way of saying thank you.

Available in Ebook and now in print: https://amzn.to/2zuhOvJ

Thank you,

The DT’s (Dancer Team)

gfjolle@sbcglobal.net

TheDansers.com

 

“God made man because he loves stories”

In the upcoming novel, On the Beach, Bo Danser struggles to find a reason to continue his trudge from the devastation of the city of Miami. Covered in filth and radioactive dust, he recalls the Jewish parable he once read in a used bookstore, when such things existed before the fiery gold blast of light.

“God made man because he loves stories”

 It is a Jewish parable famously shared by Elie Wiesel in the preface of his novel, The Gates of the Forest. For Bo Danser, it is the spark he needs to continue step after step, his path and choices telling his story.

 In my work on the Danser novels, those seven wise words also inspire. While I take them slightly out of context, I have the hazy belief that at times the spark of imagination I enjoy is a gift and has a purpose beyond book sales. Of course, it might also be true that I’m completely bat-guano nuts on this, but hey, it adds a lift.

All the best,

Greg

 

Building Roller Coasters

“The Girl in the Hotel” by Gregory French

“Wanna learn how to write an interesting story? Study haunted houses and rollercoasters.”

 – Bo Danser On the Beach

 

For “The Girl in the Hotel” there were months of researching and gathering Ingredients and writing background sketches before the book was started. All my books have begun this way. I recently unpacked the manuscript boxes from the 1988 novel, “Cream of the Wheat,” with its one hundred typed index cards (Yes, as in use of a typewriter). There it all was, the design for a wicked rollercoaster ride for the readers.

The writing of all the Danser novels (the construction of the coasters) can’t begin until I’ve reviewed the ten to twenty thousand words of the Ingredients and submerged fully into the story: its theme, its cast, its Skeleton, which is the initial blueprint of the story, of therollercoaster.

There is one distinct difference between novels and roller coasters. Books rarely circle back to where the ride started (in my works, only “Danser” did. Sort of).

 

With the Danser novels, the Skeleton is planned to a greater or lesser degree, it doesn’t much matter. Why? Because the rails, the story, always go off in their own direction as the cast and events take over.  This is one of the delights of the writing process – when the characters take the wheel and I’m reduced to a lowly member of their typing pool, another passenger along for the ride.

 

I hope you enjoy “The Girl in the Hotel.”

 

All the best,

 

Gregory

 

New Event:

“Malice in a Very Small Town”

by

Greg Jolley

Saturday, September 15th, 2 PM – 4 PM

Hosted by

Barnes & Noble – Brighton, Michigan

9605 Green Oak Village Place 
Green Oak Township, MI 48116 
810-225-4670

Greg be discussing and signing the second book in the Wiki Danser series, Malice in a Very Small Town.

He will be joined by mystery author Pamela Gossiaux, who will also be signing her latest novel. 

“Come join the conversation!”

Michigan Mystery Author Trio

Thursday, August 16th, 7 PM – 9 PM

I will be joined by mystery authors Darci Hannah and Pamela Gossiaux.

All three of us will be talking with you about our current titles.

I’ll be discussing and signing the second book in the Wiki Danser series, Malice in a Very Small Town.

Come join the conversation. We are promising a lively chat!

This morning, I sent the next Danser novel manuscript to my amazing publisher. “View-Master: A BB Danser Memoir” This one is for Jim OroscoChief Construction Mechanic, USN, (ret). (Seabee).

“Welcome to Hollywood, 1951. Come take a crawl through the underbelly of the motion picture business. Your guide is young BB, a youth with close-head brain injuries and flights of passion and vision.”

Asked by my excellent and oh so patient publisher to write synopsis’ of the future Danser titles in progress, I chose to do blurbs instead (I knowI’ll be hearing about that).

Here they are, in various degree of clothing:

 

All the best,

Greg

 

 

View-Master

BB Danser: A Memoir

Written (2015)

Release, late Summer, 2018

You could say that BB Danser started the ball rolling, as the patriarch, if you allow, of the eccentric and passionate and driven Dansers. This is his story, in his own words; a tale of his madness, passions, murders and the desperation to take flight and escape the confines of real and modern life.

 

The Collectors

A Pierce Danser Novel

(Pierce Danser’s second book)

Written (2016)

A roller coaster through a horror show. Pierce is on another hunt, this time for his soon-to-be ex-wife, actress Pauline Place, who’s disappeared from the Black Islandfilm set in the heat swarmed waters off the Mexican coast. A “collector” with a heart and mind of poisonous snakes has her. So, the winding, dark, and deadly pursuit begins.

 

Kazu – Two (w.t.)

A Kazu Danser Novel

(Kazu Danser’s second book)

Written (2016)

Following an airplane crash in the sweltering jungle of coastal Mexico, ten year old Kazu Danser is on the run. Having been forced to committed a killing as one of many Niños Asesinos(Child Assassins) employed by drug couriers, he’s teamed up with a child savant who’s able to revive the dead and play with the clock fingers of time.

 

 

Mayhem in a Very Small Town –

A Wiki Danser Novel

(Wiki’s third book)

Written (2016)

Riding the rails and murdering at whim and for no reason, Canden is headed straight for Wiki and the very small town of Dent, Michigan. Getting wind of the killer’s rampage as he enters Michigan, her investigation draws her right into his path.

 

 

Hotel Or

A Kazu Danser Novel

(Kazu Danser’s third book)

Written (2017)

Welcome to the historic, secluded Hotel Or, deep in the jungles of coastal Mexico. In the hands of Constance Snapp, the hotel is a money making machine, not unlike a sausage grinder, processing elderly retirees for savings and pensions. In walks Kazu Danser, on the lam from the Federales, and his partner, Ed (Never Eddie) Rang, a young and resourceful prostitute. Lives needs to be saved and the Hotel Orneeds to be put out of business. Permanently.

 

Black Veil

A SeaBee Danser Novel

Written (2017)

A movie is being made, a retelling of the Donner Party tragedy, cast with children in all the roles. Behind the cameras, the brilliant and off the rails director is determined to make this grisly, realistic version his masterpiece. Filming on location moves from Black Island, Mexico to the brutal snow packed mountains in the States. As the horrific historical story is filmed, behind the cameras madness and the fires of jealousy and revenge consume crew and cast alike in a murderous dance.

 

 

 

Thieves

Book One of the Danse de la Rose Noire trilogy

A Molly & April Danser Novel

Written (2018)

From Tropea, Italy to Michigan and Florida, the sisters are on the run, committing thefts to fund their escape from an enraged ex-US Marshal. He is bent and sideways with a black heart for revenge and their total destruction. Will Molly and April elude his blood soaked claws?

 

The Disposables

Book Two the Danse de la Rose Noire trilogy.

A Kazu Danser Novel

(Kazu’s fourth book)

Being written now

Kazu on the run, escaping Mexico for the sunny promise of Florida, pursued by the journalist Carson Staines, a real hand cart of delusions, blood thirst and greed, determined to first chronicle Kazu’s criminal life – and then end it. Kazu teams up with a gang of Floridian street urchins as Staines pursues him and a hurricane rolls northward.

 

 

Black Rose (w.t.)

Book Three of the Danse de la Rose Noire trilogy-

An April and Kazu Danser Novel

Sketched for start in summer, 2018

Set exclusively at night in the famous French cemetery in St. Augustine, the annual Danse Macabrebegins, a three night celebration of moonlight and death. Among those attending the midnight soirées are April and Kazu Danser, as well as reveler with a coat liner of long handled razors.

 

 

Pie and Kazu – Rescue (w.t.)

A Pierce and Kazu Danser Novel

(Pierce’s third book)

Hearing of the existence of his grandson, Kazu, Pierce begins another misadventure of rescue. Set in Michigan and North Florida.

Sketched for start in 2019

 

 

Dent Four (w.t.)

A Wiki Danser Novel

(Her forth book)

Have skeleton for start in 2019

Set in the very small town of Dent, Michigan, this novel finds Wiki Danser torn by

moral choices and dilemmas and the perils of outlaw justice. She is up against the cause and effects of vigilantism. And vengeance. This is a story of the cost of the inability to forgive and the sweet and satisfying madness of taking justice in her own hands.

 

 

Black Lies (w.t.)

Non-fiction, true crime book.

Based on a Floridian case.

Researching for 2020

 

Cream of the Wheat

Originally Published 1993.

Second Edition, Revised for 2020.

This is the first book to get most all of the Danser family together. Primarily the tale of young Pierce and Jared Danser, it follows their paths from Hollywood to the secluded family resort, la Diana. As much a love story as a tale of madness and death, the brothers are guided by delusion and passions in a twisted take, a twisted danceof movie making.

 

Out of the Wind (w.t.)

A Wiki, April & Kazu Danser Novel

A large stack of napkin notes for start in 2020

(The fifth Florida book)

 

 

Reviewed By Neil A White

Malice in a Very Small Town: A Wiki Danser Novel

Malice in a Very Small Town: A Wiki Danser Novel by Greg Jolley features another escapade of the eclectic Danser family: Wiki, her partner Sara, their child Seabee, and an orphaned beaver that’s found a home in their bathtub. The family moves into their new home by the lake in the small town of Dent, and next door to an oddball lady that has a fascination with foul-smelling backyard fires. Did I mention that her husband has gone missing? And some of their other neighbors aren’t a barrel of laughs either. When Wiki believes two children have disappeared, she tries to raise the alarm with the local police, but to no avail. Soon after a small private airplane crashes, rifle shots ring out in the night, and the oddball neighbor disappears into the forest. And just when all appears to be returning to normal, a final shoot-out materializes that places everyone in danger.

Greg Jolley is back with Malice in a Very Small Town, his latest quirky, suspense-filled novella. I’ve been a fan of his free-flowing, whimsical prose since reading Where’s Karen, and his latest effort follows along in that tradition. Filled with a wonderfully strange cast of characters – Jolley’s trademark – I found Malice in a Very Small Town to be a taut, off-beat thriller. However, much like his earlier novel I reviewed, I felt the ending was rushed and fell a little flat after building to a fine crescendo. There is no doubting Greg Jolley has an immense talent, and although his writing style and pacing choices may not be for every reader, I highly recommend spending some quality time with his characters.