In 2007, Walter Mosley published his book “This Year You Write Your Novel,” which the Good Reads website praised as “an essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom” for aspiring authors.
Mosley knows of what he writes. Since 1990, he has produced more than four dozen books, including his well-known mystery series centering on the fictional detective Ezekiel Porterhouse “Easy” Rawlins. In 1999, the New York Times described Mosley’s prose as being “as plain and gritty as asphalt.”
Mosley, a 63-year-old New York resident, will come to Williamsburg Friday night for a presentation at the Kimball Theatre. The talk, part of the College of William and Mary’s Patrick Hayes Writers Series, will focus on the suggestions he laid out in “This Year You Write Your Novel.” Read the rest of this entry »
NEW ORLEANS – Tulane University will award honorary degrees to best-selling mystery writer Walter Mosley, philosopher and Parliament member Onora O’Neill and renowned jurist Hein Kötz at its spring commencement, the university announced Tuesday.
Commencement ceremonies will be May 16 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The ceremonies will also include keynote speaker Maya Rudolph and performances by Topsy Chapman and Dr. Michael White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band, along with confetti cannons and a second-line procession.
Mosley is an author of more than 40 critically acclaimed books. Two of Mosley’s works, which include literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs and a young adult novel, have been made into movies: Devil in A Blue Dress and Always Outnumbered.
Killing Johnny Fry, which isn’t a new novel but is a new audiobook, is an interesting “Sexistential” novel surrounding Cordell and his midlife crisis and redemption. Percy has this great, sometimes dry voice that captures Cordell’s inner demons. The book itself is not in my usual vein of reading, and I enjoyed the break from the norm. There’s a lot of violence, D/s and a reinventing of Cordell that kept me fascinated throughout the story. While this is Percy’s first narration, hopefully it won’t be his last. I liked how he brought the characters to life and kept me on the edge of my seat. For a trip into an intense world, I would pick this up. It’s dark, odd and powerful.
What was your favorite scene in Killing Johnny Fry?
Percy: There’s a point when the protagonist, Cordell Carmel, unwittingly finds himself in a fistfight-cum-boxing match. It was one of my favorite moments because it’s a fight for self-realization as he steps into his own power, and I found myself rooting for him like never before.
What was your favorite character to narrate?
Percy: There’s a character that, later in the book, emerges as a revered figure in the underworld niche she’s carved out for herself. She was my favorite because of how unapologetically honest she is with herself and how skillfully she brings others around to investigating their true nature — Cordell included.
Any fun or interesting things happen while narrating Killing Johnny Fry?
Percy: Ha! The book is really the only thing happening for me during the two or three days it takes to record. I tend to spend at least eight hours a day in the studio and then at night I usually review the material I’ll be recording the following day, so it’s a pretty immersive experience. Often I’ll even eat the same series of meals just because it’s less for me to think about. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but it’s honestly tough to remember anything of those few days other than the details of the book.
What are you currently working on?
Percy: Reconnecting with Mosley has resurrected my interest in mysteries and crime fiction, and I’m excited to be prepping a book in that vein for my next project.
At long last, the audiobook of Killing Johnny Fry.
When Cordell Carmel catches his longtime girlfriend with another man, the act he witnesses seems to dissolve all the boundaries he knows. He wants revenge but also something more. Killing Johnny Fry is the story of Cordell’s dark, funny, soulful, and outrageously explicit sexual odyssey in search of a new way of life. It marks new territory for the best-selling author of Devil in a Blue Dress and countless other books; it will surprise, provoke, inspire, and make you blush.
Pick up these genre-bending works to indulge your lust for the unbelievable, without committing to a 14-part novel series
By Tiffany Gilbert, TimeOut New York
Inside a Silver Box
This new sci-fi adventure is ripe with artificial intelligence, malevolent beings from another world and a race to save humankind. But Mosley’s writing shines brightest in his portrayal of his two heroes and their efforts to connect, despite so many differences.
(Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for BOMBAY SAPPHIRE Gin)
Fortunate Son (Photo: Back Bay Book)
When the Thrill Is Gone (Photo: NAL Trade Publishing)
Known to Evil (Photo: NAL Trade Publishing)
Six Easy Pieces (Photo: Washington Square Press)
The Long Fall (Photo: NAL Trade Publishing)
We already know that Mary Jane has good taste, so it’s no surprise that she broke out some Walter Mosley during her dinner party. In case you were wondering, keep flipping through for our suggestions on Walter Mosley books that all bibliophiles need to read.
(via BET.com)
Crime and mystery writer Walter Mosley was presented with the group’s Literary Achievement Award. The author of more than 40 novels, his Devil In A Blue Dress was made into the 1995 film starring Denzel Washington; he’s currently adapting the book for a Broadway play.
In praise of libraries and librarians, Mosley recalled how after the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Bush Administration “sent out a memo to librarians saying, ‘We need to know who’s reading what; who’s reading books about building bombs; who’s reading books about Islam; who’s reading books that may be considered anti-American.’ And librarians said, ‘F*ck you. I ain’t doin’ that.’ The librarians said, ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ “
It was then, Mosley said, that “I realized that they were the last bastion in America to stand up for our freedom. So when I was asked to come to participate in an event which, among other things, is going to raise money for our libraries and will make libraries stronger, I thought, ‘That’s great because if you make libraries stronger, you make America stronger — the America that I know and that I love.’ “
Bestselling author Walter Mosley blends philosophy and humor in this thought-provoking exploration of race, sin, and salvation. It is the story of two men—one human and one angel—who have the power to topple heaven.
When Tempest Landry was accidentally shot and killed by the police, St. Peter ruled that Tempest’s sins condemned him to hell. But Tempest refused to accept damnation, and even heaven can’t overrule free will. Unless he goes willingly, the order of heaven and hell will collapse and Satan will reign over the chaos. The celestial authority sends an accounting angel to earth, to convince Tempest that he should sacrifice himself for the good of the world, and casts Tempest’s soul into the body of a man who has been convicted of serious crimes.
While Tempest serves out another man’s prison sentence, the angel Joshua is living among mankind. He has been stripped of his celestial powers, yet is still tasked with persuading Tempest to make the right choice. As the angel sees the many injustices his friend suffers, he begins to question the morality and rightness of his position.
Just before I was to enter the first grade, my parents decided that they needed a coffee table in the living room. That was back in the days when, in Los Angeles, there were two entry periods for the first grade: those children born nearest June started in September, and those whose birthdays occurred closer to December started in January. My birthday is January 12th, and so I matriculated at the top of 1958.
Somehow my parents decided that their table should also be my Christmas gift. They found an offer, from an encyclopedia company I think, that was a solid maple table with glass-covered bookshelves on either end. In these shelves resided, spine up, 12 red, clothbound volumes of fairy tales that were designed for young readers from 6 to 12 years in age. The first two books were for six-year-olds; the third and fourth volumes were for second graders, etc. It was, for me, an entire lifetime of reading there at the table where my parents entertained guests and watched the evening news.
I remember sitting on the floor next to that table reading those books I could and paging through the ones I didn’t fully understand. All the volumes were illustrated, and they felt big and fancy.
I don’t remember much about the stories, but that’s where I first met the elephant-king Babar and the little lost fairy named Poppy.
This Christmas gift was transformative for me because it was so beautiful, meant to last, and it was also a part of my parents, making the house we lived in a part of me. That’s what reading is — a way to socialize and civilize, the glue that holds us together.
Now in my later years, much older than my parents were when they gave me that exquisite present, all I have of those books is the nostalgia in my heart for the carpentry of my education and the love bound up in those big red books.
