Today
on Maureen’s Books, everything you need to know about ‘Dead Money Run’, the first book in The Lou Malloy Crime
Series by J. Frank James. The Lou Malloy Crime Series is a crime fiction,
mystery and thriller series and already consists of four books.

Lou Malloy learns of his sister’s death right before he is
released from prison, having served 15 years for the theft of $15 million from
an Indian casino. He wants two things: to keep the $15 million, which no one
has been able to find, and to track down and punish whoever killed his sister.
  

Lou Malloy teams up with Hilary Kelly, a private
investigator. In no time, Lou has found the hidden $15 million, recovered guns
and ammunition hidden with the money, and murdered two low-level mobsters and
fed them to the crocodiles.

As the body count rises, the story grows more complex and
his sister’s death becomes more mysterious.

This book is available at Amazon. 

The warden was a small man, but dressed neatly. Everything
about him was neat-from his hair to his shoes. He was almost too neat.

“So what are your plans, Lou?”

When I walked into the room, the warden turned over a
little hour-glass full of sand. We both watched it for a few seconds and then
looked at each other. This was the first time I ever met the man. What did he
care about me now? Since he never cared before, I figured the man was just
looking for information. Perhaps he wanted to give me a warning. I didn’t say
anything.

“Do you ever think about time, Lou?”

“After fifteen years, what do you think?” I said.

He smiled and said, “Most valuable thing we have and no
one seems to mourn its passing until it’s too late.”

I had nothing to say to that. Conversations with a prison
warden came with a lot of maybes. While in prison I trained myself to watch a
man’s hands. If he rubbed his hands in a washing motion, he was lying. If he
messed with his fingernails, he wasn’t interested in the conversation. The
warden was rubbing his hands as if he had touched something distasteful.

“I haven’t given it a lot of thought, Warden Edwards.”

“Call me John, Lou. We’re friends now,” Edwards said
while rubbing his hands in a determined kind of way.

So now we were friends. I wanted to tell him he was a
liar, but my better judgment stopped me. Probably a good way to delay my
release-things get lost, papers go unsigned. Things happen.

“Okay, John,” I said.

“You know, we never found the fifteen million,” he said.

“I didn’t know you were looking for it.”

I watched his eyes flicker briefly. I seemed to hit a
sweet spot.

“No, Lou. You misunderstand,” he said as he caught
himself. “There is a reward for the recovery of the money. Did you know that?”

Edwards said it more as a statement than a question. I
said nothing and waited. Edwards shifted in his chair and started to rub his
hands again.

“It would be in your best interest to tell them what you
know.”

“Who’s the ‘them’ John?” I asked.

“They’re the people looking for the money.”

I thought about that for a few moments. The statement
covered a lot of ground.

“Since I didn’t take the money in the first place, I
don’t have anything to tell them. They need to ask the people that took it,” I
said.

Edwards was smiling now and he stopped rubbing his hands.

“There are some people that think you do.”

“I can’t help what people think.”

“Ten percent,” he said.

“Ten percent of what,” I said.

“The money, Lou. Ten percent of fifteen million is a lot
of money.”

“I hadn’t heard about that,” I said.

“Yeah, it seems the Indian casino had insurance. The
insurance company that paid off on the claim put up a ten percent reward for
the return of the money. A million five is a lot of money.”

“I hope they find it,” I said.

Edwards blinked his eyes signaling he was moving on to
something else.

“Sorry to hear about your sister,” he said. “I understand
they are doing all they can to find her killer.”

Edwards was a real card and running out of things to say.
On any other day, in any other place, he would be dead or wishing he was.

“Thanks, John. Your words are real comforting,” I said
and returned my gaze to the little hourglass and the sand as it accumulated on
the bottom.

I had nothing else to say except make him happy. Make
them all happy. Just one big happy group sitting around smiling at each other;
happy, happy, now let’s just get the money and spread it all around and we can
go on being happy. In the meantime my sister lies in a hole feeding worms. I
had money on the worms being real happy. No word on how my sister felt.

Edwards looked disappointed when I didn’t add to our
conversation.

“Lou, it might be a good idea for you to help them find
the money. It could be a big windfall.”

Now we were getting somewhere. Just like all the rest of
the treasure hunters, the miserable bastard was just in it for the money.

“Windfall for who, John? Me or you?”

As if tasting a lemon, Edwards twisted his face and, at
the same time, waived his hands at an imaginary fly.

“I’m not sure what you mean, Lou. I’m just trying to give
you a head start. If it was my decision, you would still be with us. Fifteen
million dollars is a lot of money to lose.”

“It still is,” I said.

I sat and watched Edwards shift in his chair some more.
We had nothing left to talk about. I could feel him working out in his mind how
he was going to present his failure to get a lead out of me on the money.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Edwards said.

Finally, I had enough.

“Leave. Isn’t that what we all do?”

His smile vanished. He knew he was wasting his time on
someone who had maxed out. He also knew he couldn’t hold me. There would be no
parole violation with the threat to re-incarcerate me. No work release effort
to rehabilitate me. Just a new suit made in the prison cut and sew area and a
hundred bucks was the sum total of it. That probably hadn’t changed since the
30s. I wondered if Al Capone wore the suit they gave him when he got out.

We were both looking at the little hourglass of sand now.
The sand had drained from the top of the glass to the bottom. Suddenly, as if
being shot out of a cannon, we both stood up. Edwards stuck out his hand. I
turned and left the room. I didn’t shake his hand. I didn’t want to touch him.

Lou Malloy is 18 years old and ready for the world… but
is the world ready for him? His brother Sam has left and his sister wants to
move to Florida with the family. Malloy is having none of it and on a wild
moment decides to hop on a rail car, unsure of where he is going. The important
thing is that he will no longer be in Kansas, but the problem is that he
doesn’t have any money. Henry Lowe, who is in the same rail car, offers
Malloy the deal of a lifetime… All he has to do is help Lowe rob a casino in
Georgia. With the promise of a big payday, Malloy throws in with the scheme and
seals his fate forever.

What starts off as a quick way for Malloy to get a share
of $15 million turns into a run for his life. Malloy learns the hard way that
nothing comes easy when you’re alone and your life is about change forever…

This book is available at Amazon. 

Today now more than ever enterprising people with
something to say are turning to the field of self-publishing as a means in
which to communicate their ideas and thoughts to others. To understand this
phenomenon I think it is important to realize that writing is a business, not a
hobby. I believe that for every author published by an in house publisher,
there are ten self-published authors of which I am one of them.

I have often been asked why decided to self-publish my
books and the answer is a bit funny. Since I am considered to be a professional
artist, I was at an art show a few years ago and I bumped into a person who
told me they were a publisher and they were at the show to find something that
would fit an idea he had for the cover of a book. When he asked me what I did I
blurted out that I was a writer. In a sense I was being truthful since I had
worked as a reporter for a newspaper and when I was in law school, I was on the
law review and was published there as well. So the next words out of this
person’s mouth were that he wanted to see my most recent manuscript and did I
have an agent. Well, no, I remember saying and before I knew it I was talking
to him about an agent agreement and so on. Now just so I don’t bore with these
details, the important thing was that his plant was to publish the books on
Amazon Createspace, www.createspace.com
and Amazon’s KDP Direct, https://kdp.amazon.com.

For whatever reason, I never signed that agreement. Had I
done so I would have ended up giving fifty percent of my royalties to someone
who was going to do what I could do for myself. Needless to say, my mother
never raised a fool, at least not yet.

At the root of all endeavors is money, and yes you can
make money self-publishing, but it is a long road and you have to be patient.

Hugh Howey’s Author Earnings report secured data on
30,000 authors and 500 new entries into the game and found that they were doing
very well. The ebook is here to stay and the five hundred pound gorilla in the
world of book publishing is Amazon and that it is only going to get bigger in
terms of its sales and marketing reach.

In his analysis found in his report, Howey states that
self-published writers are earning $10,000 or more than the traditional
published writer and I suspect that this trend will only continue. So the moose
is loose, so to speak.

If you are sitting around thinking about writing a novel,
then the time is now. I got into the game by accident. What’s your excuse?

Amazon, while it is not the only self-publishing game in
town, it is the best, in my opinion. Their ebook format is superb with its
Kindle Direct and not only do they help you publish your book, but they have templates
for book covers that can be used as well as a system that helps the new writer
price their books and track their sales. For me, it has been a win win
situation from the get go.

Now you have just finished writing your manuscript and
you are ready to go, what do you do next? I would recommend finding a
professional proofreader with experience in your genre about what you are
writing. In selecting a proofreader, I would suggest you be selective. Don’t be
afraid to ask for references.

Finally, there is one more thing. Get ready to write your
next book and good luck. 

J. Frank James is the author of crime thriller novels.
His crime fiction books are gripping and suspenseful with readers being unable
to put them down once they get into them. Jim has a passion for writing, and he
certainly has the knowledge and experience to write realistic crime thriller
novels, thanks to his extensive background in law. Jim attended law school,
where he was a member of the law review. He even went on to pass the state bar
and started his own law practice that specialized in complex litigation.

Jim’s experience in law helps lend credibility to his
crime fiction books. Not only that, Jim has traveled extensively and gains
inspiration for his crime thriller novels from his travels. Some of the
countries that Jim has visited include Peru, Brazil, Italy, Greece and
countless others. From observing other cultures and gaining new experiences,
Jim is able to infuse new life into his books and develop believable characters
that readers can identify with.

Jim’s novels
have the elements necessary of good crime novels that keep readers glued to the
pages from start to finish. Although Jim’s crime novels are fiction works, they
are exciting to read because of their authentic nature. They are written with
the backing of Jim’s experience in law, so they are believable situations that
have the readers wanting to find out what happens next just like they would in
any crime situation.

They offer the readers just enough information to keep
them guessing and trying to solve the crimes until the end of the books when
they are actually revealed. Jim’s books are also fresh and unique takes on
crime as well, though. They are not the same whodunit type books that have been
done over and over again. By infusing his personal travels into his books, Jim
creates characters and atmospheres based on just enough truth to be relatable.

Plus, Jim’s books have everything in them from robbery to
prison to family. They have hard and soft elements simultaneously to really
capture the life of a hardened criminal who is still very human and struggles
with the same human emotions as the rest of society. At the same time, Jim
gives the reader perspectives from private investigators to balance out the
story.

Jim’s books even have a hit of romance when his
characters come to care for each other as more than just friends. Then, crime
and love mixes to create a dynamic atmosphere that is even more complicated
than ever before since characters care not only for each other but for their
other family members as well. Jim has an amazing way of incorporating various
elements into his latest crime novels to create thrillers that readers cannot
get enough of, which is perhaps why all four of his books so far carry on one
from the other to continue the same story concerning the hardened criminal who
did 15 years in prison, Lou Malloy and who comes to be his partner, private
investigator, Hilary Kelly. The two of them go it together to create gripping
stories that keep readers coming back for more.

Jim is an artist and creates all of his own book covers.

For more information about J. Frank James please visit
his website, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.