Rookie beat cop Jack Meara is bleeding out on the dirty floor of a tenement hallway – next to the body of another cop.
Welcome to the July 22nd stop on the blog tour for Median Gray by Bill Mesce, Jr. with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, author guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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Author Guest Post
It’s a pretty common question: “Why did you become a writer?”
I feel guilty when I’m asked that because I always have a pretty lousy answer: “I’m damned if I know.”
I’ve tried to puzzle it out myself, and it doesn’t seem to have been a linear thing; more like a pinball bouncing first this way, then that way. In fact, even though I used to play at writing in my young school days, I wasn’t particularly interested in being a writer. My interest even then – and it’s still one of my passions – was the movies.
When I was a kid growing up in Newark, and there was still such a thing as neighborhood movie houses, my mom – like all the other moms in the neighborhood – would give me a buck on Saturday and again on Sunday to get out of her hair by going to the movies. Me and all the other exiled kids on the block would troop off together to the Elwood Theater just a couple of blocks away and spend their afternoon there.
At the same time, my parents were huge readers; not literary stuff, but commercial fiction. After my mom threw out my comic books, claiming they were giving me nightmares, I started reading their books. My mom used to brag about me having read Alistair MacLean’s Ice Station Zebra when I was only ten.
I think these were the accidental building blocks; both the movies and the all those fun thrillers on my parents; bookshelves tickled my imagination, and, in retrospect, probably built up a good-sized mental data bank of different kinds of storytelling.
By the time I was in junior high, even though I toyed with writing, I was already making Super 8 movies, and when I got to college, I started studying filmmaking in earnest. I didn’t have the technical deftness to direct, so I had my eye on becoming a screenwriter. Again, I was still playing with prose and arrogantly thought that after I became a successful writer of movies, I could probably sell a book or two by cashing in on my cinematic fame.
Well, not quite.
I did get to do some screenwriting, still do, but it’s mostly at the low end of the business; low budget stuff, rarely anything you want to brag about, almost always gun-for-hire gigs instead of originals. I keep my hand in because it’s fun, and I get to pick up a few bucks. But I early on realized that it was going to be a creatively unsatisfying route.
I don’t know exactly when I became more serious about prose, but by the 1990s I was trying like hell to become better at it, reading more analytically to learn the different “tools” writers used to connect with and affect readers. My priorities had changed; prose was now my main focus and screenwriting became the adjunct, and my first novel was published in 2000, about 20 years after I’d gotten my first screenwriting job.
Life is messy. Things rarely proceed along neat, straight lines, and my route to writing has been no different. I’m kind of glad I started getting published so late; that gave me time to grow up as a person which helped me grow up as a writer. I was able to finally come into the field with a – I like to think – more mature perspective and with a greater understanding of writing tools.
And that’s why when I’m asked if there’s ever been a plan, I have to laugh. “What’s your plan going forward?” And I have to laugh again.
The plan?
Wake up in the morning and see what the day brings.
About the Book
Median Gray
by Bill Mesce Jr.
Published 4 August 2020
Willow River Press
Genre: Police Drama, Thriller, Suspense
Page Count: 356
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
New York City, Summer 1963
Rookie beat cop Jack Meara is bleeding out on the dirty floor of a tenement hallway – next to the body of another cop. The eyes of the shooter burned into his memory. Meara watches and waits to see the shooter brought to justice, but, instead, “Tony Boy” Maiella climbs up the Mob ranks, slipping off indictments as easily as his designer overcoat. But on the eve of his retirement, Meara decides on one last kamikaze-like try to even the scales of justice.
New York City, 1983
Rookie detective Ronnie Valerio finds himself unknowingly pulled into the wake of Meara’s quest. A go-go palace bartender is being stalked, a body turns up in a neighborhood dumpster, machine guns blaze in the night, a New York bookie turns up dead in the Jersey Pinelands and the only thing they all have in common is, in one way or another, they all tie back to Jack Meara.
How far does a cop go to even a score? How far does a brother cop go to shield him? Is justice worth any price when the line between right and wrong blurs?
Currently on sale in Kindle eBook format for $0.99 USD!
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Excerpt
Then another explosion of metal on metal, a spray of red taillight glass as the El Dorado buried its tail in the New Yorker blocking the foot of the driveway.
Meara, on the ground against the stairs, getting his pistol up, pointed at the broad-shouldered silhouette behind the wheel, sending off a shot. The soft-nosed bullet grazed the heavy, raked windshield and winged off. Shattering glass somewhere. A fresh scream.
Meara pulled himself to his feet. The pain in his side kept him from straightening, from drawing a full breath. He felt sweat on his face, wiped at it with the back of his hand, came away with blood, not sweat, all those flying shards from the Caddy bursting through the garage door…
The El Dorado had shoved the New Yorker out into the street where both cars sat log-jammed. Joey Rocks – even through the smoked glass of the Caddy’s windshield, Meara could see where that big, no-necked pile of fat and muscle had gotten its name – was still trying to shake off the shock of the collision.
Meara held his breath so as not to provoke the pain in his side, raised his pistol again, took careful aim, and put two bullets through the dark glass.
About the Author
Bill Mesce, Jr. Is an award-winning author and playwright as well as a screenwriter. He is an adjunct instructor at several colleges in his native New Jersey.
Giveaway Alert!
Bill Mesce, Jr. will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveawayDisclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thanks for hosting!
Many many thanks to Westveil not only for hosting my book tour, but for providing a platform for all of us writers who are not headliners, helping us get the word out that we’re here, we’ve got some work you might be interested in. Thanks again!
Sounds like a great read.
I enjoyed your guest post.
Sounds like such a good book.