How much timeshould you dedicate to a dream before giving up? For author Grant McKenzie, theanswer is never.
The first draftof McKenzies debut mystery in the new Dixie Flynn series,Angel With A Bullet, was written 22 years ago. And on Sep. 8, itwillarrive in bookstores from publisher Midnight Ink for the very first time.
However, unlike his previous novels, this one is under his pen name, M.C. Grant.
I was 26 when Idecided I needed to take a leave of absence from my newspaper job and writethat first novel, says McKenzie, editor of WE Vancouvers sister paper in Victoria, Monday Magazine. I needed to proveto myself that I could takean interesting idea and flesh it out into a novel-length story with charactersthat I cared about. If I could do that, I knew itwould become the steppingstone to reaching my dream of being a published author.
After completingseveral drafts of the novel on his electric typewriter a nice step-up frommy trusty portable manual that I had been usingsince I was a teenager he was, alas, not able to find an agent.
McKenzie returnedto the newspaper business where he was a columnist, editor, and page designerfor a major daily in Canada. But while heworked nights putting out the daily news,he never gave up writing fiction. In 2000, he published his first young-adultbook,Avalanche on thePrairie, witha small press in Canada. And then in 2009, he published the first of threethrillers under his given name of Grant McKenzie. The firstof those thrillers,Switch, has been published in theU.S., Canada, UK, Germany and Taiwan, and is due out in Russia later this year.
But I alwayshad a soft spot for that first novel, says Grant. The characters are just somuch fun, and I love how the dark edge of the plot isinterwoven with humor.
Deciding toupdate his old typewritten manuscript, McKenzie rewrote the book asAngel With A Bulletand sold it toMidnight Ink within threeweeks of completion.
Mysterylovers are really going to enjoy this series. I pitched it to Midnight Ink asJanet Evanovich meets John Sandford in a darkalley. It has humour, danger,action and even a dash or romance.
Grant decided togo with a pen name for this series becauseAngelWith A Bulletis written in first-person-female perspective so that thereaderexperiences the mystery through the eyes of the storys protagonist,Dixie Flynn.
Dixie is awise-cracking investigative reporter for an alternative weekly in San Franciscowho hides behind a tough exterior, but exposes herheart in her writing, saysMcKenzie. She also likes to envision ex-boyfriends leaping over her bed at nightto help her fall asleep. And wait until youmeet her neighbours.
As a teaser, Midnight Ink has released Grantsoriginal and darkly humorous short storyUnderbelly as a free eB ook, which also contains theopening chapters toAngel With A Bullet. Its available onAmazon now.
