Category James L’Etoile

On The Blue Plate Special

A bit ago, I had the great opportunity to chat with host Terri Lynn Coop on her show, the Blue Plate Special. The Blue Plate Special is a channel of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and if you haven’t checked it out yet–you really should. Terri is a fine author in her own right, […]

Are New Year’s Resolutions Attainable?

New Year’s resolutions tend to fall into one of two categories when I try to put a list of “all the things” I promise to accomplish in the coming year.  The first are those things that tend to be impossible, or unattainable–like brunch on Ibiza with Charlize Theron. Hey,  A guy’s gotta reach, right? The second group […]

When FBI Serial Killer Profiles Don’t Work

Serial killers are in the news again because of the long-awaited demise of Charles Manson and the November 29th arrest of Howell Emmanuel Donaldson III, the 24-year-old man accused of four murders in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. The Donaldson arrest came after a 51-day manhunt for the South Florida killer. The McDonald’s […]

AT WHAT COST Ebook SALE

To help celebrate the release of BURY THE PAST, the folks at Crooked Lane Books have sponsored an ebook sale for the first book in the series, AT WHAT COST for $1.99 Detective John Penley faces a moral turning point during his search for a serial killer who harvests his victim’s organs. Does the detective […]

BURY THE PAST Release

BURY THE PAST is officially published and out into the wild! It’s only been a year since the first book in the series (AT WHAT COST) landed and I’m feeling a mixture of elation, exhaustion, and caffeinated satisfaction.   BURY THE PAST follows the detective team of John Penley and Paula Newberry on a new investigation–one involving […]

Paying Gang Members to Not Pull the Trigger

I’ve talked about Sacramento crime here before and how we seem to be the birthplace of violent crime and most notably, a magnet for serial killers. The Violent crime rate — which includes the number of homicides, rape, robbery, and assault — was 716.3 per 100,000 people in 2016. Nationally, the violent crime rate was […]

Prison Trivia

Those of us who worked in prison, or out on the street managing parole or probation caseloads, know a few things. Things we took for granted as we went about our daily grind. Some things, we try to forget. Others are simply hard to explain. But, having left that world of bars, walls, and wire, […]

Want A Chance​ At A Free Book?

Bury the Past is coming out in just a couple of weeks. Sweet mother of God that’s coming fast. In the spirit of the holiday season, I’m giving away a couple of copies of the first book in the series, At What Cost. In At What Cost, we meet the detective pair of John Penley […]

Prison to the Page Newsletter

I know secretly, deep down in your lizard brain, you’ve always wanted to belong. You want to be part of something bigger. Something where you are among people just like you. Something like a prison gang. Wut? We’re starting our own little gang here and unlike the versions behind the walls, this one doesn’t require […]

BETRAYED: Powerful Stories of Kick-Ass Crime Survivors

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, and it isn’t by accident that Authors On the Air released their inaugural publication–a crime fiction anthology focused on the issue of personal violence and crime survivors–in October. All of the authors gifted their stories to the anthology and all proceeds are being donated to a non-profit community organization […]