One Week and Counting....

I still remember writing my first story. I only had a small working vocabulary -- being that I was four or five and my dad had just started teaching me to read and write -- so the story had a distinct Hemingway flavor. The story was called "The Three Little Fishermen," and as I recall two drowned. Again, the Hemingway connection. It was maybe 50 words long (flash fiction) and was generously illustrated (graphic novel), any my dad was so impressed he paid me a quarter for it.

Flash forward four decades.

In a week or so, my first published novel will be available for purchase. I have been included in other people's books and I have published tons of things in newspapers, magazines and on the web, but this is the first time the one name on the cover will be mine. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by Jason Hunt.

I hope you run out (or log in) and buy one as soon as they are available. I know I am going to!

So close I can taste it...

I am too excited to sleep -- literally. It is 3:00 a.m. EDT, and I am sitting up, looking at the amazing cover design by Kurt Bredt for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S GUNFIGHT. Billie Johnson, the publisher of Oak Tree Press and its imprints, sent over the galleys, and as soon as I am through looking them over, we are on the last leg of the journey.

Well, the last leg of the first part of the journey...or maybe the first part of the final leg...or the third leg of the second part....

At any rate...the first "thing" was writing the book. The second was publishing it. And the third, of equal importance to the first and second, is selling it. I have to get the book in front of as many people as possible. I have a detailed plan for how I intend to do that -- which includes my son Josh and me strapping on the acoustic guitars and taking to the streets of Cambridge and Boston. We have always loved "busking" (street performing), but now we will be focusing on the second half of "Country and Western," and we'll be carting around a big old sandwich board with the a blow-up of the book cover on it.

Also, I will soon be posting a link to YouTube, where you can see the world premier of the first movie theme song written before the movie is optioned -- or even before the book is available to the public.

Yes, I have written "A Midsummer Night's Gunfight -- The Song." :-) Once it is ready, I'll let y'all know.

Stay tuned!

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S GUNFIGHT coming out in May

The day is drawing near. Kyle William Lees will be riding into Shakespeare, New Mexico, this May. Okay, the story takes place in the 1880s. Those of you who are fans of my crime stuff -- especially the stories about Deke Rivers, Nashville songwriter turned detective -- will like this shift back a century or so. One editor said Kyle is Deke's ancestor -- Deke on a horse with a cowboy hat and a revolver (as opposed to his two semi-automatics). I'll provide a link as song as its available. More soon.

Anyone scalping Crimebake tickets? :-)

I went to Crimebake last year and LOVED it. Not only were the talks, panels and events amazingly useful and informative, but I met a bunch of great writers and had a blast.

Unfortunately, when Crimebake announced open registration, I was a little light in the wallet. The unbearable lightness of being poor. Two kids in college, etc., etc. And then, due to the well-deserved popularity of the conference, it sold out. Quick.

So now I am like a Red Sox fan wandering around outside Fenway the night of a Yankee game, desperately seeking tickets...

If you and someone you know registered for Crimebake but is no longer able to attend -- send me a comment and will gladly pay you for your spot!

I have to stop typing now so I can cross my fingers! :-)

"Three for a quarter, a black and white portrait..."

So I guess I'm supposed to find an author photo that makes me look more like a gunslinger and less like a jaded, urban detective. To be honest, though, I don't think I ever quite nailed the jaded, urban detective photo, either. One author photo I used a lot made me look like a disoriented, northeastern derelict. Another made me look like an over-the-hill, country music songwriter. Yet another made me look like a plain, old fool.

So this one, I think, takes the best of all those previous pictures and adds to it just a touch of Photoshopped sepia. :-)

Anyway, please comment and let me know if you would buy a used car...I mean, a new Western from this man. :-)

A Midsummer Night's Gunfight comes out in 2011

Howdy, friends. Yes, it's true. Kyle William Lees is riding into Shakespeare, New Mexico, and A Midsummer Night's Gunfight is being published by Wild Oaks Press, the newest imprint of Oak Tree Press.

My dad would have been tickled. He and I spent many a late night in front of the TV as gunfighters shot it out and scores were settled. He was a Western afficianado. Me, I was just a fan.

The new book is about a man who comes to town with the intention of getting revenge. What he doesn't count on is a single woman trying to raise a son and a retired gunfighter trying to leave his past behind. And he doesn't count on them changing his life.

I'll keep you posted on when it is coming out. Then I'll harass you to buy a copy...and another...and another. They will make great gifts.

Thanks again to all the people out there who have supported me from the beginning and who have never lost faith. I have a feeling we just might be about to win this gunfight....

So Lonesome I Could Die

This is the cover for my as yet unpublished second novel, SO LONESOME I COULD DIE. Which is not to say it is about to be released or anything. I just decided I'd better design the cover just in case.

The first novel is called COLD, COLD HEART and like the second book, it features Deke Rivers, my Nashville songwriter turned detective.

My third novel is a not a detective novel at all, but rather a Western. It features Kyle William Lees and Tom Brennan, both gunfighters, and is set in Shakespeare, New Mexico, in the 1880s. It's tentatively titled A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S GUNFIGHT.

I have been away from the short story business for a while, so I am planning to roll up my sleeves and get back to the business of writing gritty, hardboiled tales of woe. If I write any Western short stories, I will call them tales of whoa.

Or not. :-)