I’ve mentioned before that my next Blanco County novel satirizes the gun-control debate in America. I happen to support the Second Amendment (along with some sensible laws), but I make fun of extremists on both sides because, frankly, there are out-of-touch blowhards in both camps. Worse yet, there is a lot of duplicity, deception, and manipulation that takes place, and it becomes difficult to even know whom to believe.

Here’s a recent example:

I was reading the latest issue of Texas Fish & Game, and one of the columnists mentions a two-year-old organization called the American Hunters & Shooters Association.

If you log on to the AHSA Web site (http://www.huntersandshooters.org/), you’ll see the following mission statement.....

"AHSA vigorously defends the constitutional right to keep and
bear arms, promotes safe and responsible gun use, and
supports reasonable public policies, so that all Americans
can enjoy the benefits of this crucial and historic liberty."

Sounds like a group that supports gun owners’ rights, doesn’t it? That “reasonable public policies” line needs a little explanation, and gun ownership isn’t a “liberty,” it’s a right—but they don’t sound like gun-grabbers, do they?

Well, that remains to be seen. The columnist in Texas Fish & Game says, “...a closer look at the group reveals a far different agenda than what is shown on the surface.”

His proof?

John Rosenthal, president of AHSA Foundation, used to be president of Stop Handgun Violence. Visit their Web site (http://www.stophandgunviolence.com/) and you’ll probably agree that it appears to be in favor of gun control. He also served on the board of the Brady group.

Robert Ricker, the executive director of AHSA, used to be a lawyer for the NRA, but he is now known as a turncoat or whistleblower. TF&G says Ricker “has been paid to testify against the firearms industry in municipal suits in California, Washington, D.C., and New York City.”

Ray Schoenke, president of AHSA, appears to have donated at least $20,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign). He has also supported various anti-gun politicians—Gore, Clinton, Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, etc.

So my question is, what the hell is going on? I did some surfing and learned a few things.

The NRA calls the AHSA “the latest front group for the anti-gun movement in America,” and says they should be prepared “to be called out as liars if they cover up whom they really are and what they truly support.”

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms, said, “For Ray Schoenke, president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association—a rather thinly disguised gun control group camouflaged in hunter orange—to claim it is a gun rights organization is an insult to the intelligence of gun owners and activists across the map.”

I was puzzled by it all. Are the hard-line gunners overreacting? Are they feeling threatened by the AHSA’s more mainstream stance? Or is the AHSA flat-out a sham? But why would anti-gunners claim to be pro-gun? There are two reasons, according to various Web sites, blogs, and newsgroup postings:

1. The AHSA wants to lure members away from the NRA and weaken it.

2. Gun-control proponents can point to the AHSA and say, “See, even some gun-rights advocates endorse stricter gun laws.”

Seems like a strange way to go about it business, but who knows? I do know that it’s getting harder for me to believe anything I read about the gun-control issue. If the AHSA isn’t what it claims to be, that’s a shame, because their mission statement sounded pretty good to me.

If anyone has any more insight into this, I’d love to hear it.

Tomorrow, I'll be joining Melanie Gambrell at 11:30 a.m. (Central time) on 1400 KBYG in Big Spring, Texas. If you're in that area, give it a listen.

Some readers might be surprised to learn that most authors don’t spend all their time holed up, pecking away at a keyboard, pushing their novels forward. There’s a lot more to do than that. Here’s a run-down of what I’ve been doing in the past week:

On Saturday night, I met with a reading group in Johnson City to discuss the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, and to view the movie version. Both are classics, of course. Gregory Peck was an outstanding actor, not all melodramatic and over-the-top like a lot of his contemporaries. I had seen the movie once, long ago, but I enjoyed it more the second time around. I wonder what became of the actors who played Jem and Scout. Robert Duvall, obviously, went on to great things. At the meeting, I met some new friends and caught up with some old ones, including George and Kay Culp. I went to high school with their kids. As the moderator of the discussion, I don’t know that I was able to shed any great light on the text, but we had fun anyway. And popcorn. The nice thing is, next month they’ll be reading Guilt Trip. Can you imagine one of my books following Mockingbird?

Throughout this week, I’ve continued to contact bookstore managers to arrange signings for my tour in May. Originally I had planned to tour out-of-state quite a bit, but my publisher is encouraging me to saturate Texas, so that’s what I’ll be doing. At this point, I have confirmed signings in Austin, Round Rock, Houston, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Midland, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi. I hope to sign in Dallas and El Paso, too, but I haven’t heard back. My publicist could’ve arranged the signings for me, but I’ve found it’s easier to do it myself. When you turn someone else loose to arrange your tour, sometimes you end up with a schedule that you’re not too crazy about. Which isn’t to take anything away from publicists, because they’re not mind readers. Instead, I’ve asked my publicist to concentrate on gaining print reviews. Anyway, arranging a tour can take up a fair amount of time. You end up exchanging four or five e-mails (or more) with each manager before you nail the time and date down. You try to go from city to city in a sensible (geographically speaking) manner, but it doesn’t always work that way. A manager might say, “Sorry, I can’t fit you in on such-and-such date, but how about the following Saturday?” You hate to say no, but you also hate to fly or drive from Houston to El Paso and then over to Dallas. Once I get all the signings booked, then I’ll have to start arranging flights and rental cars and hotels. Eats time quickly.

I finished a short story and sent it to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for their consideration. Hope they say yes, as I’ve never published a short story before. I’ll keep querying until I run out of options, and if it doesn’t get published, I’ll post it here.

Remember when I mentioned the giant balloon on top of my neighborhood Texaco during their grand opening? I wrote a short piece about that--how out of place that balloon was in my rural area--about a month ago. I submitted it to the local newspaper, but haven’t heard back. The first time I submitted something to them, it took them four months to get back to me, so I ended up getting that piece published in the San Antonio Express-News. They were very prompt and courteous, and if this piece was appropriate for them, I’d submit it to them. The point of all this--I sent that new piece to a magazine called Austin Monthly recently and they turned it down. So then I contacted an editor at the Austin Chronicle, but I haven’t heard back.

I played with my dog a lot. Every day.

I firmed up a time and place to meet with a writer from Publishers Weekly this Sunday in Fort Worth. They’re going to do a Q&A article with me about Gun Shy, to coincide, I figure, with their review. Should be fun. I thought about flying up there, but the cheapest ticket at this point is more than $200 roundtrip, so I’ll just make the drive. Takes about 3 1/2 hours from my house.

I had a good phone conversation with my former editor, who starts working as a senior editor at Dutton in a few days. In fact, he’ll be editing my friend Jeff Abbott, who is doing phenomenally well with his newest book Fear. Check it out. He (my old editor) will also be editing Harlan Coben and Raymond Khoury, so he’s made the big leagues. I’m thrilled for him, because he’s a truly great guy and good friend.

I’ve had several phone calls and done a lot of research into what is involved with tracing an anonymous e-mail. It’s part of my sixth novel. Tentative title: Holy Moly.

And I’ve spent maybe an hour or so on my blog, so I’d better stop now and get back to writing.

My editor recently shared with me the final cover art for Gun Shy, which is the fifth in my Blanco County mystery series (to be published in May). I really dig it. I'm wondering what it says to people who haven't read the book yet. Any comments?

PS: When I first created this blog, I didn't realize that readers would need to create an account to post comments. Yeah, it's a hassle, but it only takes a minute or two. And think of the warm glow you'll feel!

I’m a member of Mystery Writers of America, and we have a newsgroup in which published members discuss the novel-writing business. Recently, the discussion has turned to “discontinued” series. In most cases, that means the author has fulfilled his or her current contract, and the publisher has not offered a new one. The reason this happens is almost always, unfortunately, low sales.

“Low sales,” however, is relative. If you are with a fairly small publisher, they might be content to release book after book with sales fewer than ten thousand copies, or even much lower than that. Some series, in fact, are kept alive solely by library orders.

If you’re with a large publisher, the numbers go up, obviously. Fifteen thousand could be considered low, and so could 50,000. If you’re Tom Clancy, and you sell 200,000 copies in hardcover, that’s considered a big failure.

Also, “low” is relative to the quantity that a publisher expects to sell of a particular book. Let’s say you have a debut novel--we’ll call it Book #1--and the publisher is expecting sales of 20,000 in hardcover. If they print 20k, sell them all, and have to print and sell more (say another 5k), they’ll generally be very happy. Total sales: 25,000. On the other hand, if you have another debut by a different author (we’ll call it Book #2) with expected sales of 75,000, and they print that many, then sell 25,000, it’s a problem. The sales figures are the same, but the way the two books are perceived is much different. Part of it has to do with the money the publisher lost on Book #2 (they had to “eat” 45k copies), but part of has to do with unmet expectations.

My question: As a reader, do you realize how much power this gives you over the publishing industry? Your choices have a major impact on what is published and what isn’t. If you make a particular book a bestseller, you can expect more books from that author. Simple, isn’t it? By buying a particular book, you are, in essence, “voting” on that author. You’re saying, “I like this type of book, or this writer, and I want to see more.”

I promise I’m not saying this so you’ll rush out and buy my books, because—since you’re reading my blog—you’re probably already one of my readers. (And thank you, by the way.) But think about other authors whose books you buy or read sporadically. Maybe you’ve read three of Author X’s six books. I’m sure Author X appreciates it, but keep in mind that, if you don’t “vote” on those other three books he or she has written, there might not be a seventh book.

Basically, it’s pure capitalism. Publishers can be proud to have an esteemed or respected author at their imprint, but sales, ultimately, is the only thing that matters. If Cormac McCarthy wrote a book that sold three thousand copies, he’d likely be looking for a new publisher. Doesn’t matter how good he is, or how much the reviewers like him, it comes down to commerce.