Into a Fabulous Fall We Venture!

Hi Book People and Friends! It's been a very busy time, getting Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon out into the world.

I'd forgotten how much work (and worry!) it is, getting a book out into the world! It’s hard to describe the angst, but every author who's been there knows that it’s quite harrowing in all sorts of ways.

We put our hearts on our sleeves, take our courage in both hands and gird our loins (and just about every cliché you can think of!) because it's a big and scary thing, seeing your book in the public domain after many years of behind-the-scenes toil. All of a sudden, you realize that this hitherto private part of you, this incredibly important part of you, is available for public scrutiny which is nothing short of mildly terrifying. What if people hate the book? Worse still, what if they ignore it and it sinks like a pebble to the bottom of a pond?

However, thus far, things are going swimmingly well for Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon and I'm both delighted and relieved and ever-so-grateful to Inanna Publications and River Street Writing and Selena Mercuri for all their hard work as well all the authors and book sites that are showing Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon all sorts of love.

“Definitely one of Lisa’s best, if not *the* best of her novels. Noir-ish, but not too dark. Lisa's deft touches with characters and their eccentricities are all here.” – Jim Fisher

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“De Nikolits has written a lively, darkly comic, nostalgic 1950's noir crime thriller set in the present day that will keep you on your toes. Who is conning whom? Will anyone survive the murder and mayhem? Is it true that revenge is a dish best served cold?”
– Rebecca, host of CanadaReadsAmericanStyle

And folks if you are wondering where to buy a copy of the book (which I have been very remiss about mentioning!), go straight to the Inanna site: https://inanna.ca/product/mad-dog-and-the-sea-dragon/

Amazon is being a bit pesky so Inanna is your best best OR order from your local indie bookstore such as BookCity or the like.

First on my list is the launch for Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon!

Oh peeps, a launch! I’ve never been a party person. I've never held parties of my own volition and I attend them as little as possible. I've always preferred to be somewhere quiet, reading a book. And I even went so far as to try to avoid launching one of my books, thinking it was simply enough that the book was in the world. But my editor-in-chief at the time, Luciana Ricciutelli said "Dearheart, it's a part of the process. Don't worry, it will be great!" And she was right, it was great. Once the launch was over, the book really was real, in a way it wasn't before. So I hope you'll join me and two other wonderful Inanna authors at the Supermarket on Wednesday, 15th October, at 6.30pm.

And, speaking of launches, let’s all join Emily Weedon for her launch of Hemo Sapiens on 23rd September. It’s going to be a great event, sponsored by the wonderful Seaboard Review of Books!

I’ll be the Inanna booth (details to come of booth number), from 11am on Sat the 27th. •Note, the venue has changed to the David Pecaut Square.

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Make Your Prose Sing: A First Course in Editing, with the Mesdames of Mayhem

Sat. Nov. 08, 2025
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
120 mins

Location: Maria A. Shchuka

Link:

https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT567430&R=EVT567430

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I am simply thrilled to be a part of this fabulous series! Thank you, Alison Gadsby for everything you do and for having me as a guest.

Link: https://junctionreads.ca/upcoming-schedule/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMYBG1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHkUr7hSH_-GVg00ldtl0jtkwxlslOZDSeMxr2U8jid_Pfm3QP9eVxfVA6PJ0_aem_NQfhY9761SpUuCk3sjKjog

I was delighted to be featured on the Criminal Minds blog, hosted by wonderful writer Dietrich Kalteis

Writing a gangster novel is on everyone’s bucket list, right? It certainly was on mine.

The idea for the book had been simmering for a while and three inciting incidents kicked me into action; the first was to pen a short story for 13 Claws, a Mesdames of Mayhem anthology (2017) and the second was Mad Dog Esposito who I couldn’t get out of my mind.

I was haunted by a Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968) gallery exhibit showcasing Mad Dog Esposito. Weegee commented that Mad Dog “looked like a stubborn, surly, snarling animal. He stumbled and sagged over to one side, like a drunk.”

There are so many aspects of this photograph that I loved. Truth be told, I mildly fell in love with Mad Dog Esposito; his dishevelled sexiness, his moral anarchy, his casual, oversized trench coat, the torn shirt and ripped jacket revealing a manly chest, and his handsome features and long dark eyelashes completing his poster boy persona with a complete disregard for civilized life. He was the kind of Clyde that this Bonnie could imagine running away with. Because don’t we all dream of running away and living a wild life and going out in a blaze of bullets and glory? Hmm… perhaps not!

The third compelling force behind writing Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon was the obsessive desire to bring protagonist, Jessica Wren, into the world. I saw her as a very young Kim Basinger in LA Confidential, with a murderous family legacy and an ongoing twisted relationship with her vicious ugly sister. It all was quite Cinderella.

The challenge was working all of that into a book. If I had my druthers, I’d write in the style of The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, Pulp by Charles BukBukowski, and Karate is a Thing of the Spirit by Harry Crews.

Other influences included the Godfather’s Vito Corleone and Scarface’s Tony Montana (with his mountains of cocaine, his obsessive stalker obsession for Elvira Hancock played by Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as Tony’s over-the-top violence). Tony was Cuban, so I took liberties with my gangster characters because I also wanted to weave in aspects of Get Carter, a 1970’s movie about a Newcastle-based gangster, Jack Carter (one of my all-time favourite movies).

I wanted to add some Tarantino-style odd-ball whimsy, Tarantino’s style, with a twist of the workings of my own mind which naturally leans toward the fantastical, stretching the truth, and morphing it into an imaginative (but convincing) experience like no other. Events and relationships become heightened and often, very funny.

Add to that a Margaret Thatcher-inspired stepmother, a hunky bodyguard Trevor (see Jean-Claude Van Damme, all caramel-tanned, ripped and gleaming in Bloodsport, (1988), and the 1989 homoerotic glam fest Kickboxer (1989), and throw in high-school sweetheart Joey, inspired by Gus Van Sant’s unforgettable and eternally spectacular Drugstore Cowboy, (1989), set in 1971. Matt Dillon as Bob Hughes and his wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch) are forever carved in my heart.

That’s a lot, right?

And yet it all fell into place. I also watch a lot of true crime and human tragedy; The Dark Side of the Ring (VICE TV), Mafia: Most Wanted (CRAVE, Canada) and of course, Forensic Files, which shows ordinary people committing heinous crimes and getting away with it for years.

And then there are the cons. Take The Grifters (1990), again, an unforgettable movie which sowed a seed; I simply had to write a novel with complex cons.

The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History by Nate Hendley was a great resource, as was unavoidable Google and various library books, and of course, I decided to cook up a new con, just for fun. I don’t want to tell you what the cons were – you need to read the book!

And then there were the gangster nicknames! Which writer could resist the opportunity to come up with new gangster names?

There isn’t a single character in Mad Dog and Sea Dragon that I don’t love with all my heart. And no, the book didn’t end up being a combination of all the influences I listed above (which is probably a good thing!) but, with a lot of love, dedication, hard work, powerful beta readers and time, I’m delighted with the end result of Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon and I really hope you’ll enjoy the book too!

https://7criminalminds.blogspot.com/2025/08/guest-post-by-lisa-de-nikolits.html

As you can tell, it's been a really busy time! But, but, but my quest to share the best books in CanLit continues and these are the ones on my TBR pile (To Be Reviewed).

David LeBrun is one of life’s enviable people. He had the adventure of a lifetime; an inimitable, hardcore journey of the self while hitchhiking across Costa Rica in 2001. Much of the book is relatable - write to live and live to write, sanity, money and stability be damned. LeBrun plumbs the journey to at times harrowing emotional depths. The book explores writing as a means to concretize immortality but for me, the book is a glad reminder of the passion, the naiveté, the sense of indestructibility of youth, shadowed by doom. This book is a salute to the flag of crazy courage and confidence and a reminder that we should all visit the country of the unknown and know that we’ll be richer for the experience.

I really enjoyed the prose and the visceral, sensual imagery. This book packs a sensorial punch and shakes off the mundane.

As a writer, I’m always interested in the village it takes to get a book out into the world. Here is mine and I hope you’ll take a moment to take a look because without these peeps, this book would not exist.

I’ve also taken on a commission to evaluate a manuscript and advise on best publishing practices, so it’s a busy but fabulous bookish time.

And that’s all for now folks! Happy reading, enjoy the last warm days while you can then let’s get cozy for Fall with a great stack of books!